Probable function of the Pyramids
"When the Nile is overflowing, it floods the Delta and
the lands called Libyan and Arabian, for a distance of a journey of two days
from both banks in places, and sometimes, sometimes less. I could not learn
anything about its nature, neither from the priests nor from anyone else. I was
curious to learn why the Nile is flooding for a hundred days from the summer
solstice; and when this time is passed, sinks again, and the river is low
during the whole winter until the summer solstice again."
Herodotus, Histories 2, 19
Inundations were God's blessing for the people of the Egypt. They not only gave fertile soil.
In addition, they grew underground horizons of water, thus completing the stock of living fresh water. They feed oases and stabilized scarce forest, giving building material and flame in the homes. They gave fish, encourage the birds, strengthened the papyrus fields, and washed away the debris and dirt ...
Real blessing!
In the same time, there had obverse.
The boundaries between farmland fields disappeared. Every year had to re-allocate all used farmland. And this in precisely manner - in contrary should explode social burst.
The boundaries of the fields were marked with boundary stones. These had to be replaced frequently after the inundations, based on cadastral records.
An oath of the kind "I swear by the great god that is in heaven that the right boundary stone has been set up" was sworn at their erection.
Boundary
stone 
Boundary
stone
As it is seen above, boundary stones between parts of lands were small - less than 1/3 of the average human body. Moreover, the floods were enormous. Dynamic muddy water with meters corpulence was possible to squeeze and move stones, to swamp them. In other words, after every flooding here was need to restore boundaries.
Not a problem here.
However, the problem arose from the time frames.
At first days after flood, the access to the farmland is impossible due to the mud. The land is as morass. The seeds thrown here should to ret.
Soon after water from the Nile gone off, the cropland, begun to dry quickly, and to parch by sun insulation. If in the seeding of the crop occurred detention, the seeds would not still spring up. Consequently, they are impossible to grow and to tie the fruits.
The periods between swamp condition and the scorched condition are too narrow.
Therefore, the work must to be made quickly and accurately.
This is very difficult mission bear in mind a mass number of productive areas and plots.
May be surveyors had only two to five weeks to make annual relocation.
This year, I found a part time job in my native town's farm service. Our team was obliged to map the agricultural plots, cultivated by farmers, with goal to give them right stimulus payments. We used contemporary computer devices and programming, GPS systems, satellite pictures, cars, modern optical equipment, quick printing resources. In addition, the area was (and still is) many times smaller than the Egypt cropland. Result - 3 months. After which three month, big part of plots were represented and imposed on each other. If the Egyptians worked in such way, they should die first year.
In the top of all, they had only ropes and stones.
As Ingrid Salmon explains in excellent way in the Legal Aspects of Surveying:
"From the earliest times in Ancient Egyptian society, there was some sort of land administration system. In the Old Kingdom (2780 - 2100 BC), the King theoretically owned all the land, and delegated its use to others (Trigger, 1983, p. 226). From the third dynasty onwards, the land was given to deserving officials (Schultz, 1998, p. 383), which eventually led to the land being owned mostly by temples or individuals, who then were required to pay tax on the land. There are records that date back to around 3000 BC of the registration of land. Such records are usually found either in the form of writing on tomb walls or on papyri, where details of the land were recorded. A good system of land administration was required to assess land ownership and calculate tax. Due to the constant changes in the land, it was the job of the surveyor to measure each parcel of land annually (!) so that the tax could be calculated. The boundaries of the parcels of land were marked with boundary steles, pieces of stone with inscriptions. The latter contained information similar to that of a certificate of title today, namely the name of the owner of the land, the king and a description of the extent of the land (Berger, 1934, p. 55). The steles were registered at the survey department (Murnane, 1993, p. 148) this meant that a permanent record, of where they were supposed to be located, was kept. Scenes of measurement in the fields have been found on tomb walls, such as the picture of a surveyor checking a boundary stone in, found in a Theban tomb."
The duties of the surveyor in Ancient Egypt covered a number of aspects, including boundary definition and in building construction. The need for surveying was a consequence of the civilized society in Ancient Egypt. The annual flooding of the Nile, something affected significantly the life of the Egyptians, resulting often in a change of the shape of the land on the banks of the river, or the disappearance of the stones marking the boundaries. A surveyor was required to re-measure the land and to replace the marks as required, so that any disputes between neighbors could be resolved.
Surveyors also provided information for construction work. Of particular interest are the cardinally orientated buildings, namely the temples and the pyramids that required a great deal of careful measurement to obtain the orientation required.
The role of the surveyor was an important one, as shown by the evidence of the work of the surveyors in the form of pictures on tomb walls. The position of the surveyor in society, inscribes show, was one in the upper classes in Egyptian society and well educated.
The ancient Egyptian measuring rope (the old term for "surveyors" was "harpedonaptae" or rope-stretchers) was treated to hold its length. It was stretched taut between stakes and then rubbed with a mixture of beeswax and resin. Some of the ropes, depicted in hieroglyphs, were graduated by knots tied at intervals.
