WEBVTT - How Egypt's Pyramids Work 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.080 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.840 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's doing funny voices 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:20.639 all of a sudden. Yes, She's like, we're eight years 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.040 into this gig. I'm gonna start doing impressions. I know. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.080 I don't know if it's an impression, it's more just 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.240 a silly, silly, dumb voice. Maybe she's taking on a 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.239 stand up class or improv class. Are you taking an 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:39.560 improv class? Jerry? Yes, she keeps going and she says 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.920 it's not a comedy improv class, so it's a business 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:44.839 improv class, just to make her sharper in meanings, you know, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.480 and they have gotten much more enjoyable and shorter. Yeah. 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:53.480 Her power point presentations are like one third jokes now. Yeah, 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.080 but our equipment rental has gone up purchases because she 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.600 drops the mic a little too hard. Yeah, just keep 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:04.319 her place in those mics. Yeah. So, Chuck, everybody knows 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.480 about the pyramids, great Pyramids at Giza. Turns out there's 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:14.479 pyramids all over the world, and there's a a distinct 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.760 thread on the Internet that suggests that all these pyramids 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:25.880 are connected in Mesoamerica, China, Egypt, Memphis, Greece, Memphis in Egypt, 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.959 not Memphis, Tennessee. Is there, Well, it's one of these 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:35.839 new pyramids, a neo pyramid. It's a basketball Colisseum, okay, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.160 oh yeah, yeah, the pyramid. Sure? What is that a 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:44.440 mud island or something? Is that a different island in Memphis. Well? 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.800 The the idea is that all of these cultures, ancient cultures, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.720 were visited by the same aliens that said, built some pyramids, 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.080 here's how to do it, we'll help you out. And um, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:01.640 that's just almost certainly not sure. Yeah, I feel safe 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.520 in saying, as much as I like to believe in 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.960 cookie things, I don't believe that the aliens built the pyramids. 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.240 I don't believe that either. And one there's a couple 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.440 of good arguments against it. For for one, it really 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:19.640 diminishes the incredible skill of the ancient engineers who came 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.239 up with us and the workers who constructed them. It's 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.120 like the architecture the Yeah, surely they would need some 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.720 advanced alien civilization to come down and tell these dumb 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.040 dumbs what to do. And then another point that I 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.520 ran across That kind of explains against that is that 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.560 if you I think it was unlike rational wiki or 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:41.240 something like that, they basically said, go out in your 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.720 garden and try to build a waste high mound of dirt. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.680 He said, you're going to just naturally after even one 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.440 or two attempts, start forming a pyramid of mound shape, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.600 and their whole jam. The whole idea is that pyramids 0:02:56.040 --> 0:03:02.800 evolved independently just from trying to build a massive earthen structure. Yeah, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.520 and there you go. That's where pyramids evolved separately around 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.880 the world. I was laughing because as soon as you 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.200 said that, for some reason, I pictured you in your backyard, 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.280 like covered in dirt, just screaming like you it's not 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.800 going well, call somebody check the wrong besought the list 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.560 doesn't hold up, and you mean he's like on her 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:25.359 phone like what you Okay, you're cute, keep it up. 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:30.200 Uh So a pyramid um who wrote this one? Is 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.160 this some Craig Freud and Rich PhD? Yeah, he's written 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.840 some good ones for us. I've learned to not second 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.360 guess his articles. You know, Yeah, No, he's he's good. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.560 And you throw a PhD at the end of your name, right, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.720 you're not allowed to second guess that. After that, how 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.560 might just start doing that? Nobody checks, you know, call 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.840 me doctor Chuck Charles Bryant, PhD. Yeah, um, alright. A 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.280 pyramid is a geometrical solid with a square basse, not 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.760 necessarily and for equal our old triangular sides, the most 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.960 structurally stable shape for projects involving large amounts of stone 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.360 or masonry. Exactly, it's a very very stable shape. Yeah. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.440 And one thing I read that said why did the 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:15.080 Egyptians build pyramids? The very easy answer is is because 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.240 that's what they knew how to build. Yeah, Well, they 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:19.839 were good at it, and if they would have been 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:21.840 better at building something else, they probably would have built 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.159 something else. Well. Yeah, I think Also it took until 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:31.520 um the well about the twentieth century before we started 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.680 using materials and developed materials that you you could build 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.000 a very tall structure out of that didn't require you 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.480 build a pyramid, because you have to have a pyramid 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.400 to build something very high. When you're using something like 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.440 stone blocks or something like that, you keep setting stuff 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:50.880 on top of each other and it's going to become 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.159 structurally unsound once it's all leaning in on each other, 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.520 and the prevailing um sentiment among archaeologists and anthrop copologists 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.280 to study this kind of stuff is that pyramids are 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:15.000 ultimately the natural um conclusion evolution from just earthen mounds 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.200 that they think originally were the first stabs at what 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:25.200 ultimately became pyramids, peaking basically at the Pyramid of Cufu. Yeah, 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.240 and they I think there's also probably symbolic, uh, some 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.440 symbolism going on with pyramids coming to a point towards 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:36.120 the sky. Uh. In the case of Uh, let's say 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.520 Central America with the minds and the Aztecs, there were 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:43.119 more religious imples, so that it's okay for that, and 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.520 if in case of Egypt, with being a tomb, it 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:48.920 also makes sense that it would point toward the heavens well. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:53.200 With each specifically, they believe that the symbols, the symbolism 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.200 behind the pyramid is that it symbolized this mound that 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:01.039 the earth was created from in Egyptian cosmology. Yeah, that 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.200 makes sense. Yeah. Um. So the other are a couple 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.480 of other distinctions between Egyptian pyramids and let's say Central 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:12.599 American is Central American pyramids were generally wider but smaller 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.799 as I guess not as tall and um they built 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.400 those over hundreds of years, whereas the Great Pyramids and 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.760 Egypt were built over the course of you don't know 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.120 for sure, but probably twenty or thirty years. So I 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:27.520 think that that's true in some cases. But I ran 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:34.080 across something that that suggested that at umtan Um they 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:38.039 would build pairs of pyramids like every twenty years. Yeah, 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:39.919 So I don't know if it's the case across the board, 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.440 but I think that they weren't quite the massive public 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.400 works that Egyptian Pyramids came to be. Yeah. Well, in 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.840 Central America, they were also more located in Aztec in 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:56.520 mind cities, whereas the Egyptian Pyramids originally we're located away 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.839 from cities. And I remember, I think it was just 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.800 last year that I saw that mind blowing picture of 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.240 the other side of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. How 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.640 the city runs right up to the front door basically, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:11.840 and if you ever look at an aerial of view, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.320 I've just never seen one until a year ago. I 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.360 was like, Wow, I just thought it was literally in 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.200 the middle of nowhere and there's a huge city just 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.440 right in front of them. Yeah, and well it makes 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.320 sense though, if you think about it, especially if saying Mesoamerica, 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.000 they were temples. Well, temples were for like public use, 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.120 so you'd want it kind of convenient if you're pyramid 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.000 was used as like a tomb. Humans traditionally bury their 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:39.000 people slightly away from, you know, their city center, so 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:40.720 it makes sense that it would be on the outskirts 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.400 of Cairo rather than in it. Yeah, that makes sense. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:48.240 The first tombs in Egypt for the pharaohs were just flat, 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:54.080 boxy buildings. They called them mustabas, which is Arabic for bench, 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.680 and then they started building those on top of each 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.640 other sort of in the uh, you know, they get 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.880 a little smaller, but they still remained flat on top. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.480 They didn't come to a point like a pyramid. Yeah, 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.160 those were step pyramids, and they were the first attempt 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.800 at pyramids. And it's um, it's really strange because the 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.800 whole thing was so these pyramids are so so old 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.760 that you think of them just like being you know, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.280 spanning thousands of years in the way of construction and 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.760 planning and all this stuff, and all the number of 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.640 pharaohs that must have been involved when actually um, Egypt's 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.480 Egypt's pyramids were built within a seven year period and 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.880 basically just for like five pharaohs or so. Yeah, it's 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.480 not too bad. Yeah, it was like there's a burst 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:42.600 and then nothing, and then another little bit and then 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.680 nothing after that because it's hard labor. It was hard. Yeah, 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.839 it was hard getting labor there. It was hard. Um, 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.760 it was very expensive. It's hard getting those rocks there. 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.920 And they also think, remember I said that um Cufu's 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.400 pyramid the most famous pyramid in the world, the one 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.040 as of the tallest one, Um that that was the 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.480 pinnacle of pyramid building. And they think that after that, 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:08.840 as pyramids started to get smaller and something like that, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.800 totally unintentioned, they think that as pyramids started to get smaller, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:18.560 it actually represents a shift in Egyptian thought where worship 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.640 went from worshiping the pharaoh to worshiping raw and other 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:28.840 gods Um, so that the deification of the pharaoh diminished 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.520 in size, and you can see that reflected in the 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.679 smaller size of the literally. Yeah, interesting, that makes sense. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.200 I never heard of that. Love it. I love it too. 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.080 So the Great Pyramid of Cufu, which you just mentioned, 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.000 is the biggest at a hundred and forty six ms 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.920 high with a two d and thirty meter square base 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.160 and oh, just about six and a half tons of 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.319 rock six and a half million tons. What did I say, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.720 just six and a half Yeah, that would be that'd 0:09:57.720 --> 0:09:59.120 just be a couple of the rocks. Yeah. I think 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.280 the average side rocks were two point five tons each. 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.640 The model was six point five tons, right, Um, And 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.480 these things have stood at the test of time, to 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.400 say the least. They have worn away some obviously, but 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.079 look at them. They still look great. Yeah. And they 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.760 were built like four to five thousand years ago. Yeah. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.360 What's really interesting that I didn't realize before was that 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.160 when you saw these things, like in the first year 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.920 that they were completed, or right when they were completed, um, 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:34.199 they were blinding white. Oh really yeah, So you can 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.360 see like this, the step, the steppy outline. They used 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.400 to be covered so that the sides and the pinnacle 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.600 were smooth, totally smooth, covered in polished limestone. So it 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.840 was like a gleaming white standing out against like the 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.480 bright blue sky, which there were photographs of that. Yeah, 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.160 it would have been pretty neat. But over time that 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.400 limestone is eroded away or being removed or whatever. Um, 0:10:57.440 --> 0:10:59.679 And so now you can kind of see the substructure. 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.160 But what we see is like the external sides of 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.280 the pyramid were actually meant to be covered with polished limestone. Wow. Yeah, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.800 but that was something else. And again we're talking about 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.760 like how spectacular feet this this was engineering wise. Things 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.000 were built, you know, forty years ago. Let's say, Um, 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.760 the Cufu Pyramid, Cufoo's pyramid. He was a pharaoh. Um 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.560 his pyramid was the tallest building in the world until 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:31.600 the twentieth century. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean that just 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.040 shows you that it was hard to build things tall. Yeah. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.760 It's not like people didn't want to know. They wanted to. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:42.079 I think man is always uh. Striven Strove stroded Strove 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:47.200 did strid to build things super tall, you know, uh, 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.560 to really reach up to the heavens and punch God 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.120 in the eye. Yeah, that's right, that's the that's why 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.040 they want to build it tall. That's right. Uh. The 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:00.960 very first stepped pyramid, Uh, the Sakara was completed in 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:07.520 and that was for the pharaoh. Jo's Er not Gozer. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.280 It seems pretty close to that. It's so close. I 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.960 wanted to be Gozer. He would have been almost contemporaneous 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.080 that gozer, I would guess. So this one had six 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:21.000 levels and they tried, um, they attempted another one, another 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.400 six level step pyramid, but that one didn't work out 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:25.439 so well. So like you know, we're going to talk 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.840 about a couple of that, you know, learning projects basically. Yeah, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.800 and you know you've heard a very famous um Egyptian 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.800 mathematician m Hotep. Yeah, he's actually credited with coming up 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.400 with the idea of taking those mastabas, those bench like 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:46.679 squat buildings and stacking smaller and diminishing versions of themselves 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.360 to create that first step pyramid, that first zigaratte that 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:55.080 that was his idea, and um Bubba Hotep, No, not 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.079 that that was a good movie, m Hotel, m Hotep, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.560 I had no idea. By the way, that Bruce Campbell 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.360 was doing an Evil Dead TV show. Is it on? Yeah, 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.480 it's coming like it's super soon. I have no idea 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.240 how this escaped me. I had no idea either. Yeah, 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.120 I'm pretty excited though it's just back. The only way 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:14.800 it could be better is if it came on right 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.880 after the Muppets up Pretty good Night. That'd be like 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:24.040 the A Team Night Writer pairing. M hmm, was that well, 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.040 I was back to back. I think they might have been. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:28.840 I was never in the night Rider, so I turned 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.079 it off after it. I wasn't the Soups night Rider fan. 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:34.240 But all right, let's go with Love Boat Fancy Island, 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.640 maybe the best two hour pairing in TV history. I 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.240 never really watched the Fantasy Island. I loved Love both. 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:43.920 I wasn't allowed to watch Fantasy Island. Well, no, I 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.600 had the word fantasy in the title. We don't want that. 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.120 Um No, I think it was. It was dark and 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.480 it wasn't necessarily for kids. But now when I look 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:54.880 back at it was so silly, Like, I can't believe 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.120 I wasn't allowed to watch this. Well, the whole premise 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:01.160 of it is just fairly unbelievable. But at Mike Family 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.000 they were probably like, no, it's it's all about sex. 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.800 Everyone's fantasy will be about sex. And Ricardo montebon is 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.200 clearly playing the devil. Yeah with this little, uh smaller minion. 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:20.240 All right, uh? Where were we? Oh, we were talking 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.800 about pyramids. It didn't work out so well. Another one 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.600 was the I want to say medium, but it's the 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.120 me edam pyramid or the medium. I've also seen it 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.800 spelled emmy y do you m, which makes it easier. 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.440 It's like made him made him made um that was 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:43.160 constructed seventy and it had seven steps, uh, heading towards eight, 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:48.560 but it collapsed. It collap And then there's the bent pyramid, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.160 which didn't collapse, but they they basically just miscalculated the 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.760 angle and it started to They basically had to change 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:58.680 the angle after like the first third of it was 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.720 built or two thirds was built. Yeah, So first we 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:08.400 have dozers Gozer's um step pyramid in Sakara. That's the 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:14.080 first real inkling of that pyramids are coming. After that, 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.680 we had the pharaoh um oh what his name, Snifferu 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:23.360 Snifferu and Snifferi was the one who kept having really 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.440 bad luck with pyramids, and it was because he was 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:32.320 very ambitious, but he was also um dealing with architects 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.720 and engineers who were still figuring this out as they 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.120 were going along. So he had to put up with them. 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.160 The one that collapsed the meat made him yep, and 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.480 then he had to put up with the bent pyramid, 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:46.840 which still looks good. Did you look it up? Yeah, 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.520 it's it's great, but you can tell, like it's not 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.960 the way it's supposed to look perfect like, and I 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.120 can imagine like a lot of engineers probably lost their 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:00.920 lives with these failed projects because sniff Uru or snaff 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:05.560 Au he was fine with like capturing people and forcing 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.280 them to work, and he did a lot of underhanded 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:13.840 things to build himself a tomb, and the problem was 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.960 this failed attempt one how many decades did that take? 