Could we build the Giza Pyramid today?

[Amenhotep7]

Egyptians DID have the technology to lift those stones. Granted, it would take thousands of men. (What did the Turin papyrus say? Circa 100,000?) Anyways, if each block weighed 2.5 tons, and each man can lift about...70 pounds? Then of course you had oxen. It would take a long time, but then again, it DID take 23 years to build.

 

[Dr. Dr. Doktor]

If you have a crane which at the one end is carrying the block of stone, and at the other end has a net into which you can put small stones easily carried by mules or oxen, then gravity will do the job very nicely.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Guys, these are the practical problems with the 'muscle' theory of construction (from the great page provided by Tassadar):

The carving and hoisting theory indeed raises questions that have been insufficiently answered. Using stone and copper tools, how did workers manage to make the pyramid faces absolutely flat? How did they make the faces meet at a perfect point at the summit? How did they make the tiers so level? How could the required amount of workers maneuver on the building site? How did they make the blocks so uniform? How were some of the heaviest blocks in the pyramid placed at great heights? How were twenty-two acres of casing blocks all made to fit to a hair’s breadth and closer? How was all of the work done in about twenty years? Experts can only guess. And Egyptologists must admit that the problems have not been resolved.

Tassadar, Im assuming that the idea is rejected because in the opinion of most geologists, the blocks are natural stone and not concrete. How difficult can it be for a geologist to determine if something is concrete or not?

 

[Gothmog]

We could easily build it if we had the same motivation that they possessed.

If you want to see a real modern engineering feat take a look at the 2-mile-long Oosterscheldendam protecting Holland. It consists of 62 18-ton concrete piers and 5 million tons of rock were moved and placed to support the dam. More than that it actually serves a functional purpose.

To me the amazing thing about the pyramids is what G-man hinted at, that all that work was done for no useful reason. Just think if the same amount of civil engineering had been applied to raise the Egyptian standard of living.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Gothmog ok but how could they have done it with the technology they had back then?

 

[Tassadar]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead


Tassadar, Im assuming that the idea is rejected because in the opinion of most geologists, the blocks are natural stone and not concrete. How difficult can it be for a geologist to determine if something is concrete or not?

From the link,

Because we were not authorized to sample original materials from the Giza plateau quarries

The egyptian doesnt want us to sample their pyramid Microcrystalography could be use i guess but we need sample to compare. Maybe if we took a small sample they are afraid the whole pyramid will collapse

 

[vonork]

Originally posted by Tassadar
Because we were not authorized to sample original materials from the Giza plateau quarries

Aha, They know [insert paranoia here] and don't want us to know.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Tassadar that things been chipped at by erosion for at least what, 5000 years (much longer than that I suspect)?. There must be pieces of it strewn all over the place. Couldnt they just examine shards that are scattered all over the area?

 

[Gladi]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead
Tassadar that things been chipped at by erosion for at least what, 5000 years (much longer than that I suspect)?. There must be pieces of it strewn all over the place. Couldnt they just examine shards that are scattered all over the area?

Bright day Dumb Pothead
And how do you know what shard is from Pyramid and which not

 

[Pongui]

Human hair was found embedded in an Egyptian "stone", over a decade ago. That wasn't a pyramid stone though.

Old concrete may be indistinguishable from naturally occurring sandstones; both are formed by available minerals. We could even be deceived by the "quarry" where washings from the forms and dry mixes hit by rainwater left seemingly natural deposits of aggregate and fused slop. We'd find a lot of tools around and think ahh this must be where they cut the stones from.

Strong grades of concrete would contain a wide screen of sand and pebble sizes, like granite. Technically, that is granite. Decorative (surface, passageway) grades would be fine textured, like sandstone. Stone made of sand.

 

[Gothmog]

Well, give me a big enough stick and a place to stand and I'll move the world.

There are lots of different ways that it all could have been done. Really the key is human ingenuity, engineers of the day were trained to use the tools available to them. The Egyptian culture started by building small pyramids and used the lessons learned to help them build larger ones.

 

[Tassadar]

Sid Meeir got it rifgt again i guess, what is the prerequist to built pyramid, stone cutting or masonry ?

