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Post #1 Title: Assignment 2 - Ancient Pyramids

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Post #1 Title: Assignment 2 - Ancient Pyramids

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Made by Sivajan Yogachandran, working individually

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Description:
The following video is a documentary about The Pyramids of Egypt. This documentary thoroughly explains and goes over the history in great depth, as well as many conspiracies that revolve around the pyramids.

Connection:
This video covers a wide range of topics, deliberately about the ancient pyramids. Several points of discussions were made to engage the audience, and deliberately creates mystery. Moreover, this video relates to the pseudoscience watchlist of how it appeals to our need for excitement.

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Description:
in this video, we get to expand our knowledge, as we learn facts about the ancient pyramids. This video specifically goes over ten things we may or may not know about The Pyramids of Egypt. The facts covered in this video reflects to what researchers have discovered over the centuries. This video also emphasizes on the knowledge and effort the ancient Egyptians must’ve had to put in to create these landmarks.

Connection:
This video also appeals to our need for excitement, as were able to learn many sorts of interesting information. Nonetheless, this relates to the pseudoscience watchlist covered over the course content.

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10 Things You Don't Know About The Pyramids Of Egypt

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Description:
In this video, they cover the various purposes the Pyramids have, as well as considered the similarities of technology ancient Egyptians had in comparison to modern day ones.

Connection:
As this video covers the various purposes of the ancient pyramids, this relates to the pseudoscience watchlist of how there is no way to verify the accuracy of the results and/or statements made throughout the video.

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True Pyramids Purpose Has Been Finally Discovered

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Description:
In this website, the author covers a conspiracy of how the Egyptians could not have build the pyramids alone, but with outside help. In other words, the author claims that the pyramids have been built by advanced alien visitors, since the construction of the ancient wonders were far beyond the means of the early Egyptians.

Connection:
As this website covers conspiracy theories based on the ancient pyramids, this relates to the reason of belief of agenticity. In other words, these conspiracy theories represent the tendency to assign meaning, intention, and agency of the pyramids.

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Researchers believe extraterrestrials left vital clues in the design of the pyramids which prove it could not have been our ancestors who built the extraordinary feats of engineering.

And the experts claim the truth lies behind one thing - the co-ordinates.

The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second and the geographic co-ordinates for the Great Pyramid are 29.9792458°N, Dailystar.co.uk reports.

However, humans could not measure the speed of light with this precision until 1950, thousands of years after the pyramids went up.

Travelling at the speed of light is theorised as being the only way to time travel, and believers claim the "advanced aliens" could have returned to Earth from the future to build the monuments.

YouTube researcher Manu Seyfzadeh said: "Is it possible that those who placed the great pyramid on the Giza plateau had an inkling of the speed of light to a degree of accuracy not possible without highly technical equipment?"

One of his followers said: "The speed of light in the metric system appears in the design and location of the Great Pyramid, when the decimal point is slid along the value.

"Aliens chose this location for a reason. This striking similarity is difficult to accept as a coincidence.

"There can be no doubt that it is a mathematically intelligent design associated with the stellar belief of its builders."

Believers of the Ancient Aliens theory claim extraterrestrials also came to help build Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, in the UK, and other ancient monuments connected with the cosmos.

They have dubbed the hypothetical advanced visitors as "ancient astronauts".

The theory suggests they were mistaken for Gods by our ancestors who depicted images of them in ancient artwork, which are now said to show pictures of aliens and flying saucers.

They supposedly visited Earth thousands of years ago, studied different tribes and were mistaken for Gods.

One conspiracy website outerworlds.com dedicates a whole section to the argument that "aliens built the pyramids."

The theory says because two imaginary diagonal lines extend from the pyramids on either side of the Nile River delta, the early Egyptians could not have known this when building them, to be so accurate with their positioning.

With their precise measurements and alignments with celestial bodies and magnetic north, it has long been argued that our ancestors around 4,600 years ago would have been unable to physically build the ancient Pyramids of Giza.

The theory says: "The ones which were supposedly built to house the remains of dead pharaohs?

"The ones you thought were built by the Egyptians? Well, you are wrong.

"They were built by ALIENS!

"Here is what really happened: A couple of aliens, flying high enough over the Earth to be able to see where the Nile Delta's origin is, easily saw what orientation the pyramid would need to be in order to have its diagonals lie on those two lines."

Outerworld.com also says the great pyramid lines up almost exactly with the magnetic North Pole.