Thus were kept first known etalons in history.
Accuracy was creditable, according to a 1909 triangulation survey that tied some original boundary stones.
The Egyptian crews set the stones to divide the fertile Nile delta, and the "rope" was indispensable for measuring the distances.
Plumb bobs were appreciated for their ability to furnish a true vertical line. The Egyptians employed plumb tools in their sighting and leveling instruments, and as a way to continue distances vertically. They exploited all the possibilities of the bob, using it for astronomy, navigation, surveying, and building. It was their "workhorse" tool.
In other words:
"In ancient Egypt rope stretchers were surveyors who measured property demarcations and foundations using knotted cords which they stretched in order to take the sag out of the rope. When performed by kings during the initial stage of temple building the Stretching of the Rope was probably a religious ceremony rather than a surveying job. On artifacts as ancient as the Scorpion Macehead, the Egyptians document the process the royal surveyors used to restore the boundaries of fields after each inundation or flood.
The Egyptians may have been the first surveyors to use ropes and plumbs. Rope stretching technology spread to ancient Greece and India, where it stimulated the development of geometry and mathematics. Some people think it was India that influenced Greece. (!?)"
No doubts, the stretchers impersonated the accuracy, discipline, skillfulness.
However ... Only that is not enough!
The fellows, who are acquainted with field works, know very well that it is impossible to restore the cadastral map without presence of a triangulation network, which requires in turn the basic polygon and benchmark points. Moreover, those must to be stable and long lasting. The cadastral records are useless without such permanent basic network.
The construction of the triangulation network is first and supreme aim of every survey, cadaster, mapping, planning, and war enterprises.
Not only the pyramids, but also all buildings at the left river side of Nile are inaccessible for the floods, are hard founded, are interminable … And they are erected relatively in equal intervals, as to fulfill string which should to be basis for the quickly renewable triangulation network. One gigantic triangulation polygon base.
Luxor Temple –
This complex of temples possesses some elements like doubled pylons, which can
play the same role in triangulation survey as the pyramids.
Herodotus, Histories 2, 19
Inundations were God's blessing for the people of the Egypt. They not only gave fertile soil.
In addition, they grew underground horizons of water, thus completing the stock of living fresh water. They feed oases and stabilized scarce forest, giving building material and flame in the homes. They gave fish, encourage the birds, strengthened the papyrus fields, and washed away the debris and dirt ...
Real blessing!
In the same time, there had obverse.
The boundaries between farmland fields disappeared. Every year had to re-allocate all used farmland. And this in precisely manner - in contrary should explode social burst.
The boundaries of the fields were marked with boundary stones. These had to be replaced frequently after the inundations, based on cadastral records.
An oath of the kind "I swear by the great god that is in heaven that the right boundary stone has been set up" was sworn at their erection.
Boundary
stone Boundary
stoneAs it is seen above, boundary stones between parts of lands were small - less than 1/3 of the average human body. Moreover, the floods were enormous. Dynamic muddy water with meters corpulence was possible to squeeze and move stones, to swamp them. In other words, after every flooding here was need to restore boundaries.
Not a problem here.
However, the problem arose from the time frames.
At first days after flood, the access to the farmland is impossible due to the mud. The land is as morass. The seeds thrown here should to ret.
Soon after water from the Nile gone off, the cropland, begun to dry quickly, and to parch by sun insulation. If in the seeding of the crop occurred detention, the seeds would not still spring up. Consequently, they are impossible to grow and to tie the fruits.
The periods between swamp condition and the scorched condition are too narrow.
Therefore, the work must to be made quickly and accurately.
This is very difficult mission bear in mind a mass number of productive areas and plots.
May be surveyors had only two to five weeks to make annual relocation.
This year, I found a part time job in my native town's farm service. Our team was obliged to map the agricultural plots, cultivated by farmers, with goal to give them right stimulus payments. We used contemporary computer devices and programming, GPS systems, satellite pictures, cars, modern optical equipment, quick printing resources. In addition, the area was (and still is) many times smaller than the Egypt cropland. Result - 3 months. After which three month, big part of plots were represented and imposed on each other. If the Egyptians worked in such way, they should die first year.
In the top of all, they had only ropes and stones.
As Ingrid Salmon explains in excellent way in the Legal Aspects of Surveying:
"From the earliest times in Ancient Egyptian society, there was some sort of land administration system. In the Old Kingdom (2780 - 2100 BC), the King theoretically owned all the land, and delegated its use to others (Trigger, 1983, p. 226). From the third dynasty onwards, the land was given to deserving officials (Schultz, 1998, p. 383), which eventually led to the land being owned mostly by temples or individuals, who then were required to pay tax on the land. There are records that date back to around 3000 BC of the registration of land. Such records are usually found either in the form of writing on tomb walls or on papyri, where details of the land were recorded. A good system of land administration was required to assess land ownership and calculate tax. Due to the constant changes in the land, it was the job of the surveyor to measure each parcel of land annually (!) so that the tax could be calculated. The boundaries of the parcels of land were marked with boundary steles, pieces of stone with inscriptions. The latter contained information similar to that of a certificate of title today, namely the name of the owner of the land, the king and a description of the extent of the land (Berger, 1934, p. 55). The steles were registered at the survey department (Murnane, 1993, p. 148) this meant that a permanent record, of where they were supposed to be located, was kept. Scenes of measurement in the fields have been found on tomb walls, such as the picture of a surveyor checking a boundary stone in, found in a Theban tomb."