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Tass & Sean, at the quarry sites thre must be blocks in various stages of completion. Also, maybe by just eyeballing it could be difficult to determine if its concrete or natural, but Im pretty sure that by looking at in extreme magnification they could tell that the block is composed of many bits and pieces of a natural stone, or its a solid piece of natural stone. If the stone formed naturally, it would have characteristics that could be seen in magnification.

@Gladi, I think they could determine that be comparing shards to the rock at the quarry.

 

[Dr. Dr. Doktor]

Originally posted by Gothmog

To me the amazing thing about the pyramids is what G-man hinted at, that all that work was done for no useful reason. Just think if the same amount of civil engineering had been applied to raise the Egyptian standard of living.

Some have suggested that the pyramids, besides serving as tombs, also served some astronomical purpose. The pyramids are apparently laid out according to some plan, although I don't know the particulars.

Also, regarding the standard of living. The nile delta provided the inhabitants with an easy and abundant source of food. In fact most of the year, except at sowing and harvest time, the inhabitants had very little to do. So perhaps the pyramid building served some sort of recreational purpose as well. When people are busy they don't get any funny ideas, like planning revolutions.

 

[Tassadar]

Originally posted by Dr. Dr. Doktor


Some have suggested that the pyramids, besides serving as tombs, also served some astronomical purpose. The pyramids are apparently laid out according to some plan, although I don't know the particulars.

Mystery mode on, warning.

Some of them ( 3 ? ) represent exactly in proportion Orion constelation, some duc are pointing into directly this star fromation, it is beleive it was to project their soul back to their homewolrd.

 

[Little Raven]

What reading I've done of the subject has convinced me that the pyramids of Giza are 100% human in origin, and that current prevailing theories about their age and construction are right.

We have lots of records about the Pyramids being built. Hell, we even have the ancient equivalent of worker timesheets. We know where the workers made their camps, what parts of the year they worked during, and how much beer they drank.

The Pyramids are impressive, but they also represent the very pinnacle of an art. There are LOTS of pyramids in Egypt, and not all of them worked. Several collapsed, or had to be altered mid-way, as ancient engineers perfected their craft. By the time the Giza pyramids were constructed, all of Egyptian society was trained as a massive but fine-tuned pyramid-building machine. When a society puts its collective mind to something, incredible things happen. Ours put a man on the moon, in less than 8 years. That's pretty darn amazing.

Now the Sphinx is a slightly different beast. There's certainly some evidence to suggest that the Sphinx was NOT built with the Pyramids, but it actually much, much older. The head appears to have been recarved; possibly several times. There are strange erosion patterns. And more than one text from the time of Khafre refers to the Sphinx as having been uncovered rather than constructed. I'm willing to entertain the idea that the Sphinx may stem from an even earlier civilization whom we have yet to uncover. But there's nothing unbelievable about the Pyramids. Just the ideas of one of the first recorded geniuses in human history and a whole lot of people working towards a common goal.

 

[Esuh]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead


Do you think we could build the Giza Pyramid today with our much more advanced technology?

Only if someone would pay for the bloody thing.


And if they did not mind having it in their back yard.

 

[Revolutionary]

the Giza Pyramids are man made, they maybe the highest Pyramids made but they aren't the only ones that mankind has built

many Meso-American civilizations have also created Pyramids, different ones yes but Pyramids non the less, it is said that one of those civ (I forget which) built the largest Pyramid width wise

so they aren't even unique to the world just the oldest I think

clearly if many very different cultures in many different ages can find a way to build them we can also find a way to build them today, of course I don't think anybody would waste there $$$ on such a project

 

[Goober]

Having had to do seemingly endless reports on this subject in Elementary school, I remember reading in several credible sources that yes, the Egyptians were indeed the ones to build the Pyramids, and Sphinx, they just had this massive dirt walkway thing that they built up around the pyramid to get the blocks of stone up it into the correct poritions. They used mainly slave labourers, IIRC. They used rounds pieces of wood, and pushed the block of stone to move it. Nasty job, moving 2ish ton stone blocks around. Nowadays, with out modern technology, we would have it built in like 5 years, but likely close to the same level of precision that the Egyptians did theirs. the Egyptians had pretty good tools, better then what we credit them for, back then. Yes, i definitely believe the Egyptians built the Pyramids . . .

 

[hbdragon88]

My seventh grade physcial science book said that with modern technology, we could build the pyramids in 1/5th the time than the Egyptians. It then launched into a unit about work and efficiency.