Ever wondered how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids with mind-blowing precision? 🏜️ They used clever tools like ropes, levels, and plumb bobs to measure and align everything perfectly. The pyramids were positioned to face the cardinal directions, and some experts believe they even used the stars to guide them! ✨ Skilled workers carved massive stones and transported them using sledges and ramps, showing off their engineering genius. Plus, thousands of laborers worked together in harmony, creating a level of teamwork that’s hard to imagine today. It’s a mix of smart planning, advanced techniques, and a whole lot of human effort! 🏗️ Animation is created by Bright Side.
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FunTranscript
00:00Secant Cosine Tangent Sine 3.14159 Yeah, that was the cheer we heard coming from
00:07the trigonometry club back in the day.
00:10For the rest of us in math class, terms such as sine, tangent, and pi were just bewildering.
00:17Who invented these, and why?
00:19Was their only purpose to make it harder for students?
00:23Well, not quite.
00:25Trigonometry was invented by the ancient Egyptians.
00:28They needed this knowledge to construct pyramids, and they did a pretty good job too.
00:33The Great Pyramid in Giza still stands today, some 4,500 years after it was built.
00:39No recalls either.
00:41So let's get out of that classroom and on a journey through time to reveal the secrets
00:46behind the ancient Egyptians' precision.
00:49Here you are, standing on the Great Pyramid's construction site, some 9 miles from Cairo.
00:55The city still isn't there, as you're surrounded only by the desert and teams of
00:59construction workers.
01:01They're transporting large stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each.
01:05They're inside a wooden sled that sits on large rollers.
01:09A crew of 8 men rolls these blocks along the ground.
01:13You immediately think of the rollers on a supermarket cash register.
01:18The principle is exactly the same, but the scale is greater, much greater.
01:23Scientists estimate that the Egyptians used 2.3 million such blocks in the Great Pyramid
01:28alone.
01:30And the block in front of you is one of the lighter ones.
01:33The heaviest of them weighed up to 15 tons.
01:36But where did all these blocks come from?
01:39Most of them originated from quarries around Giza.
01:42It's not that impressive, you think.
01:44But wait until you hear how ancient engineers transported the granite used in construction
01:51over 500 miles to the pyramid.
01:54There were no railways or highways back then, but the mighty Nile was always there.
02:00Researchers even believe that the Egyptians dug a canal to connect the Nile directly to
02:05the pyramid's construction site.
02:07All they had to do then was to wait for the flood season to begin, and voila!
02:12The rising water levels floated the heavy stone blocks for them.
02:16But how did they lift the enormous stones on dry land to stack them up to the top?
02:22Did they use oversized cranes?
02:24Well ancient Egyptians worked around this problem, literally speaking.
02:29One of the workers is now pointing to the giant ramp going around the pyramid they're
02:33building.
02:34This is how a mountain road zigzags its way to the top.
02:38If the ramp went directly to the top of the pyramid, then workers couldn't pull the
02:42stone blocks along it.
02:44It would be too steep.
02:46Scientists have calculated that 8% could be the maximum incline.
02:50So ancient Egyptians just extended the ramp around the pyramid.
02:55Again, these are all theories, as the ramp could've been inside the pyramid, as some
03:00researchers suggest.
03:02The exact building method is still a mystery, guarded by the Sphinx.
03:05That's its real name, right?
03:08Wrong.
03:09As the Great Sphinx is just the statue's alias.
03:12You know, the name writers take when they want to hide their true identity.
03:16Or a singer's stage name.
03:18The Sphinx's real name, translated from Egyptian, means Horus in the horizon.
03:24That was the name for the Egyptian deity of the sky.
03:27The trail of mystery doesn't end there.
03:29As a man walks past you with a bucket of paint, he's going to add a touch of color to the
03:34Great Sphinx.
03:36Researchers found specks of this red color next to its ear.
03:40That was some strong paint, as it survived for thousands of years.
03:44You are now standing straight in front of the Sphinx.
03:47You look up.
03:48It's very tall, right?
03:5066 feet to be precise.
03:52Now resist the urge to take a selfie.
03:54You can do it!
03:56Now you notice something else.
03:58It looks like the Sphinx is in the center of a giant triangle in the back.
04:02That's one side of the Great Pyramid.
04:05And no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.
04:07The Sphinx really does sit in the center of the pyramid's lateral face.
04:12Here's where math comes in handy.
04:14A pyramid has four sides, called lateral faces.
