This is a report of pyramids of Egypt in detail for university students who along with their presentation also submits report of that topic

1. The great pyramids of Egypt
Group members:
 Shoaib Ahmed
 Umar Farooq Khan
 Muhammad Dawood Suleman
 Nadir Abrar

2. 1
Acknowledgment
We would like to thanks and express our deepest appreciation to all
those who helped and provided us the possibility to complete this
report.
First of all the internet remained the constant source of knowledge
many websites, articles, and Wikipedia helped a lot in motivating and
inspiring throughout the research on topic,
Enlightening the books like “The great pyramid” by john romer,
“Secrets of the great pyramid” by Peter Tompkins and “The Giza
Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt” book by Christopher
Dunn, these books include the Recounts the fascinating discoveries
made by explorers, adventurers, and scientists about the Great
Pyramid of Cheops, including the stunning recent assertions that the
ancient structure was used as a geometric tool to measure the outside
world.
Finally the video documentary of BBC and National Geographic
channel on great pyramids of Egypt was the ultimate source of
interesting facts and history knowledge

3. 2
Executive summery
This report is prepared to show the historical importance and
abundant knowledge about world’s ancient site the great pyramids of
Egypt their construction and purpose they served.
It is an archaeological site on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts
of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments includes the
three pyramid complexes known as the Great Pyramids, the
massive sculpture known as the Great Sphinx, several cemeteries, a
workers' village and an industrial complex. It is located approximately
9 km west into the Libyan Desert from the Nile river at the old town
of Giza.
The three primary pyramids on the Giza plateau were built over the
span of three generations by the rulers Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure
and these three pyramids are known with these rulers’ names. Each
pyramid was part of a royal mortuary complex that also included a
temple at its base and a long stone causeway
The purpose of pyramids of Giza and others are thought to have been
constructed to house the remains of deceased Pharaohs who ruled
over Ancient Egypt, It's theorized the pyramid not only served as a
tomb for the Pharaoh, but also as storage for the various items he
would need in the afterlife. "The people of Ancient Egypt believed that
death on Earth was the start of a journey to the next world. The
embalmed body of the King was entombed underneath or within the
pyramid to protect it and allow his transformation and ascension to
the afterlife.

4. 3
Index
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Findings
3.0 The great pyramids of Egypt
3.1 pyramid of Khufu
3.2 pyramid of Khafre
3.3 pyramid of Menkaure
4.0 The Sphinx
5.0 Workers’ village
6.0 Construction theories of pyramids
6.1 Purpose of construction
7.0 Bibliography

5. 4
1.0 Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide abundant awareness and
historical background of worlds’ ancient site “great pyramids of Egypt”,
history about their construction, purpose and who built them and when
these massive monuments were constructed.
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures
located in Egypt were constructed during 2500 BC, As of November
2008, there are sources citing both 118 and 138 as the number of
identified Egyptian pyramids. Most were built as tombs for the
country's pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle
Kingdom periods
The last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the great
pyramids of Giza are perhaps the most famous and discussed structures
in history. These massive monuments were unsurpassed in height for
thousands of years after their construction and continue to amaze and
enthrall us with their overwhelming mass and seemingly impossible
perfection. However, these represent an apogee in the development of
the royal mortuary complex; these massive monuments are of much
importance to Egypt’s history and culture, if we analyze and think deeply
from the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
This report basically is the profound of the subtopics of “great pyramids
of Egypt” like pyramid of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, The Sphinx and
workers’ village, their historical background some facts and construction
process is compiled in a systemic manner.

6. 5
2.0 Findings
From the starting of the explorations on these pyramids many
scientists and history researchers defines the main facts and reasons
behind their pyramid structure and whole construction phase, their
shape is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the
Egyptians believed the earth was created, The shape is thought to be
representative of the descending rays of the sun and most pyramids
were faced with polished and highly reflective white limestone, in
order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from a distance
and are created in such a way that In spite of the enormous heat
outside, the temperature inside the pyramids actually stays relatively
constant, around 20 Celsius (60 F).
It’s a historical fact that until the Lincoln Cathedral was built in
England in 1311, the Great Pyramid of Giza held the title for the
world´s tallest man-made structure. It held the record for an
incredible and unparalleled 3871 years.
There was an attempt to destroy the Giza pyramids in the 12th
century. Al-Aziz, a Kurdish ruler and the second Ayyubid Sultan of
Egypt, tried to demolish them but had to give up because the task was
too big. However, he did succeed in damaging Menkaure's Pyramid
where he left a large vertical gash in its north face.