It says: "How could the Egyptians possibly have built their pyramid facing the exact magnetic North Pole without even having a compass?

"Those aliens, abundant in their knowledge and drowning in technology, came along and using their compasses, they landed on Earth and found the actual magnetic North and South Poles. Then they built the pyramids."

However, it is a huge leap to go from a mystery of how they were built to saying it was aliens.

On the flip side, ancientaliensdebunked.com is as equally passionate about the evidence that humans could have built the pyramids when history tells us they were constructed.

In an article about the pyramids, the website says the so-called unfinished obelisk is 1,000 tones and made of granite, but was abandoned midway through because a crack developed.

It said: "This stone, because it is unfinished, gives us direct insight into how they cut and shaped granite, as well as other stones.

"After the stones had been roughly shaped using pounding stones, they would begin to polish them with grinders.

"There have been many types of stone grinders, or polishers, found in ancient Egypt.

"About 85 per cent of the stone used in the construction of the pyramids was relatively soft sandstone which was quarried right on site."

The site says there is evidence that wooden sleds with ropes made from papyrus were used to move stones.

It added: "I at least hope that by now most of us can see that these construction techniques are well within the capability of mankind to conceive and achieve without the intervention of aliens."

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TIME TRAVEL SHOCK: Speed of light is 'final proof aliens built pyramids' claims researcher

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ANCIENT pyramids of Giza could have been built by advanced alien visitors, according to shock new claims from a researcher. Conspiracy theorists have claimed for decades that construction of the ancient wonders were far beyond the means of the early Egyptians - so they must have had outside help.

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Description:
This website covers the various construction techniques, which may or may not have been used to build the Egyptian pyramids.

Connection:
As this website covers a variety of methods the pyramids may have been constructed by, none of the results stated can be reproduced or verified. This falls under the pseudoscience watchlist, which we have discussed over the course content.

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Egyptian pyramid construction techniques are the controversial subject of many hypotheses. These techniques seem to have developed over time; later pyramids were not constructed in the same way as earlier ones. Most of the construction hypotheses are based on the belief that huge stones were carved from quarries with copper chisels, and these blocks were then dragged and lifted into position. Disagreements chiefly concern the methods used to move and place the stones.

In addition to the many unresolved arguments about the construction techniques, there have been disagreements as to the kind of workforce used. The Greeks, many years after the event, believed that the pyramids were built by slave labor. Archaeologists now believe that the Great Pyramid of Giza (at least) was built by tens of thousands of skilled workers who camped near the pyramids and worked for a salary or as a form of tax payment (levy) until the construction was completed, pointing to workers' cemeteries discovered in 1990. For the Middle Kingdom pyramid of Amenemhat II, there is evidence from the annal stone of the king that foreigners from Canaan were employed.

A number of pseudoscientific theories have been put forth to explain how the pyramids were built.

The unknowns of pyramid construction chiefly center on the question of how the blocks were moved up the superstructure. There is no known accurate historical or archaeological evidence that definitively resolves the question. Therefore, most discussion on construction methods involves functional possibilities that are supported by limited historical and archaeological evidence.

The first historical accounts of the construction of these monuments came centuries after the era of pyramid construction, by Herodotus in the 5th century BC and Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC. Herodotus's account claims that the Egyptians used a machine (now commonly referred to as the " Herodotus Machine"), stating:

This pyramid was made like stairs, which some call steps and others, tiers. When this, its first form, was completed, the workmen used short wooden logs as levers to raise the rest of the stones; they heaved up the blocks from the ground onto the first tier of steps; when the stone had been raised, it was set on another lever that stood on the first tier, and the lever again used to lift it from this tier to the next. It may be that there was a new lever on each tier of steps, or perhaps there was only one lever, quite portable, which they carried up to each tier in turn; I leave this uncertain, as both possibilities were mentioned. But this is certain, that the upper part of the pyramid was finished off first, then the next below it, and last of all the base and the lowest part.

Diodorus Siculus's account states:

And it's said the stone was transported a great distance from Arabia, and that the edifices were raised by means of earthen ramps, since machines for lifting had not yet been invented in those days; and most surprising it is, that although such large structures were raised in an area surrounded by sand, no trace remains of either ramps or the dressing of the stones, so that it seems not the result of the patient labor of men, but rather as if the whole complex were set down entire upon the surrounding sand by some god. Now Egyptians try to make a marvel of these things, alleging that the ramps were made of salt and natron and that, when the river was turned against them, it melted them clean away and obliterated their every trace without the use of human labor. But in truth, it most certainly was not done this way! Rather, the same multitude of workmen who raised the mounds returned the entire mass again to its original place; for they say that three hundred and sixty thousand men were constantly employed in the prosecution of their work, yet the entire edifice was hardly finished at the end of twenty years.

