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Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

independent.co.uk

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Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#41

Post by ian0 »

ak39 wrote: post #32

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…

Wasnt it the other way around? I thought the valley of the kings/queens/workers were after the pyramids and due to the fact the pyramids drew too much attention to the site from graverobbers (tomb-raiders? :P).

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#42

Post by hammock »

EGreg wrote: post #12

Tourists will be allowed inside the ancient structure after archaeologists found “hidden tombs” containing mummies, masks and tools. Did they miss a NOT? That seems like a strange reason to go from not allowing tourists to allowing them!

More likely they missed a "PAID"

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#43

Post by pvg »

pattisapu wrote: post #34
ak39 wrote: post #32

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…

Yes. Buried, then concealed, then Sneferu's attempts via "mastabas" (Arabic for "bench"), building mastabas over mastabas for proof of concept of a pyramid. These projects were on the scale of lifetimes. These were incredible engineers.

These projects were on the scale of lifetimes.

Not quite, given that Sneferu had at least three built.

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#44

Post by ebg13 »

ak39 wrote: post #32

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…

> 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.

The article contradicts you.

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#45

Post by mr_toad »

ebg13 wrote: post #44
ak39 wrote: post #32

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…

> 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. The article contradicts you.

The reason given in the article is not the whole story either. When the bent pyramid was under construction the ‘collapsed’ pyramid at Medium collapsed. This probably contributed to some last minute design changes for the bent pyramid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meidum

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#46

Post by WoodenChair »

mattmanser wrote: post #36
patientplatypus wrote: post #20

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 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.

"Those who don't know history, are doomed to repeat it." It's important to understand who (by our standards) bad people were, why they were bad, and what circumstances enabled them to be bad. If you erase them, you can't learn from them.

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#48

Post by richardw »

Pyramids represent such amazing engineering and such untold suffering. Farming only started 10k years ago and 5k years later we had such an energy and time surplus that we were moving mountains around for our rulers' ego's.

A lot of whippings would have to be handed out for me to move rocks around in the sun.

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#49

Post by keiferski »

richardw wrote: post #48

Pyramids represent such amazing engineering and such untold suffering. Farming only started 10k years ago and 5k years later we had such an energy and time surplus that we were moving mountains around for our rulers' ego's. A lot of whippings would have to be handed out for me to move rocks around in the sun.

Most Egyptologists do not think the pyramids were built by slave labor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Egypt

Re: Egyptian ‘bent’ pyramid dating back 4,600 years opens to public

#50

Post by richardw »

keiferski wrote: post #49
richardw wrote: post #48

Pyramids represent such amazing engineering and such untold suffering. Farming only started 10k years ago and 5k years later we had such an energy and time surplus that we were moving mountains around for our rulers' ego's. A lot of whippings would have to be handed out for me to move rocks around in the sun.

Most Egyptologists do not think the pyramids were built by slave labor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Egypt

I didn't use the world slavery once, but I'll bite. They probably weren't entrepreneurs.

None of that looks like a situation I'd want to have imposed on me. No individuals say "you know what I want to do today? Move rocks for zero economic use."

I quote from your page:

"Forms of forced labor and servitude are seen throughout all of ancient Egypt even though it wasn’t specifically declared as the well known term we have today, slavery.

... Conscripted workers were not owned by individuals, like other slaves, but rather required to perform labor as a duty to the state."

Yeah awesome. Sign me up. The term is irrelevant. The pyramids are undoubtedly both great works and massive causes of suffering.

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