The
Great Pyramid was originally 481 feet, five inches tall (146.7 meters)
and measured 755 feet (230 meters) along its sides. Covering an area of
13 acres, or 53,000 square meters. Constructed from approximately 2.5
million limestone blocks weighing on average 2.6 tons each, its total
mass is more than 6.3 million tons (representing more building material.
The Great Pyramid was originally encased in highly polished,smooth white
limestone and capped. According
to legend,by a perfect pyramid of black stone, probably onyx. The white
limestone casing is covering an area of 22 acres
According
to our present knowledge the Great Pyramid is mostly solid mass, its only
known interior spaces being the Descending passage (the original entrance),
the Ascending passage, the Grand Gallery, a mysterious grotto, an equally
mysterious subterranean chamber, and the two main chambers. These two
chambers, called the
King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber, No queen or anyone else was ever
buried in the limestone chamber.
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The King's Chamber is 10.46 meters east to west by 5.23 meters north to south by 5.81 meters high (a series of measurements that precisely expresses the mathematical proportion known as the Golden Mean, or Phi). It is built of enormous blocks of solid red granite (weighing as much as 50 tons) that were transported by a still-unknown means from the quarries of Aswan 600 miles to the south. Within the chamber, in the western end, sits a large, lidless coffer (7.5 feet by 3.25 feet, with sidesaveraging 6.5 inches thick) of dark black granite estimated to weigh more than three tons.
The
coffer is entirely empty.The passageway leading from the Grand Gallery
to the main chamber is too narrow to admit the movement of the coffer;
the coffer must have been placed in the chamber as the pyramid was being
built.