Diodorus Siculus's description of the shipment of the stone from Arabia is correct since the term "Arabia" in those days implied the land between the Nile and the Red Sea where the limestone blocks have been transported from quarries across the river Nile.

During the earliest period, pyramids were constructed wholly of stone. Locally quarried limestone was the material of choice for the main body of these pyramids, while a higher quality of limestone quarried at Tura (near modern Cairo) was used for the outer casing. Granite, quarried near Aswan, was used to construct some architectural elements, including the portcullis (a type of gate) and the roofs and walls of the burial chamber. Occasionally, granite was used in the outer casing as well, such as in the Pyramid of Menkaure. In the early pyramids, the layers of stone (called courses) forming the pyramid body were laid sloping inwards; however, this configuration was found to be less stable than simply stacking the stones horizontally on top of each other. The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur seems to indicate acceptance of a new technique at a transition between these two building techniques. Its lower section is built of sloping courses while in its upper section the stones are laid horizontally.

During the Middle Kingdom, pyramid construction techniques changed again. Most pyramids built then were little more than mountains of mud-brick encased in a veneer of polished limestone. In several cases, later pyramids were built on top of natural hills to further reduce the volume of material needed in their construction. The materials and methods of construction used in the earliest pyramids have ensured their survival in a generally much better state of preservation than for the pyramid monuments of the later pharaohs.

The stones forming the core of the pyramids were roughly cut, especially in the Great Pyramid. To fill the gaps huge quantities of gypsum and rubble were needed. The filling has almost no binding properties, but it was necessary to stabilize the construction. To make the gypsum mortar, it had to be dehydrated by heating which requires large quantities of wood. According to Egyptologists, the findings of both the 1984 and 1995 David H. Koch Pyramids Radiocarbon Projects may suggest that Egypt had to strip its forest and scrap every bit of wood it had to build the pyramids of Giza and other even earlier 4th Dynasty pyramids. Carbon dating samples from core blocks and other materials revealed that dates from the 1984 study averaged 374 years earlier than currently accepted and the 1995 dating averaging 100-200 years. As suggested by team members, "We thought that it was unlikely that the pyramid builders consistently used centuries-old wood as fuel in preparing mortar. The 1984 results left us with too little data to conclude that the historical chronology of the Old Kingdom was wrong by nearly 400 years, but we considered this at least a possibility". Egyptologists propose that the old wood problem is responsible for the discrepancy, claiming the earlier dates were possibly derived from recycling large amounts of centuries-old wood and other earlier materials.

Geopolymer

Materials scientist Joseph Davidovits has claimed that the blocks of the pyramid are not carved stone, but mostly a form of limestone concrete and that they were "cast" (as with modern concrete). According to this hypothesis, soft limestone with a high kaolinite content was quarried in the wadi on the south of the Giza Plateau. The limestone was then dissolved in large, Nile-fed pools until it became a watery slurry. Lime (found in the ash of cooking fires) and natron (also used by the Egyptians in mummification) were mixed in. The pools were then left to evaporate, leaving behind a moist, clay-like mixture. This wet "concrete" would be carried to the construction site where it would be packed into reusable wooden moulds and in a few days would undergo a chemical reaction similar to the curing of concrete. New blocks, he suggests, could be cast in place, on top of and pressed against the old blocks. Proof-of-concept tests using similar compounds were carried out at a geopolymer institute in northern France and it was found that a crew of five to ten, working with simple hand tools, could agglomerate a structure of five, 1.3 to 4.5 ton blocks in a couple of weeks. He also claims that the Famine Stele, along with other hieroglyphic texts, describe the technology of stone agglomeration.

Davidovits's method is not accepted by the academic mainstream. His method does not explain the granite stones--weighing well over 10 tons--above the King's Chamber, which he agrees were carved. Geologists have carefully scrutinized Davidovits's suggested technique and concluded his concrete came from natural limestone quarried in the Mokattam Formation. However, Davidovits alleges that the bulk of the soft limestone came from the same natural Mokkatam Formation quarries found by geologists, and insists that ancient Egyptians used the soft marly layer instead of the hard layer to re-agglomerate stones.

