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Ancient Papyrus Finally Solves Egypt's 'Great Pyramid' Mystery (newsweek.com)

schwit1 was the first Slashdot reader to bring us the news. Newsweek reports: Archaeologists believe they have found the key to unlocking a mystery almost as old as the Great Pyramid itself: Who built the structure and how were they able to transport two-ton blocks of stone to the ancient wonder more than 4,500 years ago...? Experts had long established that the stones from the pyramid's chambers were transported from as far away as Luxor, more than 500 miles to the south of Giza, the location of the Great Pyramid, but had never agreed how they got there. However, the diary of an overseer, uncovered in the seaport of Wadi al-Jafr, appears to answer the age-old question, showing the ancient Egyptians harnessed the power of the Nile to transport the giant blocks of stone.

According to a new British documentary Egypt's Great Pyramid: The New Evidence, which aired on the U.K.'s Channel 4 on Sunday, the Great Pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, was built using an intricate system of waterways which allowed thousands of workers to pull the massive stones, floated on boats, into place with ropes. Along with the papyrus diary of the overseer, known as Merer, the archaeologists uncovered a ceremonial boat and a system of waterworks. The ancient text described how Merer's team dug huge canals to channel the water of the Nile to the pyramid.

9 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Alternate theory by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 4, Informative

    The workers were not slaves. There are payroll records to prove it.

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  2. Re: Great. Now prove it. by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thanks to Obama and Hillary there is an abundance of illiterate undocumented laborers ready to be exploited for the task!

    They're poor and desperate, so they're necessarily illiterate, and came here because of Hillary? You've already called them rapists and murderers, Mr. Trump, so you need not continue to insult and demonize them.

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  3. Re:Water pump theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I read that link, and wow, it's some pseudoscientific claptrap. Here are a few choice quotes:

    "The shape has been shown to have dramatic energizing effects. An example being water does not freeze at -40 C. within a pyramid structure."

    What??

    Then we have lots of woo about the "energy of the pyramids": "The glyph is associated with the energy of the pyramids...". And lots of unsubstantiated assertions, like: "The granite coffer and many remnants around the Giza plateau had been machined with some type of triple axis mill, an advanced machine." Or "Many modern day physicists and engineers view the Great Pyramid as a machine."

    The construction of the Great Pyramids was impressive as all fuck, given when they did it. There's no need to inject a bunch of woo into it.

  4. Re:Fake News by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 1, Informative

    You think Trump is a dangerous lunatic,

    Yes.

    in contrast to Obama,

    Yes.

    a sympathizer of Islam and communism.

    No.

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    Stephan

  5. Re:Fake News by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Whatever race they were, they were using slaves. We should hate the Egyptians solely because they used slavery.

    Well, Yul Brunner notwithstanding, the currently accepted theory is that the pyramids were not built by slaves, but by paid labourers.

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    Stephan

  6. Re:Fake News by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Informative

    Islam is not a threat. Extremist Islam is a threat, it's not the same thing. Extremist Christianity is a threat as well, like any extremist sect or ideology.

    I have not seen Obama being a communist sympathizer, though that's a phrase seldom heard these days, invented by the anti-commie extremist of Joe McCarthy who I thought was still dead.

    As for Trump, he's automatically dangerous because he's the president and is far more dangerous than any other single person in the US. He's also showing plenty of signs of being a lunatic; an out of control ego, and sees hallucinations of things that aren't there. Now putting his own personal foibles ahead of the good of the country isn't necessarily a sign of madness, it is more evidence of being dangerous. So, dangerous lunatic is not necessarily an incorrect description.

  7. Re:Fake News by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Informative

    There has been no historical or archeological evidence found that the Egyptians ever enslaved the Jews.

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  8. Re:Cast in place? by Ramze · · Score: 5, Informative

    The granite is absolutely quarried. No one denies this. The limestone is debatable, but it matches what's found in a quarry in its consistency. The theory you mention is interesting, but it was mostly dismissed a decade ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    The biggest problem with the theory is... it's limestone. Limestone is a sedimentary rock made from fossilized sea creatures, and it's loaded full of fossils. Pulverizing limestone to make a mixture to re-form into stone would destroy most of those fossils. The pyramids blocks are full of such fossils -- most tiny and in clusters, but some are quite large. That's why no one takes this limestone concrete theory seriously. It'd be impossible to have so many completely intact fossils -- some larger than an average sized hand -- embedded in the "concrete."

    While it's possible they had the technology to do it and maybe even used it in some areas, the evidence strongly suggests that at least most of the blocks were cut and hauled... just like the heavy granite stones.

  9. Re: Fake News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is the Torah of so little historic value to you? You sound like an anti-semite.