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Canadian Inventor: Pyramids Were Rocked Into Place

Posted by timothy on from the slurms-mckenzie-was-on-hand dept.

seafortn writes "A Canadian man is claiming he has solved the mystery of the construction of the pyramids - the ancient Egyptians attached curved boards to the building blocks and rolled them into place."

3 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Summary of Article. by greenhide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    During a Passover seder (how apropos!) I discussed the building of the pyramids with a professor who specialized in ancient civilizations of the middle east. He said that it's very obvious that they built ramps out of a kind of clay/sand mixture. There's even a name for this kind of mixture, although it escapes my mind. He said that it was scattered all around the pyramids and was easy to find.

    As far as he was concerned, case closed.

    This guy, at best, has explained how the rocks might have been brought to the pyramid's base.

    --
    Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
  2. Another Mystery by fm6 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Yeah, I've always found it more satisfying to believe that the pyramids were put up by human ingenuity, rather than by the whimsy of some God from Space.

    But here's another disturbing thought. John Anthony West argues that water erosion on the Sphynx indicates that the thing was built before Egypt was an arid country. That's about 10,000 years ago. Of course this runs totally against accepted archaeological thought -- but you still have to wonder if Egyptian civilization isn't a tad older than currently accepted.

  3. Re:The Reason for the Mystery by FreezerJam · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Like you, I'm surprised that this is news. A similar solution was posed some time ago, because archeologists were trying to figure out the use of the "cradles" they occasionally found.

    This article - http://www.atse.org.au/publications/focus/focus-pa rry.htm - provides a picture of a cradle found in Egypt, and shows tests, both model and full scale. The full scale tests included raising a 2.5 tonne stone up a 1 in 4 ramp slope. Rampe slope is a critical factor - a 1:4 ramp uses a lot less material than a 1:10 ramp.

    This theory is given further backing here - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~imladjov/pyramids.d oc - by the finding that a number of blocks apparently had "this side up" inscribed on them. This supposedly only makes sense if blocks will be rolled in such a way that one could lose track of which side should be up.