Davidovits's hypothesis gained support from Michel Barsoum, a materials science researcher. Michel Barsoum and his colleagues at Drexel University published their findings supporting Davidovits's hypothesis in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society in 2006. Using scanning electron microscopy, they discovered in samples of the limestone pyramid blocks mineral compounds and air bubbles that do not occur in natural limestone.

Dipayan Jana, a petrographer, made a presentation to the ICMA (International Cement Microscopy Association) in 2007 and gave a paper in which he discusses Davidovits's and Barsoum's work and concludes "we are far from accepting even as a remote possibility a 'man-made' origin of pyramid stones."

There is good information concerning the location of the quarries, some of the tools used to cut stone in the quarries, transportation of the stone to the monument, leveling the foundation, and leveling the subsequent tiers of the developing superstructure. Workmen probably used copper chisels, drills, and saws to cut softer stone, such as most of the limestone. The harder stones, such as granite, granodiorite, syenite, and basalt, cannot be cut with copper tools alone; instead, they were worked with time-consuming methods like pounding with dolerite, drilling, and sawing with the aid of an abrasive, such as quartz sand. Blocks were transported by sledge likely lubricated by water.

Leveling the foundation may have been accomplished by use of water-filled trenches as suggested by Mark Lehner and I. E. S. Edwards or through the use of a crude square level and experienced surveyors.

One of the major problems faced by the early pyramid builders was the need to move huge quantities of stone. The Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Djehutihotep has an illustration of 172 men pulling an alabaster statue of him on a sledge. The statue is estimated to weigh 60 tons and Denys Stocks estimated that 45 workers would be required to start moving a 16,300 kg (35,900 lb; 16.3 t) lubricated block, or eight workers to move a 2,750 kg (6,060 lb; 2.75 t) block. Dick Parry has suggested a method for rolling the stones, using a cradle-like machine that had been excavated in various new kingdom temples. Four of those objects could be fitted around a block so it could be rolled easily. Experiments done by the Obayashi Corporation, with concrete blocks 0.8 metres (2 ft 7 in) square by 1.6 metres (5 ft 3 in) long and weighing 2.5 tonnes (2,500 kg; 5,500 lb), showed how 18 men could drag the block over a 1-in-4 incline ramp, at a rate of 18 metres per minute (1 ft/s). This idea was previously described by John Bush in 1977, and is mentioned in the Closing Remarks section of Parry's book. Vitruvius in De architectura described a similar method for moving irregular weights. It is still not known whether the Egyptians used this method but the experiments indicate it could have worked using stones of this size. Egyptologists generally accept this for the 2.5 ton blocks mostly used but do not agree over the methods used for the 15+ ton and several 70 to 80 ton blocks.

The diary of Merer, logbooks written more than 4,500 years ago by an Egyptian official and found in 2013 by a French archeology team under the direction of Pierre Tallet in a cave in Wadi al-Jarf, describes the transportation of limestone blocks from the quarry in Tura to Giza by boat.

Most Egyptologists acknowledge that ramps are the most tenable of the methods to raise the blocks, yet they acknowledge that it is an incomplete method that must be supplemented by another device. Archaeological evidence for the use of ramps has been found at the Great Pyramid of Giza and other pyramids. The method most accepted for assisting ramps is levering (Lehner 1997: 222). The archaeological record gives evidence of only small ramps and inclined causeways, not something that could have been used to construct even a majority of the monument. To add to the uncertainty, there is considerable evidence demonstrating that non-standardized or construction methods were used in pyramid construction (Arnold 1991: 98, Lehner 1997: 223).

Therefore, there are many proposed ramps and there is a considerable amount of discrepancy regarding what type of ramp was used to build the pyramids. One of the widely discredited ramping methods is the large straight ramp, and it is routinely discredited on functional grounds for its massive size, lack of archaeological evidence, huge labor cost, and other problems (Arnold 1991: 99, Lehner 1997: 215, Isler 2001: 213).

Other ramps serve to correct these problems of ramp size, yet either run into critiques of functionality and limited archaeological evidence. There are zig-zagging ramps, straight ramps using the incomplete part of the superstructure (Arnold 1991), spiraling ramps supported by the superstructure and spiraling ramps leaning on the monument as a large accretion are proposed. Mark Lehner speculated that a spiraling ramp, beginning in the stone quarry to the southeast and continuing around the exterior of the pyramid, may have been used. The stone blocks may have been drawn on sleds along the ramps lubricated by water.

