Time is afraid of pyramids
From Mount Mukattam, where the blocks were once evicted for the pyramids, the night Cairo seems to me the fiery sea, the multicolored waves of which are running to the shimmery away the tops of the pyramids. Pyramids – symbol of Egypt as Eiffel Tower for France and the Kremlin for Russia. Now the foot of the pyramid is at "Sound and light", where the main word belongs to a large Sphynx telling the history of Pharaoh.
Light and Shadow Valley Giza
The Arab proverb says: "The world is afraid of time, and time is afraid of the pyramids". Wouldn’t it, having heard her, you feel the perpetus of eternity?
The pyramids admired many great peace of this world: Alexander Macedonian, Caesar, Cleopatra, and only Napoleon expressed a dual impression of them. To inspire your Grenadiers, he once exclaimed: "Pyramids look at you", And then instantly counted in the mind that of two and a half million stone blocks of the pyramid of Heops could be built the wall around France height three meters.
Indeed, on the one hand, these mountains, ascended by the power of human genius on a naked yellow plateau, shake their increditable greatness, and on the other – amazed by the titanic labor of people raised to the sky with the help of the simplest devices and the power of their hands, the innumerable number of stones and their Surprisingly harmonic structure.
Despite the trembling feeling before the magnitude of the pyramids approach and examine the first of them – the pyramid of Heops.
The pyramid is surprisingly beautiful in the light of the morning rays, when it seems that her peak rests in the sky scaled to light blue, and the surface is linked to the color with the sand of the desert.
Heopse pyramid height, the highest of the pyramids (and all of them are about hundreds, large and small, constituting the city of the dead of the ancient kingdom, located six groups for 35 kilometers), in antiquity was 146 meters, but after the earthquake, it decreased by nine meters. At first, the pyramid looked more magnificent.
Especially good, the pyramids look from the desert side: they, like a mirage, float hotels in hot air, and never think, looking at them from the plateau, that they are so immensely huge. But on the square of the pyramid of Heops, such significant structures could be placed as the Cathedral of St. Peter or the Westminster Palace.
It is a pity that there is no longer on the pyramid of Heops, cladding from fine sandstone, which was risen in the XIV century. French travelers of that time wrote that they were struck by the picture of the pyramids, on the edges of which they kept themselves as ants, workers and descended down polished stoves. They were sent to the construction of palaces of Mamluk Sultanov and residential buildings of Cairo.
Yes, during the times of Pharaohs, the white contours of the pyramids glowed in the rays of the sun, and their peaks covered with thin gold plates were blinded. Only the pyramid of Hefre has still been preserved at the top. From respect to the Father, the obedient son made his pyramid a little lower than the pyramid of Heops. But on his pyramid inscription – "Hefren Great", Just as on the third, even lesser, built for the grandson of Heops, – "Divine Micher". After all, these are the tomb of the rulers of the Upper and Lower Egypt.
I stand on the southern tip of the rocky plateau, on which three great pyramids stretched from the west to east. Night and early in the morning, the peace reigned here and silence. But every hour is more and more buses with tourists, who meets the premiece of souvenirs and riders on camels and horses. Boys are in the hands of postcards and key chains, decorations depicting Nefertiti or Sacred Beetle Scarab, and camel owners omit in front of you "Ship desert" knees and in every way to climb the velvet saddle. And for everything, of course, you need to pay, even behind the photo on the background of the camel.
In the old days, tourists rose to the pyramids. It’s a real thing, since the stones perform one over the other and according to such "Lestenka" You can, putting certain efforts, climb the pyramid. Old-timers of Cairo assure that it is best to climb a pyramid rib. Used to lazili only on the pyramid of Heops, and tourists hired a whole detachment "Sherpov", who organized an insurance system with ropes, carried Baula with food, of course, for the big "baksheesh".
Now the rise in the pyramids is forbidden that, of course, contributes to their preservation, although it would be interesting to read on the top of the pyramid of Heops carved on the stone names – their hundreds, and the oldest inscription refers to the XV century; They say, there are even the names of Shatubra and Napoleon, who did not want to climb the pyramid, and their names allowed to perpetuate.
Tourist of our days is much on fiction: if you can’t go upstairs and write your name and year of birth, then he will certainly do it downstairs, as evidenced by numerous inscriptions, or will surely grab some pebbles on memory. They are specifically brought to the foot of the pyramids for lovers of souvenirs, however, the incredulous gentlemen storing to break down a piece right from the pyramid itself.
Even the local ducks and camels will not approve of such a preference – because if the pyramids are killed in pieces, then "Ful" – Bean Summer – will not be able to earn.
