If they knew how to heat up limestone, and turn it into mortar, it would have made the task so much more easy.
The chiseled "stones" could in actuality be limestone powder, mixed on site, poured into molds, in place. There have been objections to this theory, but it does easily answer a question about how the huge stones were moved and assembled.
Something that I thought was really interesting was that the ancients had plywood which would make producing moulds easier.
It would also be a hell of a lot easier for the hired hands to tote wheelbarrows or baskets of material and jugs of water way up high than would moving 5000 pound blocks of rock.
This came from world-mysteries.com
Joseph Davidovits
Biography
International renown French Scientist, born in 1935, working in France, Europe, USA, Australia and China. Honored by French President Jacques Chirac with one of France's two highest honors, the grade of " Chevalier de lOrdre National du Mérite " (Nov. 1998).
Education: French Degree in Chemical Engineering German Doctor Degree in Chemistry (PhD) Professor and founder of the Institute for Applied Archaeological Sciences, IAPAS, Barry University, Miami ,Florida, (1983-1989). Visiting Professor, Penn State University, Pennsylvania (1989-1991). Professor and Director of the Geopolymer Institute, Saint-Quentin, France (1979 to present). Honorary Professor, Xian Universtity of Architecture and Technology, China (1999).
Professional expertise: World expert in Modern and Ancient Cements. World expert in Geosynthesis and man-made rocks. Consultant (expert) to the European Union Commission. Inventor of Geopolymers and the chemistry of Geopolymerization. Polyglot: English, French, German, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Hieroglyphs
Member of the following societies: International Association of Egyptologists American Chemical Society American Concrete Institute New York Academy of Sciences American Ceramic Society
International Scientific Award: NASTS Gold Ribbon, awarded at the National Press Club, Washington DC, Sept. 26, 1994, by the National Academy of Engineering, The Federation of Materials Societies and the National Association for Science, Technology and Society.
Articles, Interviews, TV Radio Appearances: 1.from 1981 to 1992, numerous articles and interviews dedicated to science, technology and archaeology (pyramids) in: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail (Toronto), Sunday Times, Miami Herald, Omni Magazine, Geo Magazine, American Way, Readers Digest, World and I, UPI, Associated Press, Agence France Press, etc; radio: BBC, various American radio networks; TV: NOVA/PBS, CNN, various local TV (San Francisco, Detroit, Miami, etc.) 2.between 1992 and 1999: declined any public appearance, interview, and TV appearance. Focussing on scientific research.
X-Ray Analysis and X-Ray Diffraction of Casing Stones from the Pryramids of Egypt, and the Limestone of the Associated Quarries (1984) by Joseph Davidovits
published in Science in Egyptology, Proceedings of the Science in Egyptology Symposia, Manchester, U.K., pp. 511-520, 1984.
The hypothesis that the limestone that constitutes the major pyramids of the Old Kingdom of Egypt is man-made stone, is discussed. Samples from six different sites at the traditionally associated quarries of Turah and Mokattam have been studied using thin-section, chemical X-Ray analysis and X-Ray diffraction. The results were compared with pyramid casing stones of Cheops, Teti and Seneferu. The quarry samples are pure limestone consisting of 96-99% Calcite, 0.5-2.5% Quartz, and very small amount of dolomite, gypsum and iron-alumino-silicate. On the other hand the Cheops and Teti casing stones are limestone consisting of: calcite 85-90% and a high amount of special minerals such as Opal CT, hydroxy-apatite, a silico-aluminate, which are not found in the quarries. The pyramid casing stones are light in density and contain numerous trapped air bubbles, unlike the quarry samples which are uniformly dense. If the casing stones were natural limestone, quarries different from those traditionally associated with the pyramid sites must be found, but where? X-Ray diffraction of a red casing stone coating is the first proof to demonstrate the fact that a complicated man-made geopolymeric system was produced in Egypt 4,700 years ago.