Levering methods are considered to be the most tenable solution to complement ramping methods, partially due to Herodotus's description; and partially to the shadoof, a lever-enabled irrigation device first depicted in Egypt during the New Kingdom and found concomitantly with the Old Kingdom in Mesopotamia. In Lehner's (1997: 222) point of view, levers should be employed to lift the top 3% of the material of the superstructure. It is important to note that the top 4% of this material comprises of the total height of the monument. In other words, in Lehner's view, levers should be employed to lift a small amount of material and a great deal of vertical height of the monument.

In the milieu of levering methods, there are those that lift the block incrementally, as in repeatedly prying up alternating sides of the block and inserting wooden or stone shims to gradually move the stone up one course; and there are other methods that use a larger lever to move the block up one course in one lifting procedure. Since the discussion of construction techniques to lift the blocks attempts to resolve a gap in the archaeological and historical record with a plausible functional explanation, the following examples by Isler, Keable, and Hussey-Pailos list experimentally tested methods. Isler's method (1985, 1987) is an incremental method and, in the Nova experiment (1992), used wooden shims or cribbing. Isler was able to lift a block up one tier in approximately one hour and 30 minutes. Peter Hodges's and Julian Keable's method is similar to Isler's method and instead used small manufactured concrete blocks as shims, wooden pallets, and a pit where their experimental tests were performed. Keable was able to perform his method in approximately 2 minutes. Scott Hussey-Pailos's (2005) method uses a simple levering device to lift a block up a course in one movement. This method was tested with materials of less strength than historical analogs (tested with materials weaker than those available in ancient Egypt), a factor of safety of 2, and lifted a 2500-pound block up one course in under a minute. This method is presented as a levering device to work complementary with Mark Lehner's idea of a combined ramp and levering techniques.

Egyptians used the now-disappeared branch of the Nile to transport the tons of construction materials. A 2012 study led by geographer Hader Sheisha at Aix-Marseille University proposed that the former waterscapes and higher river levels around 4,500 years ago facilitated the construction of the Giza Pyramid Complex. The Nile's present waterways have receded too far from the pyramid sites to be of use.

In 1978, Nippon TV funded the pyramid building project conceived by archaeologist Sajuki Yoshimura. It was originally planned as a 1 to 5 scale model of the Great Pyramid. Because of the limited budget, the size had to be drastically reduced when the price of limestone rose as the project gained publicity. A concrete foundation had to be poured as the selected site offered no bedrock basis. With the help of two cranes and a forklift, the pyramid was built to reach a height of 11 metres (36 ft), with a 15 metres (49 ft) base. The structure was ultimately dismantled and hauled away.

In 1992, Mark Lehner and stonemason Roger Hopkins conducted a three-week pyramid-building experiment for a television episode. They built a pyramid 6 metres (20 ft) high by 9 metres (30 ft) wide, consisting of a total of 162 cubic metres (5,700 cu ft), or about 405 tons. It was made out of 186 stones weighing an average of 2.2 tons each. Twelve quarrymen carved 186 stones in 22 days, and the structure was erected using 44 men. They used iron hammers, chisels and levers (this is a modern shortcut, as the ancient Egyptians were limited to using copper and later bronze and wood). But Lehner and Hopkins did experiments with copper tools, noting that they were adequate for the job in hand, provided that additional manpower was available to constantly resharpen the ancient tools. They estimated they would have needed around 20 extra men for this maintenance. Another shortcut taken was the use of a front-end loader or fork lift truck, but modern machinery was not used to finish the construction. They used levers to lift the capstone to a height of 20 feet (6.1 m). Four or five men were able to use levers on stones less than one ton to flip them over and transport them by rolling, but larger stones had to be towed. Lehner and Hopkins found that by putting the stones on wooden sledges and sliding the sledges on wooden tracks, they were able to tow a two-ton stone with 12 to 20 men. The wood for these sledges and tracks would have to have been imported from Lebanon at great cost since there was little, if any, wood in ancient Egypt. While the builders failed to duplicate the precise jointing created by the ancient Egyptians, Hopkins was confident that this could have been achieved with more practice.

