31–40 of 59 posts
Heh - I've been reading some of Joseph Campbell's Oriental Mythology and he goes into some of the early burial rituals. It's truly fascinating stuff. Did you know that a lot of the early rulers of the area were buried with their entire retinue (10s or 100+ servants) alive? Including sometimes the ruler himself. Gruesome stuff, but also quite fascinating.
So sometimes the ruler was buried without themselves?
The reason it is "bent" is because they ran out of boulders and so had to reduce the pitch to reduce the number of blocks required to finish the project.
I was there at the end of June- it's pretty spectacular. We arrived on a Friday morning at 7am to beat the heat, and we were the only tourists on site at all. Extremely surreal to go down in to the middle of an engineering marvel that large, and I couldn't believe that I was alone inside of it.
I'm longing to go back there, even more now.
Ah Sneferu ... the OG who started this whole pyramid for burial chambers trend. If I'm not mistaken, before this fella, royal tombs were buried (concealed) in caves dug into mountain sides - far from Cairo. This guy Sneferu thought "why don't we build a mountain like tomb right here?" The reason it is "bent" is because they ran out of boulders and so had to reduce the pitch to reduce the number of blocks required to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is in the best interests of the Egyptians to preserve it and they happen to have experience in preserving pyramids and turning them into assets that attract tourists.
Having incentive != operational competence in execution of that incentive, or the lack of competing incentives at such a time
Heh - I've been reading some of Joseph Campbell's Oriental Mythology and he goes into some of the early burial rituals. It's truly fascinating stuff. Did you know that a lot of the early rulers of the area were buried with their entire retinue (10s or 100+ servants) alive? Including sometimes the ruler himself. Gruesome stuff, but also quite fascinating.
Sod them and their misery inflicting monuments.
That's not true, is it? I'm under the impression the bent pyramid was looted dry thousands of years ago, like the others.
It is hard to comprehend a large timescale of four thousand six hundred years. I wonder how much of our current software would last that long.
I bet Pac Man will be preserved for posterity. It has that a simplicity and a timeless quality to it.
Pyramids are awesome feats of engineering and construction. Also reminds me of the muon detection tech that can probe through solid material. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/ancient/cosmic-ray-muons-...
I am sure they are but I like my head where it is so I think I will pass on visiting Egypt and the pyramids.
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
Heh - I've been reading some of Joseph Campbell's Oriental Mythology and he goes into some of the early burial rituals. It's truly fascinating stuff. Did you know that a lot of the early rulers of the area were buried with their entire retinue (10s or 100+ servants) alive? Including sometimes the ruler himself. Gruesome stuff, but also quite fascinating.
I don't know, it's a bit like mass murders, we should expunge their murderous names from all records. Sod them and their misery inflicting monuments.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Sure, there were murderous tyrants, but there were also the ancient Sumerians who executed their kings at the moment of ahem coitus. Something about completing the circle between life and death or some such.
They were a weird wacky bunch, and some of them were terrible, but I think it's a more complicated picture than you paint.