Secrets of the past: 3 main mysteries of ancient Egypt that scientists cannot solve to this day

(ORDO NEWS) — The world’s fascination with ancient Egypt has a long history; Greek rulers often portrayed themselves as pharaohs, and the Romans brought obelisks from Egypt to decorate their cities.

After Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, Egyptomania swept Europe, and amateur archaeologists began to flock to the country, “revealing” the mysteries of history. However, scientists still cannot answer many questions about those times.

More complex and comprehensive work on the study of the pyramids in Egypt has been underway since the beginning of the 19th century.

Then archaeologists began to clear the complexes from sand and explored the interior. Then scientists learned to scan and even restore historical monuments.

Alas, centuries of excavation and research have failed to shed light on the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.

1- Pyramid Mystery: How were the Egyptian pyramids built?

The Pyramid of Cheops is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It was created from 2.3 million stone blocks, each of which weighs from 2.5 to 16 tons.

Some of the slabs, especially those used in the inner chambers, were brought from Aswan, which is 804 kilometers from where the pyramids stand. How did the ancient Egyptians build such massive structures?

Even despite the vast number of theories, this process remains the secret of history. Scientists simply do not have enough reliable archaeological evidence to fully support any of the hypotheses.

One theory for how the blocks were moved involves sleds and wet sand.

For example, in the tomb of Jehutihotep, men are depicted dragging a huge statue on a sleigh, and in front of them a man pours water onto the sand.

This technique may have been used to move the stone blocks to the sites where the pyramids were built.

Once the blocks were on the construction site, they had to be lifted.

A ramp found in a quarry dating from the construction of the Pyramid of Cheops indicates that the ancient Egyptians were able to pull stone blocks out of the quarry up a steep ascending slope.

It is possible that ramps like this were used to lift the stones up the sides of the pyramid to place them. According to this theory, a film was even made , but so far many scientists are skeptical about it.

2- Pyramid Mystery: What is inside the mysterious cavities inside the Pyramid of Cheops?

In 2017, the ScanPyramids project discovered voids inside the pyramid thanks to muon tomography.

This scanning method uses cosmic rays to produce 3D images of spaces and can penetrate much deeper than X-rays.

On the north side of the pyramid, a small void about 4.5 meters long was discovered, due to the angle of inclination, scientists suggest that this is a corridor.

And above the Grand Gallery, a void 30.5 meters long was discovered! This passage may provide access to the burial chambers at the center of the pyramid.

Not much is known about this large chamber, it could be anything! And while it’s hardly a burial chamber, it could be a second Grand Gallery or, more intriguingly, a room with the secrets of pyramid design.

3- Pyramid Mystery: Why did the Egyptians stop building pyramids?

The last pyramid was built around 1500 BC. Then the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings, not far from Thebes (modern Luxor), the new capital of Ancient Egypt.

What exactly caused the rulers of Egypt to abandon the practice of burials in the pyramids is not known, although there are many theories.

One theory is that religious changes around 1500 B.C. began to emphasize the importance of building tombs underground, in rocks.

Thebes, unlike the previous Egyptian capital, Memphis, had much less open space, and what little there was was rocky.

It was not an ideal landscape for the construction of massive monuments. The constant destruction of tombs also became a problem. Burials were more difficult to rob.

A more recent theory as to why pyramid building stopped comes from Peter James, an engineer commissioned to examine the outer shell of the Bent Pyramid built in 2600 BC.

James discovered that the extreme temperature fluctuations in the Egyptian desert caused the limestone to expand and contract, moving the stone blocks to the edges of the pyramid and causing them to break.

Oddly enough, the unusual construction of the Bent Pyramid made it the best preserved, as the gaps between the stone blocks allowed them to shift during thermal expansion without destroying the hull.

Having spent so much time, money and energy creating perfect monuments, this visible and rapid destruction of the pyramids may have been one of the reasons the pharaohs abandoned them as funerary monuments.

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