This 4,500-Year-Old Ramp Contraption May Have Been Used to Build Egypt's Great Pyramid

LiveScience.com<br> ^ | Oct 31, 2018 | Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor

[ETL]

Archaeologists have long wondered exactly how the ancient Egyptians constructed the world's biggest pyramid, the Great Pyramid. Now, they may have discovered the system used to haul massive stone blocks into place some 4,500 years ago.

They discovered the remains of this system at the site of Hatnub, an ancient quarry in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The contraption would have been used to transport heavy alabaster stones up a steep ramp, according to the archaeologists working at the site, from the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (French Institute for Oriental Archaeology)in Cairo and from the University of Liverpool in England. And it was possibly how Egyptians built the Great Pyramid, in the name of the pharaoh Khufu.

"This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes," Yannis Gourdon, co-director of the joint mission at Hatnub, told Live Science. "Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more."

The ropes attached to the sled acted as a "force multiplier," making it easier to pull the sled up the ramp, said Roland Enmarch, the other co-director of the Hatnub mission.

"This kind of system has never been discovered anywhere else," Gourdon said. "The study of the tool marks and the presence of two [of] Khufu's inscriptions led us to the conclusion that this system dates back at least to Khufu's reign, the builder of the Great Pyramid in Giza," he added.

[CharlesWayneCT]

who had time, they were all hauling rocks around. Amazing that no other country just invaded while the entire population was wasted building pointy structures.

[SunkenCiv]

Linked up here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3701890/posts?page=29#29

And if you have any evidence for an earlier proposal of an internal spiral ramp, bring it, otherwise, no, you didn’t read about in in the 1970s.

[ETL]

Just wanted to clarify that your (SC's) reply was in regards to KamperKen's comments.

KamperKen: "I first read the interior ramp theory back in the 1970s. That one has been floating around for a while along with the exterior ramp that wound around the pyramid. There are issues with both including how they raised and mounted 70+ ton granite slabs over the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid and in the case of the Khafre pyramid how they raised the pyramidion.

And if you have any evidence for an earlier proposal of an internal spiral ramp, bring it, otherwise, no, you didn’t read about it in the 1970s.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s correct.