7. 6
3.0 The great pyramids of Egypt
3.1 Pyramid of Khufu
3.1.0 History and description
It is known as The Great Pyramid of Giza or Pyramid of Cheops it is
the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid
complex. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
and the only one to remain largely intact.
It was constructed during the rule of Khufu pharaoh in 2560 BC and
was completed over time period of 20 years, its height is 146.5 meters
(481 ft.), each base side is 440 cubits, 230.4 meters (755.9 ft.) long. The
mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tones. The volume,
including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters
(88,000,000 cu ft.).
Based on above estimates, building the pyramid in 20 years would
involve installing approximately 800 tons of stone every day.
Additionally, since it consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks,
completing the building in 20 years would involve moving an average
of more than 12 of the blocks into place each hour, day and night.
The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for
over 3,800 years, unsurpassed until the 160-metre-tall (520 ft.) spire
of Lincoln Cathedral was completed in 1300. The accuracy of the
pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an
average error of only 58 millimeters in length. The base is horizontal
and flat to within ±15 mm (0.6 inch).

8. 7
3.1.1 Material and construction
The Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks. The
largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber,
weigh 25 to 80 tones; mostly stones were carried by boat either up or
down the Nile River to the pyramid, It is estimated that 5.5 million
tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite and 500,000 tons of mortar
were used in the construction of pyramid, at completion the Pyramid
was surfaced by white "casing stones" blocks of highly polished
white limestone.
The Greeks believed that in construction slave labor was used, but
modern discoveries suggest that it was built instead by tens of
thousands of skilled workers, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men,
divided into five clans of 20,000 men each, which may have been
further divided according to the skills of the workers.
3.1.2 Interior of pyramid
The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is 17 meters vertically
above ground level and 7.29 meters east of the center line of the
pyramid, the whole interior of pyramid is consisted of two
chambers namely King’s chamber and Queen’s chamber and a
grand gallery.
The King’s chamber is 10.47 meters long and 5.234 meters wide It
has a flat roof 5.82 meters above the floor. The King's Chamber is
entirely faced with granite. The Queen's Chamber is exactly half-
way between the north and south faces of the pyramid and
measures 5.75 meters long, 5.23 meters wide , and has a pointed
roof with an apex 6.23 meters above the floor. The Grand Gallery
continues the slope of the Ascending Passage, but is 8.6 meters
high and 46.68 meters long. At the base it is 2.06 meters wide.

9. 8
3.2 Pyramid of Khafre
3.2.0 History and description
The Pyramid of Khafre or of Chephren is the second-tallest and
second-largest of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza and the tomb
of the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khafre (Chefren), who ruled from
2558 to 2532 BC, Khafre was the son of Khufu.
The pyramid has a base length of 215.5 m and rises up to a height of
136.4 meters the pyramid is made of limestone blocks weighing more
than 2 tons each. The slope of the pyramid rises at a 53° 10' angle.
Like the Great Pyramid, Khafre’s pyramid is built on an outcrop of
rock into which the subterranean chambers are cut. The bottom
course of the cladding was pink granite, but the higher sections are
clad in Tura limestone, some of which is still in place. It was first
explored in modern times by Giovanni Belzoni on March 2, 1818, when
the original entrance was found on the north side of the pyramid and
the burial chamber was visited. Belzoni had hopes of finding an intact
burial. However, the chamber was empty except for an
open sarcophagus and its broken lid on the floor.
The first complete exploration was conducted by John Perring in 1837.
In 1853, Auguste Mariette partially excavated Khafre's valley temple,
and, in 1858, while completing its clearance, he managed to discover a
diorite statue
3.2.1 Material and construction
In the construction the rock outcropping was used in the core. Due to
the slope of the plateau, the northwest corner was cut 10 mtr out of the
rock subsoil and the southeast corner is built up.
The pyramid is built of horizontal courses. The stones used at the
bottom are very large, but as the pyramid rises, the stones become

