Replies

"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.

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.

Actually the pyramid was built over a small knoll. This will account for some of the pyramids volume.