Ever heard of the Seven wonders of the world?
The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the seven oldest and only surviving wonders of the world despite disasters.
The Pyramid located in Ancient Egypt was completed about 2560 BC. The base of Giza is 53,000 meter square in area which is about 13 acres or the equivalent of 530 standard football fields. It is made up of over two million large concrete blocks of limestone and some weighing fifteen tons apiece.
There are some significant features that obviously made the Giza a wonder of the world and they have been highly discussed by scholars in different domains. Giza is a wonder that baffles scientists, archaeologists, tourists, astronomers, architects, technologists etc.
Some of the facts are as follows:
1) Giza is strategically and mysteriously positioned in the center of the land mass of earth. The east/west parallel and the north/south meridian intersect in only two places on earth. The exact point where the Giza is located is the only point on dry earth where this intersection occurs while the second is in the ocean.
2) Temperature control is another fact that makes Giza a marvelous masterpiece. The interior temperature is constantly 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) which is mysteriously the average temperature of the earth.
3) The Giza was plastered with highly polished limestone, more like a highly sophisticated glittering marble. The glittering plastering of the Giza made the pyramid shine like a jewel. Unfortunately, an earthquake of the 14th century loosened the glittering plasters and made the monument susceptible to looting by predators. The Egyptians called the Giza “ikhet” which literally means “glorious light”.
4) It is estimated that the Giza weighs 5,955,000 tons.
5) The coffer in the kings chamber is also another fact that made the Giza a wonder. The coffer is made of massive granite rocks. scientists wondered how that massive granite rock was moved in. Some scholars concluded that the granite rock was there already before the Giza was built because the passage are too narrow to let such massive granite rock pass through.
6) The weight and fitting of the door which weighed 20 tons and the fitting was such that one would never know that it’s a door. Amazing, right?
7) Giza’s cornerstone foundation have balls and sockets construction with potentials of dealing with weather elements, earthquakes and earth tremors and this is why it survived the heavy earthquakes of the 14th century.
8) The Giza is the most accurately aligned structure in the world till date. It was built more than 4600 years ago and no civilization has been able to beat that record of the Giza as the most aligned true north structure. It faces true north with only 3/60th degree of error. Nothing like it in the world!! The Pyramid was at a time exactly aligned to the North pole.
9) Giza could be seen from the moon!!
10) The composition of the outer mantle of Giza is 144,000 casing stones. These stones weighing about 15 tons were about 100 inches thick. They were highly polished and flat to an accuracy of 1/100th.
There are more than eighty Pyramids in Egypt. But the Pyramid of Giza did not only survive till date; it also passed the test of time as very few modern monuments can boast of occupying an area of fifty three thousand square for centuries and decades.
Indeed, it is a very magnificent wonder to the world!!.
Reference to African Traditional Institutions; an illustrative perspective. Timothy Ubelejit Nte.
Written by: ELENDU JENNIFER (ladyjane897@gmail.com)
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