Some research suggests other estimates to the accepted workforce size. For instance, physicist Kurt Mendelssohn calculated that the workforce may have been 50,000 men at most, while Ludwig Borchardt and Louis Croon placed the number at 36,000. According to Miroslav Verner, a workforce of no more than 30,000 was needed in the Great Pyramid's construction. Evidence suggests that around 5,000 were permanent workers on salaries with the balance working three- or four-month shifts in lieu of taxes while receiving subsistence "wages" of ten loaves of bread and a jug of beer per day. Zahi Hawass believes that the majority of workers may have been volunteers. Most archaeologists agree that only about 4,000 of the total workforce were labourers who quarried the stone, hauled blocks to the pyramid, and set the blocks in place. The vast majority of the workforce provided support services such as scribes, toolmakers, and other backup services. The tombs of supervisors contain inscriptions regarding the organisation of the workforce. There were two crews of approximately 2,000 workers sub-divided into named gangs of 1,000. The gangs were divided into five phyles of 200 which were in turn split into groups of around 20 workers grouped according to their skills, with each group having their own project leader and a specific task.

A construction management study carried out by the firm Daniel, Mann, Johnson, & Mendenhall in association with Mark Lehner, and other Egyptologists, estimates that the total project required an average workforce of 14,567 people and a peak workforce of 40,000. Without the use of pulleys, wheels, or iron tools, they used critical path analysis to suggest the Great Pyramid was completed from start to finish in approximately 10 years. Their study estimates the number of blocks used in construction was between 2 and 2.8 million (an average of 2.4 million), but settles on a reduced finished total of 2 million after subtracting the estimated volume of the hollow spaces of the chambers and galleries. Most sources agree on this number of blocks somewhere above 2.3 million. Their calculations suggest the workforce could have sustained a rate of 180 blocks per hour (3 blocks/minute) with ten-hour workdays for putting each individual block in place. They derived these estimates from modern third-world construction projects that did not use modern machinery, but conclude it is still unknown exactly how the Great Pyramid was built. As Dr. Craig Smith of the team points out:

The logistics of construction at the Giza site are staggering when you think that the ancient Egyptians had no pulleys, no wheels, and no iron tools. Yet, the dimensions of the pyramid are extremely accurate and the site was leveled within a fraction of an inch over the entire 13.1-acre base. This is comparable to the accuracy possible with modern construction methods and laser leveling. That's astounding. With their 'rudimentary tools', the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt were about as accurate as we are today with 20th-century technology.

The entire Giza Plateau is believed to have been constructed over the reign of five pharaohs in less than a hundred years, which generally includes: the Great Pyramid, Khafre and Menkaure's pyramids, the Great Sphinx, the Sphinx, and Valley Temples, 35 boat pits cut out of solid bedrock, and several causeways, as well as paving nearly the entire plateau with large stones. This does not include Khafre's brother Djedefre's northern pyramid at Abu Rawash, which would have also been built during this time frame of 100 years. In the hundred years prior to Giza-beginning with Djoser, who ruled from 2687 to 2667 BC, and amongst dozens of other temples, smaller pyramids, and general construction projects-four other massive pyramids were built: the Step pyramid of Saqqara (believed to be the first Egyptian pyramid), the pyramid of Meidum, the Bent Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid. Also during this period (between 2686 and 2498 BC) the Sadd el-Kafara dam, which used an estimated 100,000 cubic meters of rock and rubble, was built.

In October 2018, a team of archaeologists from the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale and University of Liverpool had announced the discovery of the remains of a 4,500-year-old ramp contraption at Hatnub, excavated since 2012. This method which aided in lifting the heavy alabaster stones up from their quarries may have been used to build Egypt's Great Pyramid as well. Yannis Gourdon, co-director of the joint mission at Hatnub, said:

This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes, 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 ... As this system dates back at least to Khufu's reign, that means that during the time of Khufu, ancient Egyptians knew how to move huge blocks of stone using very steep slopes. Therefore, they could have used it for the construction [of] his pyramid.

Houdin's father was an architect who, in 1999, thought of a construction method that, it seemed to him, made more sense than any existing method proposed for building pyramids. To develop this hypothesis, Jean-Pierre Houdin, also an architect, gave up his job and set about drawing the first fully functional CAD architectural model of the Great Pyramid of Giza. His scheme involves using a regular external ramp to build the first 30% of the pyramid, with an "internal ramp" taking stones up beyond that height. The stones of the external ramp are re-cycled into the upper stories, thus explaining the otherwise puzzling lack of evidence for ramps.

