19 minutes 52 seconds
🇬🇧 English
Speaker 1
00:00
Hello friends! Around 4, 500 years ago, a miracle was made in Egypt that still surprises people today. The Great Pyramid of Giza.
Speaker 2
00:15
Built at a height of 147 meters. It was the tallest thing ever built by humans. For almost 4000 years.
Speaker 2
00:21
So many heavy stones were used to build it. That the weight of this pyramid is 6 million tons. Compare it to the tallest building of today, Burj Khalifa. Which weighs only 5 lakh tons.
Speaker 2
00:34
The most surprising thing here is how was it built? Because in those days, people didn't have cranes, bulldozers, or any big technology. They didn't even have wheels. They didn't even have wheels.
Speaker 2
00:48
But still, they built a monument that is still standing today. Imagine, a building that has been built for
Speaker 1
00:55
4, 500
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00:56
years, in this scorching heat, there was a storm, there was rain, there was Weathering. There is no such thing in the world that has survived till date. So how did all this happen?
Speaker 2
01:07
Let's understand the mystery of this pyramid in today's video.
Speaker 3
01:15
The most enigmatic structure on the face of the earth. Built around 2500 BC, it is the tallest structure on earth for more than 3, 500 years. Built as gargantuan tombs of shining white limestone, The pyramids were designed to hide dark secrets of the dead.
Speaker 2
01:36
In history, the more we go back, the more difficult it becomes to find out the exact story, how and when it happened. So it is assumed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in 2560 BC by Pharaoh Khufu. The kings and emperors of Ancient Egypt were called Pharaohs.
Speaker 2
01:57
We don't know much about Pharaoh Khufu. We only know that he was the second king of the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. There is a lot of discussion about how long he ruled. Historians make some estimates.
Speaker 2
02:13
Some say 23 years, some say 34 years. It also indicates more than 60 years. This pyramid is located on the west bank of the Nile River. And if you look at the photos and videos, you'll see that this is not the only pyramid.
Speaker 2
02:25
There are 2 more pyramids like this. They were built at the same place. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the tallest, which is also called the Pyramid of Khufu. The Pyramid of Khafre is smaller than this, the second largest pyramid in Egypt.
Speaker 2
02:38
It is said that Khufu's son Khafre built it. And the third and smallest pyramid is the Pyramid of Menkaure. It is said that it was built by the son of Khafre. These are not the only monuments built during that period.
Speaker 2
02:49
Apart from this, there are the Great Sphinx, many other burial tombs, and many other small pyramids. In total, there are 118 pyramids. Of different shapes and sizes. Many of these pyramids have been destroyed due to weathering.
Speaker 2
03:01
They are left in very poor conditions. And these are the 3 pyramids that are well preserved. Especially the Great Pyramid of Giza. What was the reason behind building them?
Speaker 2
03:11
The same reason that was behind building many ancient monuments. They were built as a tomb. This is a tomb. Their pharaohs were buried here in the pyramid.
Speaker 2
03:22
What's the matter, friends? Ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They believed that life does not end after death. After death, our soul goes to the underworld where God judges our soul.
Speaker 2
03:34
Those who have done good, stay alive forever in this afterlife. And to prepare for this afterlife, when their king, their pharaoh was alive, they would build tombs for themselves. They would keep a lot of food, treasure, jewellery, furniture, clothes, all these things in the pyramid with him to use in his afterlife. After his death, his body was mummified and buried in wooden or stone coffins.
Speaker 2
04:00
Now you might ask how did we know that the pyramid was used for these things. There are 2 main reasons friends. First is that we have found writings on such old pyramids. We have found texts on such coffins and such pyramids where it is written what they did.
Speaker 2
04:18
The majority of the historical pyramids that we have found in Egypt and Sudan have been used as tombs. But because specifically in the Great Pyramid of Giza, there is no substantial evidence of these things, people make their alternative theories. When the archaeologists went inside this Great Pyramid, they found only 3 relics and an empty coffin. This coffin is believed to be from Khufu and the other treasures and jewellery that should have been around it.
Speaker 2
04:46
It is assumed that someone stole it and took it away after so many years. Those who disagree with this, their alternative theories are very strange. 1 very popular theory that is heard is that this Great Pyramid was a power plant that could generate electricity. Those who believe in this say that the ancient Egyptians were very technologically advanced.
Speaker 2
05:06
They had already learnt how to generate electricity. As evidence of this theory, some of their old artworks are shown. On the walls of their old temples, some of these artworks are found. Some people conclude that they have made a light bulb here.
Speaker 2
05:23
These people had already invented the light bulb and I don't know what happened after that. I have repeatedly said that such Conspiracy theories are made when there is no substantial evidence. But these conspiracy theories are so weird that they have no logical sense. If the light bulb really existed in the ancient Egyptian times, then why hasn't it been proven yet?
Speaker 2
05:44
In reality, this artwork shows the story of an Egyptian mythology. Another popular theory is that this pyramid was a granary for storing grains. A big market. This theory was proposed by American politician Ben Carson In 1998.