10. 9
smaller, becoming only 50 cm thick at the apex. The courses are rough
and irregular for the first half of its height but a narrow band of
regular masonry is clear in the midsection of the pyramid. At the
northwest corner of the pyramid, the bedrock was fashioned into
steps. Casing stones cover the top third of the pyramid, but
the pyramidion and part of the apex are missing.
The bottom course of casing stones was made out of pink granite but
the remainder of the pyramid was cased in Tura Limestone.
3.2.2 Interior of pyramid
Two entrances lead to the burial chamber, one that opens 11.54 m up
the face of the pyramid and one that opens at the base of the pyramid.
These passageways do not align with the centerline of the pyramid, but
are offset to the east by 12 m. The lower descending passageway is
carved completely out of the bedrock, descending, running horizontal,
then ascending to join the horizontal passage leading to the burial
chamber.
There is a subsidiary chamber, equal in length to the long King's
Chamber of Khufu pyramid that opens to the west of the lower
passage, the purpose of which is uncertain. It may be used to store
offerings or to store burial equipment; the upper descending passage
is clad in granite and descends to join with the horizontal passage to
the burial chamber, the burial chamber was carved out of a pit in the
bedrock. The roof is constructed of gabled limestone beams. The
chamber is rectangular 14.15 m by 5 m and is oriented east-west.

11. 10
3.3 Pyramid of Menkaure
3.3.0 History and description
The Pyramid of Menkaure, located on the Giza Plateau in the
southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, is the smallest of the three
main Pyramids of Giza. It is thought to have been built to serve as the
tomb of the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure the son of
Khafre pharaoh, constructed in 2510 BC. Its height is 65 meters; its
base is 102.2 by 104.6 meters and has a volume of 235,183 cubic meters
with the slope angle 51°20'25.
The pyramid's date of construction is unknown, because Menkaure's
reign has not been accurately defined, but it was probably completed
in the 26th century BC. It lies a few hundred meters southwest of its
larger neighbors, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Great
Pyramid of Khufu in the Giza.
3.3.1Material and construction
It was constructed of limestone and granite. The first sixteen courses
of the exterior were made of red granite. The upper portion was cased
in the normal manner with Tura limestone. Part of the granite was left
in the rough. Incomplete projects such as this pyramid
help archaeologists understand the methods used to build pyramids
and temples. South of the pyramid of Menkaure are three satellite
pyramids that are each accompanied with a temple and have a
substructure. The southernmost is the largest and a true pyramid. Its
casing is partly of granite, like the main pyramid, and is believed to
have been completed due to the limestone pyramidion found close by.

12. 11
3.3.2 Temple complex
In the mortuary temple the foundations and the inner core were made
of limestone. The floors were begun with granite and granite facings
were added to some of the walls. The foundations of the valley temple
were made of stone. George andrew Reisner an American archeologist
estimated that some of the blocks of local stone in the walls of the
mortuary temple weighed as much as 220 tons, while the heaviest
granite ashlars imported from Aswan weighed more than 30 tons
During excavations of the temples Reisner found a large number of
statues mostly of Menkaure alone and as a member of a group. These
were all carved in the naturalistic style of the old kingdom with a high
degree of detail evident
3.3.3 Attempted demolition
At the end of the twelfth century al-Malek al-Aziz Othman ben
Yusuf, Saladin's son and heir, attempted to demolish the pyramids,
starting with Menkaure's. The workmen whom Al-Aziz had recruited
to demolish the pyramid found it almost as expensive to destroy as to
build. They stayed at their job for eight months. They were not able to
remove more than one or two stones each day at a cost of tiring
themselves out utterly. Some used wedges and levers to move the
stones, while others used ropes to pull them down. When a stone fell,
it would bury itself in the sand, requiring extraordinary efforts to free
it. Wedges were used to split the stones into several pieces, and a cart
was used to carry it to the foot of the escarpment, where it was left.

13. 12
4.0 The Sphinx
The Great Sphinx of Giza or just Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a
reclining or couchant sphinx (a mythical creature with a lion's body
and a human head) that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank
of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed
to represent the face of the Pharaoh Khafra.
It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 meters
(241 ft.) long, 19.3 meters (63 ft.) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft.) high. It
is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed
to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the
reign of the Pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 BC).
4.0.1 Construction
The Sphinx is a monolith carved down into the bedrock of the plateau
which also served as the quarry for the pyramids and other
monuments in the area. Because of its geological history,
the nummulitic limestone of the area consists of layers of widely
differing quality offering unequal resistance to erosion, mostly due to
wind and windblown sand, which explains the uneven degradation of
the body of the Sphinx. The floor of the Sphinx depression and lowest
part of the body including the legs is solid, hard rock. Above this, the
body of the lion up to its neck is a heterogeneous zone with friable
layers that have suffered considerable disintegration.
Basic facts about it are still subject to debate, such as when it was
built, by whom, and for what purpose. These questions have resulted
in the popular idea of the “Riddle of the Sphinx”alluding to the
original Greek legend of the Riddle of the Sphinx.