04:18There's also a fifth face, the base.
04:21But that's not visible.
04:22It's, wait for it, face down!
04:26The Sphinx has one last mystery to reveal – its age.
04:30Scientists agree that Pharaoh Khafre built the Sphinx.
04:34He ruled after his father, who had built a Great Pyramid nearby.
04:38So both structures were finished around the same time.
04:41Let's talk about numbers again.
04:43You've heard of Cleopatra, the Egyptian princess described as a woman of great beauty?
04:49She saw the pyramids, but she lived closer to the time of the first iPhone than the time
04:54of the people who built the pyramids.
04:57Fascinating, right?
04:58You can see thousands of people around you.
05:01They're working hard to build the Pharaoh's tomb.
05:04But how many of them are there exactly?
05:06One Greek philosopher estimated there were as many as 100,000 workers.
05:12Seems like an okay number for such an enormous structure.
05:15But it can't be true.
05:17Science simply can't back up this number.
05:20Egyptologists put the total number of workers at 30,000.
05:24And yes, Indiana Jones was one of them, at least on the big screen.
05:28But he showed up late.
05:30Egyptologists know a lot about the pyramids, but not everything.
05:34Not because they don't want to, but because they haven't yet dug up enough evidence.
05:40They can only guess how the building process went.
05:44First engineers would arrive to choose the right spot and do the necessary measurements.
05:49That's why they needed all that complicated math.
05:52Then it's time for sourcing the material, the large stone blocks I mentioned earlier.
05:57When boats deliver them to the site of the future pyramid, workers can finally do their
06:02thing.
06:03They operated in smaller groups, but there were at least 2,000 of them chiseling and
06:09carving away at any given time.
06:11Sounds like a typical construction site today.
06:14Well, that's because it is, just thousands of years ago.
06:17It's amazing what ancient Egyptians were able to achieve with just copper and stone
06:22tools.
06:24The pyramid is now complete in front of you.
06:27But is it the same pyramid we see today?
06:29Why is this structure shining bright in the desert sun?
06:33Isn't it supposed to be a dusty yellow color?
06:36Well, no.
06:37Human activity and the elements have completely stripped the outer layer of stones over time.
06:43Expert craftspeople polished these blocks using nothing but stone and sand.
06:48The end result was a smooth and shiny rock.
06:51On the day it was completed, the Great Pyramid of Giza was a perfect triangle of light.
06:57Its polished sides acted like giant mirrors, reflecting the powerful Egyptian sun.
07:02This is the point where you should put your glasses on.
07:04And that shiny thing you see at the pyramid's very top is actually gold.
07:09The capstone at the top of the pyramid is called a pyramidion.
07:14It was covered in sheets of gold.
07:16As you can guess, these were the first stones to disappear.
07:19Let's make another stop before we get you back to your classroom.
07:23We travel to the British Isles, and no, Stonehenge isn't our destination.
07:28It is Newgrange in County Meath.
07:31Scientists estimate that the ancient peoples of Ireland built this stone monument around
07:36the year 3200 BCE.
07:39This makes it older than both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid in Giza.
07:44The function of the circular mound in Newgrange is the same as the one of the Great Pyramid
07:49and equally mysterious.
07:51The estimated amount of loose stone present in the valley is over 220,000 tons.
07:58And it's not just randomly thrown on a pile.
08:01The order in which the stones are set makes the structure water-resistant.
08:06That would explain how Newgrange had survived for so long.
08:10Kinda makes you want to splash out the cash for that waterproof phone case, huh?
08:14Well, you're back in your school desk, but today's math lecture is the last thing on
08:19your mind.
08:20You're thinking about how great the Egyptian pyramids are, and if we have something similar
08:25today.
08:26It turns out modern engineers are just as impressed with the Great Pyramid as you are.
08:31There's a glass pyramid sitting in the main courtyard of the famous Louvre Museum in Paris.
08:37The panorama of San Francisco wouldn't be complete without the 48-story Transamerica
08:43Pyramid.
08:44But Las Vegas went the furthest.
08:47There we find the Luxor Hotel.
08:49It's so big that it's the third-largest pyramid on the planet.
08:53And guess what's in front of it?
08:55Yep, a replica of the Sphinx.
08:57It's 110 feet tall, two stories higher than the one in Giza.
09:02Yeah, everything's bigger in Vegas.
09:05That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
09:09and share it with your friends.
09:11Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!