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Zahi "Zowie" Hawass also has claimed that the number of stones in the Great Pyramid (Khufu, a.k.a. Cheops) is more like 500,000, compared with 2.5 million which is commonly believed, or more than (I think it was) 4 million calculated by someone writing in KMT a few years ago. Hawass also claimed that the size of the stones is something like 1000 pounds each, instead of 2+ tons as is commonly thought.

The logistical problems of dragging 2 1/2 ton stones up sand ramps (one wrapped around the whole structure, or whatever), plus the stones which are much larger, plus the now-missing facing stones (stripped by some caliph during the Middle Ages) in the 20 year time frame attributed to its construction creates these kinds of problems.

Ooops, he said 1 million, not 500,000, but this is substantially less than the real total. :')

Great Pyramid's Stones Counted
by Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
December 2002
A new study conducted by the Supreme Council for Antiquities in Egypt has determined that the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza consists of one million limestone rocks.

The number is under half of the previously estimated amount of 2.3 million stones, indicating that the Egyptian pyramid builders were even more organized and efficient than previously thought.

Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council, said that the Great Pyramid was considered to be a national project that all Egyptians took part in, according to an Egyptian State Information Service report last week. The report also mentioned that Hawass and his team analyzed the administrative organization and work scheme used in the construction of the 450-foot tall monument.

In the Fall 2002 issue of KMT Anthony P. Sakovich showed his systematic approach to estimating the number of stones (some larger, some smaller) in the Khufu pyramid, arrived at a figure of 4 million, and Zahi's response was to say that Khufu's consisted of perhaps one million stones, and each was, on average, less than 2 tons each.

"Zahi "Zowie" Hawass also has claimed that the number of stones in the Great Pyramid (Khufu, a.k.a. Cheops) is more like 500,000, compared with 2.5 million which is commonly believed, or more than (I think it was) 4 million calculated by someone writing in KMT a few years ago. Hawass also claimed that the size of the stones is something like 1000 pounds each, instead of 2+ tons as is commonly thought. "
Cheops pyramid is 150m high, ca. 250m base side. Even in ancient Egypt, the geometry of solid bodies was the same. Pyramid volume = 250x250x150/3=3.125 million cubic meters. Limestone density [calcite] 2.7; could be a bit less if dolomites. at d 2.7 the pyramid weight is 8.43 million tons. Now, the pyramid is neither filled with air [there are chambers, but it is a mostly solid body], nor is it a small natural hill faced into a pyramid - it was piled up on a flat ground. So, with 500000 stones each less than a quarter of metric ton, the pyramid would be 125000 tons - and where's the rest of it? Zahi Hawass is a Zahi HawASS.