Pyramid Construction Puzzle: Solved?
Most of the research done on the great pyramid of Cheops/Khefru has been done by "Pyramidiots" who seek to prove - well just about anything really.
So it is nice to hear from an archaeologist who is more worried about how they were built and has come up with yet another solution to the pyramid contruction puzzle.
Ending eight years of study on the subject, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin released his findings and a computerized 3-D mockup showing how workers would have erected the pyramid at Giza outside Cairo.The most widespread theory had been that an outer ramp had been used by the Egyptians, who left few traces to help archeologists and other scientists decode the secret to the construction.
Houdin said he had taken into account the copper and stone tools available at the time, the granite and limestone blocks, the location of the pyramid and the strength and knowledge of the workers.
The "inner ramp" theory also allows for easy fixing of the dressed limestone blocks on the outside of the pyramid - the current theory suggests that they were cut, dressed and polished in situ by workers on the outside - a much easier task than cutting, dressing and polishing else where and then fitting them later - "in such a way a piece of paper will not fit the cracks" - a factioid often promoted by Pyramidiots who have never studied any other ancient building other than the pyramids.
While we are on the subject - my preferred solution to the problem of fixing the lintels of Stonehenge is the idea that they packed the uprights with snow in winter to produced a platform at the right level, then built a ramp and slid the lintels into place.
When spring came the ice melted and the lintels settled into place across the uprights ...
You can find more about this new solution to the pyramid contrstruction puzzle - including a 3D film and the original paper (pdf) here
Tags: pyramids, architecture, bronze age building techniques, jean-pierre houdin, stonehenge
Comments
The ancient method of RAMPLESS Egyptian Pyramid construction was re-discovered on 27 August 2006 by an Australian mechanical engineering tradesman and is fully explained in Raising Stone 1: Paul Hai's racks & pinions theory ISBN 9780646476797.
www.haitheory.com
Posted by: Paul Hai | October 7, 2008 8:48 AM
Rampless Egyptian Pyramid construction has a definite AUSTRALIAN connection.
Captain Matthew Flinders navigated and mapped Australia’s coastline. His grandson became Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie who excavated ancient Egyptian artifacts. In 1895 as an employee of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) of London he was excavating artifacts at Deir el-Bahari and found a cache of ancient building equipment buried for preservation in a hewn out rock pit during Pharaonic times.
One of the wooden items is stated as being of “unidentified use” and has been named the “Petrie rocker” by Egyptologists.
Petrie considered the “rocker” was used to raise Pyramid blocks with a “rocking” motion and in 2006 he has been proven partly correct on the matter of raising Pyramid blocks using “rockers”.
The “rocker” is a component of an ancient Egyptian pulley which operates with a mechanical advantage of 2.8 and with CLASS 2 lever principle as a wheelbarrow does. (CLASS 2 lever: Pivot – Load – Effort).
The technical term for the “Petrie rocker” is “pinion-pulley lobe quadrant”. Four of these surround a Pyramid block and then the pulley is hoisted causing rotation and positive engagements of pulley lobes with Pyramid steps.
Consider the Pyramid as four RACKS of stone teeth on to which the PINION pulley lobes engage and here is the earliest form of RACK & PINION mechanics that we know of.
This is the ancient method of Pyramid construction as used on at least four large Pyramids: Sneferu’s RED Pyramid and those at Giza of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
This ancient method of construction DOES NOT REQUIRE RAMPS and uses the Pyramid under construction (using all four sides simultaneously) to complete the Pyramid, thus using a Pyramid to build a Pyramid.
Petrie died in Jerusalem in 1942 unknowing that “Petrie rockers” are components of an ancient pulley, unlike any pulley in the modern world, and his most important excavation.
Posted by: Paul Hai | December 26, 2009 11:01 AM