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.560 Failed attempt to how many decades did that take? Finally, 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.400 and they're like really freaking out at this point, like 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:25.640 if this guy dies and we don't have him a tomb, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.160 like like this is about as bad as it could 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.800 get because I remember, we haven't converted to worshiping raw yet. 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.760 This guy's are raw, so we're dis pleasing our god 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:39.320 and we can see his expression just all I want 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.360 is a straight pyramid like everybody else. So finally they 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.080 hit on it. They build him the Red Pyramid, and 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:50.160 it is the first genuinely successful pyramid, and he died happy. 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.800 I guess, yeah, And I assume wasn't tombed there, Yes, 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.400 I think so, I don't know. I didn't run across 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.160 that where he is. I Belu was otherwise that would 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.920 have been I mean, what a waste of time. Well, 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.240 that's the thing with these pyramids, we still um have 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:14.480 very little understanding about some really important stuff. Yeah, and 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.000 one of the reasons why is because they like in 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.600 Cufou's pyramid, Couper has never been found in there. They 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:26.280 think it's Coufu's pyramid, but his body's gone. And I 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:30.400 would guess probably the same thing for sniff sniff Au man, 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.400 he's got a tough name to say, Tom Rador's buddy. Yeah, 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:37.800 possibly probably. All right, Well, I think that you seriously 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.240 wet the listeners appetite with that tease. So let's take 0:17:41.240 --> 0:18:00.159 a little break and come back and really get into Cufu. 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.040 Al Right, buddy, we might as well just go to 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.439 the big daddy and break it down. Cufu, break it 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.359 down for me, fellas k h u f U also 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.680 known as Cheops. Oh yeah, yeah, that's what the Greeks 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.200 called them. H So that's why the pyramids also called 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:22.160 the Pyramid of Cheops. I've never heard that um part 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.800 of the Giza pyramid complex. And like we mentioned, the 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.719 big daddy of them all, uh, it was built for 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.600 sniff AU's son Cufu and the other two little guys 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.679 were built for Cafu son uh cofre and the grandson. 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:44.600 Uh minkow ray. I'll bet it's manka manka ray. Yeah. 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.439 I think usually those vowels are split to like a 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:53.359 different part of the word man Making any sense you 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.400 are to me, But I know what you're trying to say, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.120 I speak chuck, that's right. Uh So it is um 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.959 the largest and most elaborate in the one, you know, 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:07.480 where we've learned the most from basically in its construction. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.879 Still has a lot of secrets, man, a lot of secrets, 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.920 including how they built it. Yeah, no idea. Well, let's 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.280 talk about the insides first. Let's sorry the guts. Uh. First, 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.199 you have your primary burial chamber. That's the King's chamber, 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.480 and that's where the tomb is. That's where the sarcophagus is. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.480 Body in there. No, nope, What else is inside? Chuck? 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:37.160 Um hieroglyphics that say tell stories of life at that time, right, 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.240 you know, like little TV shows on the wall. Um. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.960 The queen's chamber a little smaller, but not for the queen. 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:50.520 Is that right? That's right? They call that a misnomer. Yeah, Um, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.399 Apparently people who stumbled upon it or entered it years 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:58.440 and years on after the Faronic dynasties had died out 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:04.040 um misinterpreted it and that when they were building this 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.239 they were worried that Cufu was going to die. So 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.760 some of the first things they did were building burial chambers, 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.080 and then as he lived in the pyramid kept going 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:18.800 under construction, they built a newer, better burial chamber, and 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.480 so there's ultimately three burial chambers, and he's in the 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.800 king's chamber supposedly that's where a psychophagus is. That's right. Uh, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.680 you have weight relieving chambers. These are above the king's 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.320 chambers and their structural um basically to distribute weight and 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.480 to keep everything from collapsing in on the king. Yeah, 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.320 because that would be bad too. Yeah. They're like these 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.040 long slabs and then there's a gable. So there's like 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.480 long rectangular slabs. I think there's four or five of 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.680 them maybe, and then a wooden gable is it wouldn't 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.119 I thought it was rock. And the whole thing is 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.520 it's like all that pressure that's pushing down towards the 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.080 center of the triangle, it takes it and just kind 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:03.080 of deflects it outward away from that hole in the inside. 