Speaker 2
06:02
According to him, this is his personal theory. These pyramids were actually built by the father of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3
06:07
My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids in order to store grain. Now all the archaeologists think they were made for the pharaohs. Great.
Speaker 2
06:17
Now, here you can see, friends, the second big reason behind making conspiracy theories. Which is religious appeasement by politicians. So anyways, this is quite clear.
Speaker 2
06:27
Today, historians agree with each other on this. That the Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a graveyard. At that time, people believed that the more magnificent the graveyard, the more treasures and food items we would have, the better would be the afterlife of our king. But now comes the biggest question.
Speaker 2
06:46
How were these pyramids actually built? If we look at it in the right way, this is the most mysterious thing about these pyramids. How did the people of that time build a 137-metre-high building here? Which is made of such huge stones.
Speaker 2
07:01
These stones themselves weigh between 2.5-80 tonnes. Each stone has been cut so finely, cut evenly, when there was no tool to cut it. Then how were these stones placed 1 on top of the other, when they were not even using wheels? And they did all this within
Speaker 1
07:19
20
Speaker 2
07:19
years. Friends, only 20 years is the time span that was taken to build this Great Pyramid of Giza. So many theories are told about this. And this time I won't talk about conspiracy theories which are very weird and poor.
Speaker 2
07:33
But before talking about these theories, let's look at a big misconception that people have about these pyramids. In movies, it is often shown that during the construction of these pyramids, slave labour was used. Very poor servants were working here in helplessness day and night. Their bosses used to beat them with ropes.
Speaker 2
07:55
You must have seen this in some film. For a long time people thought that slaves made these pyramids. A Greek historian from the 5th century BC, named Herodotus, suggested this theory that the slaves built these pyramids. But today we know that it wasn't true.
Speaker 2
08:15
The people who were working to build this pyramid were highly skilled labourers. They were not beaten up for being hungry. They were fed well. In fact, they were fed so well that the average Egyptian citizen was well fed and healthy.
Speaker 2
08:32
They lived in cities near construction sites. In addition, they got support from different community members in different seasons. For example, if the farmers weren't farming, they would come in their free time and help in the construction. In a way, all the people living in the kingdom were united about the success of this national project.
Speaker 2
08:52
They believed in their king a lot. In total, it took 20-30, 000 workers to build this pyramid. They worked 10-10 hours a day to build this great Pyramid of Giza. Even today, most people work hours to earn money.
Speaker 2
09:09
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Speaker 2
09:25
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Speaker 2
09:42
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Speaker 2
10:01
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Speaker 2
10:18
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Speaker 2
10:26
Now, let's come back to the topic. If we talk about the construction material,
Speaker 1
10:30
5.5
Speaker 2
10:30
million tonnes of limestone,
Speaker 1
10:32
8000
Speaker 2
10:33
tonnes of granite, and 500, 000 tonnes of mortar were used. Most of these stones came from the surrounding areas. The furthest was from the southern Egypt region.
Speaker 2
10:43
Which was 800 km away. The question is how were these stones cut? Copper was the most common metal used at that time. The tools that were made were made of copper.
Speaker 2
10:53
The hard granite stones were broken using dolerite. There were many unique ways of doing this. Like, they would find cracks and holes in the stones and would insert wooden wedges into them with a hammer which were soaked in water. As the stone absorbed water, the wedges would expand further and the stone would break.
Speaker 2
11:15
But the biggest question is how were these stones moved? At that time, wheels were not used in carts. There was no machine to put wheels on the cart, put stones on it and move it. The most plausible theory is that to move the stones from so far, they used to make rafts that used to float on the river.
Speaker 2
11:36
After that, when the stones came near the pyramid, to place 1 stone on top of the other, they used sledges in the wet soil. This is a very interesting theory that was discovered very recently. A study was done in 2014. And the basis of this theory is a painting which was found on the tomb of Jehuti-Hotep.
Speaker 2
11:55
This tomb is quite old, it's from 1900 BC. But in this painting You can see about 170 people are dragging a statue on a sledge and using ropes to pull such a heavy object. If you look at this painting carefully, you'll see how a man is pouring water on sand in front of the statue. In the beginning, archaeologists thought it was a ritual, a tradition to pour water in front of them.
Speaker 2
12:21
But when the physicists Daniel Born and his team tested it, they found that if a certain amount of water is present in the sand, the friction of the soil and the soil on the ground reduces to a great extent. This ratio is quite fine. About 2-5% water in the sand. With the help of this, it becomes very easy to drag things in wet sand.
Speaker 2
12:42
Now the next question that arises here is, okay, let's assume that stones can be pushed and taken to the sand. But how can the stones be placed on top of each other? How can such a heavy weight be lifted without using machines? Now, usually a system of police can be made to lift it.
Speaker 2
13:00
But as I told you, the wheel did not exist in Egypt during the fourth dynasty. It existed but it was used only for pottery. The answer to this is a unique system of ramps. In 2015, a team of English and French archaeologists uncovered a 4, 500-year-old wooden ramp from a quarry.