The duties of the surveyor in Ancient Egypt covered a number of aspects, including boundary definition and in building construction. The need for surveying was a consequence of the civilized society in Ancient Egypt. The annual flooding of the Nile, something affected significantly the life of the Egyptians, resulting often in a change of the shape of the land on the banks of the river, or the disappearance of the stones marking the boundaries. A surveyor was required to re-measure the land and to replace the marks as required, so that any disputes between neighbors could be resolved.
Surveyors also provided information for construction work. Of particular interest are the cardinally orientated buildings, namely the temples and the pyramids that required a great deal of careful measurement to obtain the orientation required.
The role of the surveyor was an important one, as shown by the evidence of the work of the surveyors in the form of pictures on tomb walls. The position of the surveyor in society, inscribes show, was one in the upper classes in Egyptian society and well educated.
The ancient Egyptian measuring rope (the old term for "surveyors" was "harpedonaptae" or rope-stretchers) was treated to hold its length. It was stretched taut between stakes and then rubbed with a mixture of beeswax and resin. Some of the ropes, depicted in hieroglyphs, were graduated by knots tied at intervals.
Thus were kept first known etalons in history.
Accuracy was creditable, according to a 1909 triangulation survey that tied some original boundary stones.
The Egyptian crews set the stones to divide the fertile Nile delta, and the "rope" was indispensable for measuring the distances.
Plumb bobs were appreciated for their ability to furnish a true vertical line. The Egyptians employed plumb tools in their sighting and leveling instruments, and as a way to continue distances vertically. They exploited all the possibilities of the bob, using it for astronomy, navigation, surveying, and building. It was their "workhorse" tool.
In other words:
"In ancient Egypt rope stretchers were surveyors who measured property demarcations and foundations using knotted cords which they stretched in order to take the sag out of the rope. When performed by kings during the initial stage of temple building the Stretching of the Rope was probably a religious ceremony rather than a surveying job. On artifacts as ancient as the Scorpion Macehead, the Egyptians document the process the royal surveyors used to restore the boundaries of fields after each inundation or flood.
The Egyptians may have been the first surveyors to use ropes and plumbs. Rope stretching technology spread to ancient Greece and India, where it stimulated the development of geometry and mathematics. Some people think it was India that influenced Greece. (!?)"
No doubts, the stretchers impersonated the accuracy, discipline, skillfulness.
However ... Only that is not enough!
The fellows, who are acquainted with field works, know very well that it is impossible to restore the cadastral map without presence of a triangulation network, which requires in turn the basic polygon and benchmark points. Moreover, those must to be stable and long lasting. The cadastral records are useless without such permanent basic network.
The construction of the triangulation network is first and supreme aim of every survey, cadaster, mapping, planning, and war enterprises.
Not only the pyramids, but also all buildings at the left river side of Nile are inaccessible for the floods, are hard founded, are interminable … And they are erected relatively in equal intervals, as to fulfill string which should to be basis for the quickly renewable triangulation network. One gigantic triangulation polygon base.
Luxor Temple –
This complex of temples possesses some elements like doubled pylons, which can
play the same role in triangulation survey as the pyramids.When we are peering at the map of the pyramids, begin with those in Abu Rawash, passing through Giza, Zawyet el-Aryan, Abu Sir, Saqqara, Dahshur, Mazghuna, Lisht, Meidum, Hawara, El-Lahun, El-Kurru, Nuri – we rest with sagacity that all this serpent-like system is so powerful, systematic, collective, coherent …
The big temples (such as Karnak, Luxor …), and the landmarks between Memphis and Abydos, and many other buildings, seem to be parts of this gigantic serpent network.
Why? Why such network had been assembled so consecutively through millennia?
Whether the Egyptian kings were injudicious or crazy to exhaust the sources for their inheritors?
Were extremely cruel to suck a blood to the people …
The history shows that such rulers does not rest long time on the steer of the state power. They had been replaced quickly – sometime noisy by revolutions, sometime silently by court twists.
The human brain cannot accept at easy so effortless explanations. The human brain always will search for explanations that are more rational.
However, for now, by the sight of eagle, we should rest with impression that at the high left riverbank of the Nile (which is inaccessible for the floods) was created gigantic basic network for easy and fast triangulation.
This network is long enduring, massive, and stable.
It should be used in now days for practical purposes. In the case, it will be included in modern day’s triangulation system, it will be serving perfectly!
In addition, which is amazing - without repairing!
The question arises again: Whether this massive complex is consequence of state power, or state power was due to this colossal complex …
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