Reading about these two significant structures expanded my knowledge about how big our world really is. Personally I have not gone to vacation anywhere outside of our country, so topics like this are very interesting to me. This week’s topic is about the Ziggurats and the pyramids of Giza.
These two structures being from different countries actually have some interesting similarities to them. Both the Ziggurats and the Pyramids of Giza are man-made structures built upwards instead of wide. Elevation was done to preserve the structures from flooding and weather damage. They both are a place that holds symbolic pieces of the cultures of the people. Both structures utilize stairs due to the high structure of the buildings and add stability.
Although these two structures have some similarities they are yet very unique in their own way. For example, the Ziggurats were used as shrines and were thought of as the bridge to travel from earth to heaven. They were sometimes called “house of the mountain” and “bond between heaven and earth.” The pyramids of Giza served as tombs for the three fourth dynasty kings. The largest pyramid was named after the King Khufu, the middle sized one is after King Khafre, and the smallest, which is significantly smaller than the rest, is after King Menkaure. The largest pyramid was 13 acres across the base, and the limestone caused the pyramid to reach almost 481 feet in height.
The pyramids of Giza were created with a great amount of math skill and critically planned to perfection. They were made to follow the suns path. They also had to know how to have the land just perfect and level to where all the stones would align just right in order to have the stones meet perfectly at the top. They uncovered the work station of the workers of the pyramids that demonstrated the difficulty and intensity of the labor going into these structures. Their tactics included things like hauling stones weighing two plus tons by rolling them over logs or sliding them across muddy grounds. I find it interesting that it is still unknown exactly how the pyramids were built. The text talks about how it is assumed that a ramp was made around the pyramid to put the higher stones in place. Unlike the perfection in building the pyramids, the Ziggurats were built on top of rubble of previous buildings and then repeated eventually raising up the level of them which helped to prevent flooding. The Ziggurats were not as carefully planned or thought out as well as the creators of the pyramids of Giza.
In conclusion, I find these structures very interesting due to their significance and their uniqueness in their influence on religion to the cultures beliefs and rituals. I personally enjoyed reading and studying about the pyramids of Giza the most due to the way they were created and how much thought and work went into the building of these structures.
You make really good points. I find it amazing that they put so much thought and mathematics into building the pyramids, if they had not done this they would likely not have stood stable for so long. And it is amazing how heavy the stones were at 2.5 tons a piece and they actually moved them without the machines and cranes we would use today!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading of your blog. I really like that you described every detail of each points and clearly explained similarities and differences. Even though I did not know that there was great math skill to build the pyramids, I knew that it is really great piece of work. I am also really curious about how people made the eminent structures.
ReplyDeleteI am also blown away by the scale of the ziggurats and pyramids! It's amazing to me that structures of that height and size could be built without modern technology. It is also interesting, as you pointed out, that we are still unsure of how they were built. Even with the use of ramps, I can't imagine moving 2.5 ton stones to the top of a pyramid!
ReplyDelete