Explorer in the area of the pyramid – occupation offacarious. An entire crowd is thrown on every group of tourists "Guides". Gomon, desperate gesticulation, sparkling Arabic eyes – and finally, from clubs of dust literally pulls the dry old man:
– I’d better know the pyramid and show them for a few pounds, – it is important that the old man in Glabaye is totted and waves to hand to hand: – There is my home and family. Sons are also good guides.
Even in the last century, one of the Cairo rulers commanded residents of surrounding villages in every way to serve travelers and take care of their protection, and in the event of the death of a visit to the village of Rustic Streth, they could even execute. Since then, local residents are especially for tourists keep donkeys, camels and even Arabic chains.
The Giza Valley was a favorite vacation spot and the walks of Cairtles, although, counting the pyramids of the sacred place, they were not solved here to settle. But, probably, the glory of Pharaoh did not give them peace, and in the 70s Nuvorishi decided to move to the pyramids closer. One by one here began to grow mansions of wealthy Caers who formed a whole village, which stretched from the pyramids to the tourist complex. The intervention of the president of Mubarak himself was required – he ordered to carry all the villas, and the bulldozers did not take even the residence of Sadat, the former Egyptian leader.
The protected area around the pyramids is now restored, but the concerns of the Egyptian service of antiquities are not reduced: it is difficult, despite the police posts, maintain the order and protect the pyramids from the huge influx of tourists.
"We cannot consider money when it comes to the preservation of the pyramids – the only reached us from "seven wonders of the world", Heading List of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage", – stated one of the leaders of the Supreme Council on antiquities, objects against construction in the valley of Giza Cairo Ring Road. Although the road is needed, but it was decided to move away from the pyramids. Yes, the proverb is true: "Time is afraid of pyramids".
In the pyramid of Heops and around her
Only being in the Giza Valley, I learned that in the pyramids there is an entrance and there may be a simple mortal, buying a ticket. Everything is easy and simple – at first glance. While I robby cling to the granite of the foundation and climb on the outer metal ladder, the scraps of thoughts about "Pharaoh’s curses", about terrible diseases and deaths that pursue the audacious, which encroached the Pharaoh. The inscription on the wall of one of the tomb firmly stuck in the memory: "Anyone who harms this tomb will be hit by the goddess Hathor twice, cursed the gods and confused crocodile, hippopotamus and lion". But, despite all these threats, which seemed to be crowded around the pyramid, I still a creep to the entrance, which in ancient papyrus says: "In the middle of one side of the pyramid there is a stone. Watch it, and a long pass will open in front of you".
I must say that in the pyramid of Heops lead two entrances. One, more ancient, is located with her northern side, but the Arab rulers of Egypt in search of the gold of Pharaoh struck another entrance much lower to be more convenient to get into the pyramid. Exactly "in", Since the ceiling is so low that you have to go on semi-bent legs, tilting your head, trying not to slip on the wooden steps nailed to the inclined plane.
Finally, the descent led to the lower mortal chamber of Pharaoh. But on this journey in the womb of the pyramid, it does not end: you need to achieve two more cameras at the top levels. These funeral cameras correspond to the three stages of the construction of the pyramid – Pharaoh wished that his tomb was ready for burial at any time.
So, about the level of the earth, I begin to rise at the same steps and I get into a small chamber, called for some reason "Tsaritsyno room", Although the wives and children of Pharaoh, as you know, rest in small pyramids at the foot of the Heopse pyramid. I go out of it on the site and I feel that in front of the last jerk to the main burial chamber of Pharaoh should be prevailed.
I confess, I specifically visited twice in the womb of this pyramid. The first time I tried to remember all the transitions and cameras, and the second – to feel "Atmosphere" Pyramids. The fact is that many cases are described when people (even so great as Napoleon) felt some confusion, hitting inside, lost consciousness. Such a magical effect of the pyramid experienced a certain amateur of acute sensations from England, spending there night. In the morning it was hardly pulled out of the camera: his thoughts were confused, he tried to retell some vision who visited him in the tomb.
I will say honestly: I did not feel anything like this. Of course, the legs from the voltage get tired, trembling, and the air in the pyramid of the other, especially in the narrow cool corridor, which makes his way to the funeral chamber – this is the hardest part of the way. But what a remuneration is waiting for you at the end!
But let’s stay on a second in a large gallery, which already dismisses directly to the tomb. This long gallery with a high ceiling is also unique in its own way: it consists of thoroughly fitted stone blocks, and limestone plates of facing the false arch are laid so that each subsequent layer comes to the previous.
There is another landmark ahead – room – "Gateway", about which tourists don’t know the bowl of all. But this cunning adaptation was a trap for robbers, at which the cargo of sand from a disguised shelf was supposed to be collapsed, and a heavy grille lowered to the Treasures of Pharaoh would be blocked by slippery grooves.
