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Ancient Egypt's Pyramids: Norwegian Researcher Unlocks Construction Secrets
Science Daily ^ | 24 Sep 2010 | Science Daily

Posted on 09/25/2010 1:07:46 AM PDT by Palter

Scientists from around the world have tried to understand how the Egyptians erected their giant pyramids. Now, an architect and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says he has the answer to this ancient, unsolved puzzle.

Researchers have been so preoccupied by the weight of the stones that they tend to overlook two major problems: How did the Egyptians know exactly where to put the enormously heavy building blocks? And how was the master architect able to communicate detailed, highly precise plans to a workforce of 10,000 illiterate men?

A 7-million-ton structure

These were among the questions that confronted Ole J. Bryn, an architect and associate professor in NTNU's Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art when he began examining Khufu's Great Pyramid in Giza. Khufu's pyramid, better known as the Pyramid of Cheops, consists of 2.3 million limestone blocks weighing roughly 7 million tons. At 146.6 meters high, it held the record as the tallest structure ever built for nearly 4000 years.

What Bryn discovered was quite simple. He believes that the Egyptians invented the modern building grid, by separating the structure's measuring system from the physical building itself, thus introducing tolerance, as it is called in today's engineering and architectural professions.

The apex point a key

Bryn has studied the plans from the thirty oldest Egyptian pyramids, and discovered a precision system that made it possible for the Egyptians to reach the pyramid's last and highest point, the apex point, with an impressive degree of accuracy. By exploring and making a plan of the pyramid it is possible to prepare modern project documentation of not just one, but all pyramids from any given period.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: bobbrier; egypt; ggg; giza; godsgravesglyphs; greatpyramid; internalramp; jeanpierrehoudin; norway; olejbryn; pyramid; pyramids
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To: skr

Probably the majority were.


41 posted on 09/25/2010 11:17:24 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: EVO X

Thanks!!


42 posted on 09/25/2010 12:01:16 PM PDT by wendy1946
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To: bigheadfred
I've seen and held polymer castings of a 14 inch blade found in Giza, would love to see the real thing.

This link explains allot.

43 posted on 09/25/2010 12:12:56 PM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: sauropod

read


44 posted on 09/25/2010 12:14:24 PM PDT by sauropod (The truth shall make you free but first it will make you miserable.)
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To: Palter

The blocks are concrete poured in place.


45 posted on 09/25/2010 12:38:41 PM PDT by stockpirate ("......When the government fears the people you have liberty." Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Dusty Road

I guess adding the link would help!

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/trades/tools.htm


46 posted on 09/25/2010 12:48:39 PM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: agere_contra

Name that Pharoah... who was actually interered in any pyramid...


47 posted on 09/25/2010 3:46:15 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine .. now it is your turn..)
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To: EVO X
“Professor Michel Barsoum, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete, debunking an age old myth that they were built using only cut limestone blocks.”

In other words, some other material was used in some places, but most was built using limestone blocks. Article goes on: to save the planet from AGW use these methods...

48 posted on 09/25/2010 3:55:16 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine .. now it is your turn..)
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To: allmost
“I can’t imagine hand grinding a vase out of that”

Now imagine building an entire “city” (Puma Punku) out of it by hand... complete with precise channel cuts forming an interlocking complex of blocks both solid and with excavated designs for purposes as yet unknown.

49 posted on 09/25/2010 3:59:19 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine .. now it is your turn..)
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To: Palter

The book “The Pyramids: An Enigma Solved” by Joseph Davidovits was first published around 1989 and addressed the subject of the stone blocks of the pyramids being cast in place rather than being quarried. The author made some very interesting and compelling arguments in favor.

The author also addressed the monoliths of the temple at Baalbek in Lebanon, where one of the stones that forms the foundation of the temple is 1200 tons. The author argues that there was no possible mechanism in the ancient world to move an object of this size and weight and this is further confirmation that the cast-in-place method was in use in the Middle East at that time.

There are some problems with his theory, as would be expected, the details of which I won’t go into. The best overall discussion of a possible history of the pyramids that I’ve read so far is “Pyramid Quest” by Dr. Robert Schoch. Schoch is a geologist who was pilloried by the Egyptology community twenty years ago for making the obvious and simple observation that there is evidence of water erosion on the Sphinx. Schoch argues that the pyramids (and the Sphinx) greatly predate the Old Kingdom and were built in stages over a very long period of time, probably millenia. No supernatural agents, aliens or any other deus ex machina figure in Schoch’s theory.