After four years working alone, Houdin was joined by a team of engineers from the French 3D software company Dassault Systèmes, who used the most modern computer-aided design technology available to further refine and test the hypothesis, making it (according to Houdin) the only one proven to be a viable technique. Houdin published his theory in the books Khufu: The Secrets Behind the Building of the Great Pyramid in 2006 and The Secret of the Great Pyramid, co-written in 2008 with Egyptologist Bob Brier.

In Houdin's method, each ramp inside the pyramid ended at an open space, a notch temporarily left open in the edge of the construction. This 10-square-meter clear space housed a crane that lifted and rotated each 2.5-ton block, to ready it for eight men to drag up the next internal ramp. There is a notch of sorts in one of the right places, and in 2008 Houdin's co-author Bob Brier, with a National Geographic film crew, entered a previously unremarked chamber that could be the start of one of these internal ramps. In 1986 a member of the French team (see below) saw a desert fox at this notch, rather as if it had ascended internally.

Houdin's thesis remains unproven and in 2007, Egyptologist David Jeffreys from the University College London described the internal spiral hypothesis as "far-fetched and horribly complicated", while Oxford University's John Baines, declared he was "suspicious of any theory that seeks to explain only how the Great Pyramid was built".

Houdin has another hypothesis developed from his architectural model, one that could finally explain the internal "Grand Gallery" chamber that otherwise appears to have little purpose. He believes the gallery acted as a trolley chute/guide for counterbalance weights. It enabled the raising of the five 60-ton granite beams that roof the King's Chamber. Houdin and Brier and the Dassault team are already credited with proving for the first time that cracks in beams appeared during construction, were examined and tested at the time and declared relatively harmless.

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Egyptian pyramid construction techniques - Wikipedia

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Egyptian pyramid construction techniques are the controversial subject of many hypotheses. These techniques seem to have developed over time; later pyramids were not constructed in the same way as earlier ones. Most of the construction hypotheses are based on the belief that huge stones were carved from quarries with copper chisels, and these blocks were then dragged and lifted into position.

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Description:
This link covers an in depth overview of the history of the Ancient Egyptians, as well the the history of the pyramids. The article covers what the ancient society was like, and the timeline of the construction of the pyramids.

Connection:
This website relates to the overview of the history, as well as other facts about the pyramids also covered in our lecture content. Were able to learn how the ancient pyramids deliberately creates mystery amongst us for centuries, even with modern science.

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Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids-especially the Great Pyramids of Giza-are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D., the peak of pyramid building began with the late third dynasty and continued until roughly the sixth (c. 2325 B.C.). More than 4,000 years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, providing a glimpse into the country's rich and glorious past.

The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society

During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods themselves to serve as their mediators on earth. Because of this, it was in everyone's interest to keep the king's majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, became Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun god, Ra.

Did you know? The pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the rays of the sun and were designed to help the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra.

Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as "ka") remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him.

The Early Pyramids

From the beginning of the Dynastic Era (2950 B.C.), royal tombs were carved into rock and covered with flat-roofed rectangular structures known as "mastabas," which were precursors to the pyramids. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around 2630 B.C. at Saqqara, for the third dynasty's King Djoser. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious. As the story goes, the pyramid's architect was Imhotep, a priest and healer who some 1,400 years later would be deified as the patron saint of scribes and physicians. Over the course of Djoser's nearly 20-year reign, pyramid builders assembled six stepped layers of stone (as opposed to mud-brick, like most earlier tombs) that eventually reached a height of 204 feet (62 meters); it was the tallest building of its time. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines where Djoser could enjoy his afterlife.

After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed (probably due to their relatively short reigns). The earliest tomb constructed as a "true" (smooth-sided, not stepped) pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, one of three burial structures built for the first king of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu (2613-2589 B.C.) It was named for the color of the limestone blocks used to construct the pyramid's core.

The Great Pyramids of Giza

No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built for Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu's successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty. Though Khufu reigned for 23 years (2589-2566 B.C.), relatively little is known of his reign beyond the grandeur of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramid's base average 755.75 feet (230 meters), and its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters), making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu's queens are lined up next to the Great Pyramid, and a tomb was found nearby containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Like other pyramids, Khufu's is surrounded by rows of mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife.