Rows of Ivan Bunin pop up in memory of what the conquerors saw, bursting into the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid: "Behind the torches, blissful, like black ice, grinding and granite walls of this rest, grown in horror: in the midst of him stood rectangular and also the whole black sarcophagus. It was mummy in Golden armor, mowed with precious stones and with a golden sword at the hip. On the forehead, the mummy red fire was burning a huge carbuncle, all in writing, incomprehensible to any mortal mortal. "
And here I am entering the chamber "HEOPS – HORIZON SERVICE", how did he command himself draw on his pyramid. Tomb is gorgeous. It is striking its dimensions: length – 10.5 meters, width – 5.2, height – 5.8. This room decorated with dark Asuan granite makes for some reason stay on the threshold. It has a special gloomy charm, his mood, and possibly mystery. Maybe because it is unexpectedly huge, black, empty and only away, the western wall has a lonely ominous-reddish sarcophagus.
But where is the mummy about which Bunin wrote? Cap sarcophagus is reduced, and it is empty. And the mummy treasures and the treasures of Pharaoh, unfortunately, only the fruit of the writer’s imagination. When in the 9th century, the warriors of one of the caliphs broke into the pyramid, thoring her walls of Taran, there was already empty: neither inscriptions, nor decorations, nor funeral utensils, neither Mummy Pharaoh.
This is one of the secrets of the pharaoh tomb, as well as the pyramid itself. But not the last.
It turns out that there should be more premises in the pyramid, which was thought until recently.
Scientists, having running a robot with a television camera in a narrow passage, leading in an unknown direction from the second burial chamber, found that it goes deep into the pyramid for tens of meters and rests on a block with copper handles. What about him? Then experts with the help of a gravimeter have established that the real weight of the Heops pyramid is less than the one that determined mathematics. It means that there are unopened rooms in the pyramid, for example, the same block with copper handles, although it is quite possible that it is just a vent hole, pass through which, according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the soul of Pharaoh flew into heavenly. Such passes were made. Or maybe there is somewhere there is still an unopened tombs with mummy?
Let’s turn from the style of mystery to scientific and calculated facts. It is known that not only the burial chamber of Pharaoh, but also the planes of the pyramid with amazing accuracy are centered in parts of the world, and the angle of inclination of the corridor leading down the pyramid is equal to the corner under which the polar star could be observed in antiquity. But whether it is permissible to consider the pyramid of the Priests Observatory?
Although disputes about whether the pyramids are the tombs of the pharaohs, they still do not stop. After all, it is well known that the Egyptians were buried the dead in the ground – in the crypts, tombs (this is evidenced by burial in the kingdom of the dead and the valley of the kings), and in addition, there are still no mummies in the pyramids, nor ritual utensils. So what is the pyramids?
Some consider their temple, where they were dedicated to the servants of the cult of the god of the Sun of Amon-ra, others – the giant scientific laboratory of ancient. There is another sensational hypothesis of German archaeologists, which flew around the whole world. They also consider the pyramids not tolls, but with huge natural generators of earth energy (argon, presumably) in which "Crown princes" Pharaoh for a long time "Charged" this very energy, even rejuvenated and, not focusing, prepared for state activities. And what about the burial of Pharaoh? According to the assumptions of these scientists, they were buried near the pyramids near the pyramids, in small rooms, perhaps near the memorial temples.
The shape of the pyramid also quite a long time attracts the attention of specialists from different profiles. Scientists from the University of California were placed in the pyramid of Hefren not one ton of telemetric equipment, which for some reason gave a distorted idea of its geometric proportions. The reason was considered the existence of a strong magnetic (powerful) field around the pyramid, with which the priests worked out their wonders. But the current wonders that happen in the pyramids are not inferior to the ancient Egyptian. Many is known case with a patented adaptation called "Heopovsky razor blade latch", belonging to Czech radio engineer Karelu Drabal. Visiting as a tourist the pyramid of Heops, he accidentally discovered that the old razor blade bent inside the pyramid was sharp again. Returning home, he built an accurate model of Heopspiramid, where the old blade lasted many times and used it as a new one, and then patented his invention. New miracle pyramids? Serious English Egyptologist explained this phenomenon in scientific: the correspondence of the pyramidal structure, or tetrahedra, with the structure of the magnetite crystal, or iron ore. Like this. There are different opinions about the shape of the pyramids. When you look at the perfect chain of a pyramid with a scorched plateau, then it seems that they are natural continuation of the sandy hills. Harmonious mounds for the ascension of the dust of sunlons closer to the sky and the Sun – the real tombs of the pharaohs, towering over all the marrow world. This view is adhered to alone scientists. And others believe that the pyramids are "very stable aerodynamic structures". Maybe here there is a unwanted mystery?
