The Mysteries of Egypt

Each morning, with its rising, the sun called the people, each setting he died. But the next morning he would rise again. He was eternal. When a king died, it was believed that he became one with Ra, his son, who became Horus, the living god on earth and so the Egyptians accorded their rulers absolute power which they used to build an extraordinary empire, an empire of buildings so enormous and art so exquisite we are still trying to understand how such wonders were created. How stones from the desert were turned into timeless monuments. Some of the oldest buildings on earth are here, preserved by the desert air and the skill of their creators. Some are so old, that they had already stood a thousand years when Tutachamon was born. The enormous obelisks of Carnac were carved from single blcks of granite , moved hundreds of miles by boats , rolled on logsand perhaps levered up with huge timbers. Giant statues of Ramses the Great at Abu Simble are still some of the largest figures ever sculptured from solid stone. We do not know how they did it but we do know why. To honour the pharaohs, both in life and after death. Honour the pharaohs after death? Does that have anything to do with mummies? Yes, look at Tutancha- mon for example, when the young king died , the priests sought to create a new magical body for him. For seventy days they laboured trying and preserving the royal body with salts and ointments, then wrapping it in hundreds of feet of linen laden with protective jewels , charms and amulets. An finally crowning the mummy with an exquisite golden death mask.Tutanchamon was ready for the afterlife. Had the boy lived and died a thousand years earlier, he would have been buried like pharaohs longbefore him in monuments of colossal proportions and in mountains of stone, called the pyramid. They probably saw the pyramid shape as a link between earth and sky. Providing the pharaoh's soul a stairway to heaven. Of the fabled seven wonders of the ancient world only the pyramids of Gizeh remain, made more than four thousand years ago. Nearly five hundred feet tall, they contain some of the largest pieces of stone ever moved by humans. As much as fifty tons or more, yet this was accomplished without wheels or pulleys or even hand tools. How on the world did they do it without modern machinery? The gods certainly did not do it. They used their minds , knowledge built these great, great structures, only sophisticated knowledge, look.... One of the Gizeh pyramids was built in perfect alignment with certain stars. That takes knowledge of astronomy. The pyramids foun- dations are laid out in perfect angles and dimensions. Precisely correct for the height they wanted to reach. Now that takes know- ledge of geometry and mathematics, finally you must get these big stones from down.....................
1. Where did the king go when he died?2. How did they get the enormous blocks up?3. What kinds of knowledge were used to make pyramids?