Speaker 2
13:23
The scholars said that a ramp like this must have been built at that time. It was a straight slope from the ground to the top. To push the stones on the slope, he used a system where he cut the wooden sticks around it. Then he used the ropes around the sticks to pull the stone up.
Speaker 2
13:43
Something like this, which you can see in the artwork. This was suggested by the physicist Joseph West in 2014. According to this theory, after completing every level of the pyramid, they must have made a new slope. And so that the slope's angle is not too high, they must have taken the slope to the back.
Speaker 2
14:00
Meaning, they started making the slope from the back so that there is not too much tilt in the slope. Apart from this, another theory says that they must have used a system of levers to keep the stones on top of each other. See how it works in the drawings. Basically, they took a middle point, which is a little taller, and put a stick on it.
Speaker 2
14:20
And put some weight on the other side of the stick and then turned it upside down. Scholars believe that a similar system which they have named Shaduf, existed in Egypt for thousands of years. They used this mechanism to extract water from the Nile River to irrigate their farms. Both these theories sound good, but the problem is the construction time.
Speaker 2
14:44
We know that the pyramids were completed within 20 years. If 20, 000 people transport the stones 1 by 1 like this, then every 3 minutes, 1 stone should be placed here every day of the year. It seems very unlikely that they have worked so fast. Exactly this is the reason, friends, that this thing is a big mystery to this day.
Speaker 2
15:07
Both these theories sound fine, but they don't explain in detail what exactly happened here. We do know that the initial layers of the pyramid were placed without any mortar. But the upper layers were added with mortar. Because of which the stability of the structure increases.
Speaker 2
15:25
And this is the reason that in thousands of years, even after earthquakes, the Pyramid of Giza is still standing. There is a mystery about this mortar. Scientists know the exact chemistry of it. But scientists have not been able to reconstruct it.
Speaker 2
15:41
Finally, the last step of the construction, the outer layer of the pyramid, was made of very fine, whitish limestone. Which means that whenever sunlight would come here, all these pyramids would be very bright and white. This is something that has been broken down after thousands of years. The outer layer has been worn off from the Khufu and Menkaure Pyramids.
Speaker 2
16:02
But in the Khafre Pyramids, you can still see this layer a little above. Moving ahead from the construction, and coming to the design of these pyramids, this is also a fascinating thing. Do you know that these pyramids have been designed in such a way that all 4 directions, North, East, South, West, are exactly pointing in
Speaker 3
16:21
the same direction?
Speaker 2
16:21
There is a very small error here. It is 1 to 1 15th of 1 degree. Which is a very small error.
Speaker 2
16:27
Almost, assume that they are pointing in all 4 directions in a very accurate way. How is this possible? At that time, there was no compass, no modern technology, no GPS technology. So once again, the researchers have tried to give their theoretical explanations on how the Egyptians achieved such a high level of precision.
Speaker 2
16:46
A popular theory about this is the Autumn Equinox. When the Earth's tilt is such that the day and night are exactly equal. The shadow on the ground is in a straight line in the East and West direction. If the Egyptians used this method, then the degree of error in their calculations would be the same degree of error in this shadow when there is an Autumn Equinox.
Speaker 2
17:12
The second theory is about the constellations. The Egyptians aligned their design by looking at the direction of the stars in the sky. In 1989, Robert Bowell, an author and Egyptology enthusiast, made his Orion Correlation Theory. He said that The 3 pyramids of Giza are aligned with the 3 stars of the Orion belt.
Speaker 2
17:37
He says that the alignment was intentional and the ancient Egyptians knew about astronomy. They would track the stars at night and study them. According to him, they would harvest their crops at different times. Historians believe that this is a fringe theory.
Speaker 2
17:52
Fringe means that it is not mainstream. Some points that are given against this theory are that all 3 pyramids were not planned at the same time nor were they built at the same time. And in 1999, when astronomers tested this theory, and looked at the Orion constellation stars, they found that the pyramids don't align exactly according to it. And the thing is that the constellation has shifted a little after thousands of years.
Speaker 2
18:18
The alignment of the stars is not the same as we see today. It is important to tell this theory here because it is a classic case where people try to find patterns even if the patterns don't exist. When we don't have a solid proof of things, we don't have an exact explanation, we make our ideas and if we find a link somewhere, we believe it to be true. If we take this to a new level, exaggerate it, more weird theories are created.
Speaker 2
18:48
People say that aliens have created these pyramids because it's not possible that humans have done it. In my opinion, such weird theories go against scientific thinking. This is a shortcut way to find a solution when we are not getting 1. It is better to acknowledge that we know these things.
Speaker 2
19:07
And we should clearly put forward the things that we don't know. So that the future generations, the future archaeologists, historians can do research on this. And can give a complete solution and explanation about these mysteries. If you liked the video, click here to watch more videos on mystery-related topics like the Titanic and the Bermuda Triangle.
Speaker 2
19:28
Let's meet in the next video. Thank you very much.
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