The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu's son Pharaoh Khafre (2558-2532 B.C). The Pyramid of Khafre is the second tallest pyramid at Giza and contains Pharaoh Khafre's tomb. A unique feature built inside Khafre's pyramid complex was the Great Sphinx, a guardian statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high. In the 18th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) the Great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself, as the image of a local form of the god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khafre's son Menkaure (2532-2503 B.C.). It is the shortest of the three pyramids (218 feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties.

Who Built The Pyramids?

Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone (averaging about 2.5 tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Khufu's Great Pyramid. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might actually have been around 20,000.

The End of the Pyramid Era

Pyramids continued to be built throughout the fifth and sixth dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period, along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unas (2375-2345 B.C), pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king's reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid's interior. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt.

The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II (2278-2184 B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years. By the time of his rule, Old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling, and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials grew. Pepy II's pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter (172 feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy's death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great Pyramids.

The Pyramids Today

Tomb robbers and other vandals in both ancient and modern times removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt's pyramids and plundered their exteriors as well. Stripped of most of their smooth white limestone coverings, the Great Pyramids no longer reach their original heights; Khufu's, for example, measures only 451 feet high. Nonetheless, millions of people continue to visit the pyramids each year, drawn by their towering grandeur and the enduring allure of Egypt's rich and glorious past.

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Egyptian Pyramids - Facts, Use & Construction

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Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids-especially the Great Pyramids of Giza-are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history.

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Description:
Below, shows an image of The Great Sphinx. The Great Sphinx is located on Giza, and is basically a limestone statue of a lion’s body and a human head. This statue is known to guard the front of Khafra’s pyramid. In addition, The Great Sphinx faces the rising sun. Also, its front paws consisted of a rock tablet with what is said to be the beginning of a story inscribed on it.

Connection:
This picture relates to the world mystery topic covered in our lecture content. The astonishing build often leaves many people speechless, with its detail, history, as well as other interesting facts based on the structure itself.

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Description:
As we know, Egyptian pyramids that were built along the west bank of Nile. This image shows the most famous Egyptian pyramids that are located with Giza, which is borderline of Cairo. The largest of the three pyramids shown below is The Pyramid of Khufu. The Pyramid of Khufu still remains one of the seven wonders of the world.

Connection:
This picture relates to one of the worlds greatest mysteries, which is also one of seven wonders of the world. This course is based on phenomenas/places on the planet that causes great controversy, which is exactly what the ancient pyramids are.

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Description:
The imagine below goes to show one of many theories about how the Egyptians built the pyramids. As Ancient Egyptians had no pulleys, no wheels, and no iron tools, many believe a ramp was used to drag the heavy core blocks by thousands of workers.

Connection:
In this case, the idea of ramps being used to help construct the ancient pyramids goes to show the reason for belief of the unexplained. Though the pyramids were constructed centuries ago, even modern science is unable to fully determine how the pyramids were constructed. Though there may be several theories, there are no actual evidence/statements.

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1. What I learned about the topic of ancient pyramids that most surprised me is mainly the history and timeline of ancient Egyptians, as well as the construction of the pyramids. The idea of how ancient Egyptians may have been overly technological advanced in comparison to modern day science is absolutely mind blowing. This also caused me to be more intrigued and excited over the topic as I deliberately would like to learn more to expand my knowledge.

2. This topic is interesting for me as it covers one of seven wonders of the world. The great mysteries based on the ancient pyramids is truthfully astonishing, and have yet to be solved.

3. The research I have found most interesting includes the fact that ancient Egyptians had no pulleys or wheels. In other words, the fact that round wheels weren’t invented at the time is truly unbelievable, as I initially thought wheels were implemented somewhere along the construction of the pyramids, especially to haul the heavy objects/stones.

4. From this research, I am most likely to remember the fact that wheels were invented long after the construction of the pyramids. The reason I am highly likely to remember this fact, is because prior to this research, I initially thought wheels were used to help build the pyramids, and couldn’t think of any other way they moved heavy objects.

5. I believe the pseudoscience belief of agenticity is the most harmful, as its the tendency to create conspiracies, as well as other untrue claims to manipulate what people may or may not believe. On the other hand, the least harmful pseudoscience belief would be the idea of confirmation bias, as this ultimately only affects the personal individual and their beliefs, as opposed to multiple people simultaneously.

6. If I were to pass on my knowledge to a family member or friend, the most important this to pass on would be to make them aware of pseudoscience beliefs, and to warn them not to easily be tempted to believe in allegations that are incompatible with scientific method.