One of the most interesting arguments about the age and building of the pyramids was made to me by an investment banker. He said that we should get an estimate of how much it would cost to build the pyramid today and then multiply that cost by the labor efficiency we have today versus that of third millennium BC Egypt. He speculated it would cost at least several billion dollars today and that the the economic output per person back then was probably one one hundredth of what it is today. The several hundred billion dollar effective cost of construction of the pyramid would have consumed a large multiple of the entire GDP of Egypt of that era for decades and possibly centuries, to the exclusion of all other economic activity, all for a project with no identifiable economic benefits.

The theory has been around forever that the pyramid workers were idle farmers in the off season. The problem is in a subsistence existence, there is no idle season. If the Egyptian farmers were not planting, weeding and irrigating or harvesting, then they were making or repairing their tools and domiciles, fishing, making pottery and baskets, etc. The same argument applies to slave laborers. Slaves have to be economically productive just like free men and all the time.

The conventional wisdom on a lot of things, including Egyptology, congealed about a century ago and have been largely immovable ever since. Since I developed an interest in these matters the thing I’ve found most interesting is how very thin the gruel is on which this conventional wisdom is founded, this just being one example. Part of that conventional wisdom that should be discarded is that the pyramids were built in a very limited time window with very limited resources during the Old Kingdom of Egypt.


50 posted on 09/25/2010 4:50:06 PM PDT by KamperKen
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To: skr
Were the Hebrew slaves illiterate?

Probably, but the Great Pyramid was more than 1000 years old at the time of Moses.

Machu Picchu was built by illiterate workers too, and I'd guess that most of the Chinese laborers who worked to build the Great Wall were illiterate.

51 posted on 09/25/2010 6:14:38 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: allmost; SunkenCiv

Diurite is obviously the stone that comes from the action of diuretics, another largely unknown medical advance of the ancient Egyptians.

Also called a screamin’ meanie in ancient Egyptian slang.


52 posted on 09/25/2010 8:14:02 PM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: NYer
"What method was used to construct the pyramids in Mexico? Are the construction techniques similar or identical?"

The construction methods were very different. The pyramids in the Mexico were constructed using earth and rubble as a core, with limestone as the exterior facing material. The Great Pyramids of Egypt were constructed using thousands of 2.5-ton limestone blocks throughout (with some huge granite blocks thrown in for good measure).

53 posted on 09/25/2010 8:37:05 PM PDT by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: Palter

ping


54 posted on 09/25/2010 8:57:12 PM PDT by misanthrope (Liberals just plain suck!!)
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To: ontap
I believe he is saying each individual block was poured.regards!!

In order to make the mix individual rocks are crushed, the bonding agent is chemically separated, broken down into components, mixed, and reformulated with water. Wet mixes are heavier than the materials you start with. It's a stretch imo to think the added work and weight, with no apparent benefit, was added to such a large project. If they were poured on the ground and elevated the technical edge would yield no benefit, it would simply make the material heavier. If it were poured in place as has been speculated there would be form marks. Without forms it would bond to itself leaving essentially one solid mass.
55 posted on 09/26/2010 6:52:09 AM PDT by allmost
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To: wildbill

Diuretics? Isn’t that by L. Ron Hubbard?


56 posted on 09/26/2010 7:25:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: Fresh Wind

Interesting. For the first time I now see how historical “sightings” of UFOs would have described the objects as “cigar shaped”. The objects in your picture could be seen as oblong OR as “saucers” depending on angle, light, distance, etc.


57 posted on 09/27/2010 6:23:31 AM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: allmost

When pouring concrete one does not have to lift the entire contents in lift thats what makes it easier. The any form marks would be long gone by now!!


58 posted on 09/27/2010 7:38:47 AM PDT by ontap
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To: Palter; SunkenCiv
It's a fascinating problem, but however they did it, it must have been really hard and really expensive. When you compare the number of pyramids to the number of rulers and dynasties very few were ever built and the greatest, at Giza, were built very early.

Saw the King Tut exhibit here recently. It's really spectacular. The quality and detail of the statuary and gold objects that were preserved in the tomb is incredible.

59 posted on 09/27/2010 12:11:58 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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60 posted on 09/27/2010 5:22:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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