Dimensions of the Pyramid of Cheops

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Dimensions of the Pyramid of Cheops


The Pyramid of Kheops, located in Cairo, Egypt, is a monumental building that has deserved to be on the list of the 7 wonders of the world. Long remained the highest building in the world (In 1311, the Anglicans of the Middle Ages of Lincoln, a city in the United Kingdom, built a cathedral whose arrow rose to 160m), it is still the most imposing. More than 4,500 years, a record for such a monument, a record that places it as the sole representative of the 7 ancient wonders still standing today.

Of course, the pyramid is damaged, which is understandable. It is even more ruined than it seems, but overall it is still in good condition. Its current dimensions are impressive: 230m of side, 138 of high, for 2.3 million m3 of limestone blocks! Its initial dimensions are even more so since it was 146.60m high for a volume of almost 2.6 million m3. Its surface on the ground has not changed, it is still 5.29 hectares. The surface of the pyramid is 53 055 m2, its perimeter on the ground 922m. If you do, the turn, you will have practically done 1Km walk.

You have more precise figures on this page. What it reveals is the extreme precision of the construction, its location and its inclination. The error of horizontality is only 21mm, it means that the base of the pyramid has a higher angle of 2.1cm than the others, a completely negligible error on a building of more than 5 hectares. Similarly, the orientation of the 4 angles according to the cardinal points has a precision similar to that of the pillars of the Eiffel Tower, which was built 4400 years later during the industrial revolution. Neither the means, nor the knowledge, nor the technologies were comparable. Finally, the base of the pyramid is a trapezium. To make it a square, as it would have had to be, it was necessary to remove an error of only 20cm on sides long of 230m. It's really nothing.


The phenomenon of apothema

Note the apothemic phenomenon proper to this pyramid: Each face is actually two half faces separated by a vertical line that starts from the top of the pyramid and goes to the ground. The 8 half faces are almost flat in pairs, giving the impression that it has only 4 faces, but it has really 8 faces, each being slightly curved. This phenomenon is evident at the equinoxes during which the grazing light reveals the slight deviation of inclination of the North and South faces.



See also:

Pyramid of Cheops

The 7 wonders of the world




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