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The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. Based on a mark in an interior chamber naming the work gang and a reference to fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Vyse, H. (1840) ''Operations Carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837: With an Account of a Voyage into Upper Egypt, and an Appendix. Vol I.'' )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Dallas and Dr Zahi Hawass inside the Great Pyramid )〕 Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb over a 10 to 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. Initially at , the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called〔"By themselves, of course, none of these modern labels define the ancient purposes of the architecture they describe." —〕 Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The main part of the Giza complex is a setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honour of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. ==History and description== It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (often Hellenicised as "Cheops") and was constructed over a 20-year period. Khufu's vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall (), but with erosion and absence of its pyramidion, its present height is . Each base side was 440 cubits, long. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly . Based on these estimates, building the pyramid in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes 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 first precision measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as ''The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh''. Almost all reports are based on his measurements. Many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimetre wide (1/50 of an inch). The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, unsurpassed until the spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed c. 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length.〔Cole Survey (1925) based on side lengths 230.252m, 230.454m, 230.391m, 230.357m〕 The base is horizontal and flat to within ±. The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within four minutes of arc)〔 For 2600 BC, bisecting the semi-circular path of star 10i Draconis around the North Celestial Pole during the half-day darkness of a mid-winter evening would easily provide accurate true north. See Nature 412:699 (2001); further sources and discussion available via (DIO ).〕 based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc. The completed design dimensions, as suggested by Petrie's survey and subsequent studies, are estimated to have originally been 280 royal cubits high by 440 cubits long at each of the four sides of its base. The ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 royal cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05% (corresponding to the well-known approximation of π as 22/7). Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion. Verner wrote, "We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it". Petrie, author of ''Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh'' concluded: "but these relations of areas and of circular ratio are so systematic that we should grant that they were in the builder's design".〔Petrie Wisdom of the Egyptians 1940: 30〕 Others have argued that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. They believe that the observed pyramid slope may be based on a simple seked slope choice alone, with no regard to the overall size and proportions of the finished building. in 2013 rolls of papyrus were discovered written by some people who worked building the Great Pyramid, giving descriptions of the last years of building the pyramid. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great Pyramid of Giza」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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