14. 13
5.0 Workers’ village
The work of quarrying, moving, setting, and sculpting the huge
amount of stone used to build the pyramids might have been
accomplished by several thousand skilled workers, unskilled laborers
and supporting workers. Bakers, carpenters, water carriers, and others
were also needed for the project.
Along with the methods utilized to construct the pyramids, there is
also wide speculation regarding the exact number of workers needed
for a building project of this magnitude. When Greek
historian Herodotus visited Giza in 450 BC, he was told by Egyptian
priests that "the Great Pyramid had taken 400,000 men 20 years to
build, working in three-month shifts 100,000 men at a time." Evidence
from the tombs indicates that a workforce of 10,000 laborers working
in three-month shifts took around 30 years to build a pyramid.
The Giza pyramid complex is surrounded by a large stone wall, outside
which Mark Lehner and his team have discovered a town where the
workers on the pyramids were housed. This town is located to the
southeast of the Khafre and Menkaure complexes. Among the
discoveries at the workers' village are communal sleeping quarters,
bakeries, breweries and kitchens (with evidence showing that bread,
beef and fish were staples of the diet), a hospital and a cemetery
(where some of the skeletons were found with signs of trauma
associated with accidents on a building site).
The workers' town discovered appears to date to the middle 4th
dynasty (2520–2472 BC), after the accepted time of Khufu and
completion of the Great Pyramid. According to Lehner and the AERA
team;
"The development of this urban complex must have been quite rapid.
All of the construction probably happened in the 35 to 50 years that
spanned the reigns of Khafre and Menkaure, builders of the Second
and Third Giza Pyramids".

15. 14
6.0 Construction theories of pyramids
Most construction theories are based on the idea that the pyramids
were built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and
lifting them into place. The disagreements center on the method by
which the stones were conveyed and placed and how possible the
method was.
In building the pyramids, the architects might have developed their
techniques over time. They would select a site on a relatively flat area
of bedrock—not sand—which provided a stable foundation. After
carefully surveying the site and laying down the first level of stones,
they constructed the pyramids in horizontal levels, one on top of the
other.
For the Great Pyramid of Giza, most of the stone for the interior seems
to have been quarried immediately to the south of the construction
site. The smooth exterior of the pyramid was made of a fine grade of
white limestone that was quarried across the Nile. These exterior
blocks had to be carefully cut, transported by river barge to Giza, and
dragged up ramps to the construction site. Only a few exterior blocks
remain in place at the bottom of the Great Pyramid. During the Middle
Ages (5th century to 15th century), people may have taken the rest
away for building projects in the city of Cairo.
To ensure that the pyramid remained symmetrical, the exterior casing
stones all had to be equal in height and width. Workers might have
marked all the blocks to indicate the angle of the pyramid wall and
trimmed the surfaces carefully so that the blocks fit together. During
construction, the outer surface of the stone was smooth limestone;
excess stone has eroded as time has passed.

16. 15
6.1 Purpose of construction
The pyramids of Giza and others are thought to have been constructed
to house the remains of the deceased Pharaohs who ruled over Ancient
Egypt. A portion of the Pharaoh's spirit called his ka was believed to
remain with his corpse. Proper care of the remains was necessary in
order for the "former Pharaoh to perform his new duties as king of the
dead." It's theorized the pyramid not only served as a tomb for the
Pharaoh, but also as storage for the various items he would need in the
afterlife. "The people of Ancient Egypt believed that death on Earth
was the start of a journey to the next world. The embalmed body of the
King was entombed underneath or within the pyramid to protect it
and allow his transformation and ascension to the afterlife.

17. 16
7.0 Bibliography
1.“The great pyramid” book by john romer,
2. “The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt” book by
Christopher Dunn,
3. National Geographic channel; (i) Documentary on great pyramids of
Egypt. (ii) Inside of the great pyramid of Giza.
4. The History channel; (i) Egypt; beyond the pyramids.
(ii) Engineering of ancient Egypt-How pyramids are built.
5. BBC channel, Building the great pyramid.
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza_pyramid_complex
7. http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/Ghizawhy.htm
8. http://www.crystalinks.com/greatpyramid.html
9. http://discoveringegypt.com/pyramids-temples-of- egypt/pyramids-
of-giza/
10. http://www.unmuseum.org/kpyramid.htm
11. http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/the-egyptian-
pyramids