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 ...
Another theory, ping.
Slave labor. Most infants can construct a pyramid out of sand. Many will with no outside help. These people had backs to break, and I’m sure they broke them.
Looks like a pyramid scheme to me.
With all the slaves available. Why would the Egyptians pay for the general labor? They were moving rocks. Cut rocks yes but still rocks.
LOL, but yes, the Pyramids do look to have been a Pyramid scheme.
The Pharoah got his ‘resurrection machine’ built for him (no mere tomb but a way to the next life).
And the laborers not only ate very well for people in the ancient world, but when they died they were buried in choice locations near the Pyramid so that they could join in the Pharoah’s eternal life.
(Disclaimer: all of the above is informed surmise, not established fact)
Were the Hebrew slaves illiterate?
The word 'pyramid' is a Greek word, the root part being the familiar 'pyr' (fire) which we also see in words like 'pyrotechnics', 'pyromaniac' etc. They originally had golden tips and acted like lightning rods, generating what you'd call St. Elmo's fire, which served for religious purposes.
“Were the Hebrew slaves illiterate?”
Yes, they spoke from right to left.
Gee, it seems to me that it should be easy to prove, or disprove, your theory - simply by examining the limestone blocks to see if they are composed of rubble cemented together.
Do you suppose that any archeologists have ever bothered to do that?
Regards,
That also explains the ungodly tight fits of the blocks, it’s what you’d EXPECT from pouring the things.
That is one heck of a pour to last thousands of years. The exterior forms would be ridiculously complicated as well. The exterior shows individual blocks.
It appears as if ancient Egyptions as well as whoever built Puma Punku may have had technologies for working with stone which would have been beyond what we have. They actually had vases made of diurite, which is not much different from making a vase out of solid diamond.
I read about the quarries upstream of the pyramid sites where unfinished stones are still insitu. I think that they used ropes pulled thru the cut with grit on the rope to do the cutting.
Considering the volume and timescale they probably used multiple methods. Steam fracturing and grinding from slave labor would be my best guess. It doesn’t sound pretty because it is not.
It seems to me we still have no idea HOW they moved the blocks into place, or WHO built it. Christopher Dunn, in the “Giza Power Plant”, (Amazon) explained WHAT it is
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