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:08.639 The um, the pyramid, the feat of engineering. Um. The 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:13.639 gallery is a big passageway with a vaulted ceiling. Um. 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.560 Do you understand what the corbelled ceiling is? Yeah? So 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.720 you know, like if you have a like a breakfast bar, 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.080 those two things that come out and hold it up, 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.760 those are corbells. So they had these things that are 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.199 like corbell's going up and basically it says here that 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:34.000 forms like a primitive arch. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. Um, 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.840 you have passageways connecting everything because you have to get around. 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.520 You have an air shaft where they think the uh, 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.119 the spirit of those into him there would rise through 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:46.720 to the heavens. I guess the ideas you don't want 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:51.800 to fully enclose a tomb or a pyramid, gotta let 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:56.760 the soul out, sure, but creep out what else? Well? 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.400 Of course the exterior rocks that have eroded away. Sure, 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.760 and apparently the reason why we're quite sure that all 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.000 these things were aligned with limestone rocks is because Cafres 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:16.280 tomb uh Sneferus Snifferu's great grandson, there's still some limestone 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:20.719 rock on the top. Oh nice, that hasn't fully eroded, man, 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:24.120 after all these years. Yeah, so these are the things 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.280 that have been found over the over the years of 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:32.359 exploring these pyramids, right, But what really kind of surprised 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.320 me was that there's a lot of stuff that is 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:39.560 still being found. There's a lot of parts inside of 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.760 the pyramids that they're like, what is this or why 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.640 is there a door in this passage with some copper handles? 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:49.919 What's beyond it? Now? Is this because they haven't fully 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:56.960 excavated Yeah, okay, so they're still doing this. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.359 The um I can't remember his name, but the former 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:05.800 head of Egypt's antiquities before the revolution, um I can't remember. 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:10.200 He's like super like science educator guy. They call him 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:13.639 India Egypt's Indiana Jones. Okay, I thought you gonna say 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.919 Neil the grass Tyson. He's like Egypt's Neil de grass Tyson. 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.360 He could host Cosmos if you wanted to. He um 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:25.879 he is. He's been walking around lately saying, hey, there's 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:28.800 plenty of undiscovered stuff in these pyramids. We have a 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.520 very loose grasp the structure of them so far. Well, 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:34.680 and it's tough to get in there to do the work. Um, 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:39.640 I know the permitting process and is rigorous obviously, so 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:41.680 it's it's it's hard to know. This guy we're gonna 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:43.919 talk about later that has a new theory on how 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:46.040 they're built, he's having a hard time getting in there 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:48.840 to prove it. Yeah, but luckily they're starting to use 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.080 robots more and more to explore it, and that's starting 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:56.120 to yield some some interesting stuff. Did not know that either. 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:00.560 All right, well let's um, if you're gonna build a pyramid, Uh, 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:02.760 you don't just say let's get a bunch of rocks 0:24:02.800 --> 0:24:05.600 and start going. Um. First, like any building, you need 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:09.679 to do a survey and excavate the land. Because they 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:13.080 learned pretty early on that you're the land that it's on, 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.960 and the foundation is super super duper important. Yeah, that's 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.160 I think one of the reasons the first one collapse 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.840 is because they didn't do the foundation right. It's got 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:26.880 to be level and again it's kind of in part 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:31.840 how impressive the cufu's pyramid is. What did you say, 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:36.040 it's um it's base was it is a two hundred 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:40.400 and thirty meter square base. Yeah, it's level within less 0:24:40.440 --> 0:24:45.040 than an inch. Yeah, that's remarkable. So you get the busier, 0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:48.880 the master builder involved. And they do have some theories 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:52.800 on how they did this leveling. UM. One was that 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:57.199 they poured water onto the site, and water is the 0:24:57.200 --> 0:25:01.199 great leveler, and they would level the material above it, 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:04.280