How the Egyptian pyramids caused the economic crisis in the Old Kingdom

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Ancient Egypt is known primarily for its stone giants - pyramids that served as the burial place for Egyptian kings and pharaohs. However, not all Egyptian rulers found rest inside the pyramids, and this is not the only mystery of the Egyptian pyramids. And although scientists have been studying the pyramids for more than a century, it was only recently that they managed to lift the veil of secrecy over how the Egyptians built them and why they refused to build them.

The ancient Egyptians began to build pyramids from time immemorial - even before the beginning of the era of the Old Kingdom, widely known for such buildings as the pyramid of Djoser, the Pink Pyramid, the pyramids at Giza and the pyramid of Medum. However, the older pyramids were dozens of times smaller; they were intended for the burial of not only Egyptian kings. It is possible that there were also mass graves in them. However, since the beginning of the era of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptian kings prefer to be buried inside the pyramid.

To understand the engineering genius of the Egyptians, it is worth making a small lyrical digression.

In 2004, a group of scientists from Japan, which included mathematicians, physicists, and architects, decided to uncover the secret of the construction of the pyramids. It is worth recalling that the Egyptian pyramids were built with such precision that the angle between the laying of the cobblestones is exactly 90 ͦ, and the stones are perfectly aligned with each other. Simply put, a pyramid is just a perfect construction in terms of both mathematics and architecture. So, Japanese researchers, taking into account all modern technologies, failed to achieve the same accuracy in construction. On the basis of which the group of researchers made the only "correct" conclusion: if we cannot build with our technologies, the ancient Egyptians could not, which means there are no pyramids. However, as the adherents of ufology did not want, the aliens have nothing to do with it either, nothing to do with the hoaxes surrounding, for example, the pyramid of Tutankhamun. All of the above was given so that the reader could understand not only the scale of the pyramids, but also the amount of effort, resources and time that went into their construction.

The construction of the pyramid began immediately after a new king or pharaoh came to power, as it took decades. It is also worth noting that the pyramids were not built by slaves at all, as has long been believed. Recent research and excavations have shown that many ordinary Egyptians were involved in the construction, of whom the majority were at the construction site. In fact, almost all of Egypt was involved in the construction of the pyramid. Whole cities of workers have been found in the areas of the pyramids. According to historians, the construction of the pyramid for the inhabitants of Egypt was a kind of labor service, each had to work for several years on the construction of the tomb. The erection of a "resting place" for the king required many resources, in particular, large quantities of hard-to-get stone, limestone were needed. Thus, the protracted funeral of one person extremely burdened the economy of the state.

The construction of the pyramids also had serious social consequences. Although the Egyptians were forced to obey the will of the ruler, to put it mildly, they did not approve of the construction. And the point was not at all the compulsion to work, but the fact that men cut off from their household, often returning home, found a lost crop or a decaying trading store. At the same time, the pyramids were built by the Egyptian kings always and in spite of everything: be it sickness, hunger or war in the country. Of course, sometimes the construction was "frozen", but this happened in exceptional cases.

More than once the construction of the pyramid brought Egypt to the brink of a "global economic crisis." So, already during the construction of the Djoser pyramid, which is considered the first pyramid of Ancient Egypt, indignation arose among the population of the country against the king's new addiction. The construction of the first pyramid was complicated by the fact that the country fatally lacked stone for its construction. King Djoser spent enormous amounts of money on the purchase of basic material and even more hands on its extraction and transportation. So, in some ancient Egyptian records, an Egyptian anecdote of that time was preserved that the king forced his daughter to sleep with the princes of his neighbors, so that they would supply more and more stone to the country. Apparently this joke of the ancient Egyptians reflected the entire deplorable economic situation.

The erection of the pyramids greatly "distracted" the kings and pharaohs from a number of important tasks, in particular, from the development of the state. Of course, one should not blame the pyramids for the fall of several Egyptian kingdoms, however, they did not add greatness to the country in the political arena. Except, perhaps, for the Greeks, who have always admired the architectural genius of their overseas neighbors. The pyramids were also built in the era of the Middle Kingdom and even at the beginning of the era of the New Kingdom. However, gradually in ancient Egypt, the abandonment of such buildings began to occur. Historians believe that Ramses II became an innovator in the field of burials, who preferred to go to temple, foothill burials. The reason for this was not only the "high cost" of the pyramids, but also the plight of Egypt, at the beginning of the era of the New Kingdom, which at the time of Ramses had not yet been forgotten.

Although in the era of the New Kingdom, the pyramids were almost forgotten, the Egyptians did not lose their craving for gigantic buildings. It was under Ramses II that the largest temple complexes were created, and sculpture began to actively develop. In addition to construction, Ramses pays much attention to the expansion of the state and its economic strengthening: he reforms the army, economy, foreign and domestic policy, leading the Ancient Egypt of the New Kingdom era to its highest point of development. However, this is a completely different Egypt. The era of stone giants goes back with Ramses.