Egyptian Stonemasonry-how'd they do it?

Alright, I can't find any good answers from googling around so I'm coming here. OK, even from an orthodox perspective, the only metals the Egyptians had available for stonework at the (alleged) time of the Great Pyramid's construction were bronze and copper. The problem is that bronze and copper are significantly softer than the granite which was cut into huge blocks for use on the Great Pyramid.

How the hell did they cut the granite?

No one knows with 100% certainty, but one theory is that they made holes, put in wood and then just put water on it (wood expanding, cracking the rock).

Finetuning the rock is easy work in comparison I would guess. I mean you dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that one stone can chip another stone. You just have to bash it enough times.

There COULD have been iron available though, but not in large quantities (from meteorites).

another theory is that most of the stone was amalgamite blocks or geopolymers. (like a concert made from ground up limestone, etc), which was poured insitu, into forms already erected in place. this, however, doesn't account for all the stones. it does, however, follow in the footsteps or along the same lines of mesopotamian ziggurat construction, which was the result of making bricks from sun-baked / kiln-baked clay, water, etc and forms. only difference is size of form and amount of material needed.

here's a site that discusses it: www.geopolymer.org...

personally, i don't know which is the most likely.

one guy actually believes they used lasers. he was a machinist and found various clues and hints that lead him to believe it was a very advanced undertaking.

here's the site that discusses it:
www.theglobaleducationproject.org...

Well, granite is only about a 6 or 7 on Mohs scale of mineral hardness. But even if it were a 10, you can still cut and polish any mineral with a like mineral. That's how they polish diamonds...with more diamonds.

The second aspect is cleavage. People don't typically "cut" rock, they cleave it. There's parallel striations that naturally occurr in granite that, when you apply a quick and hard enough pressure on it, it causes a nice even split along that striation, called cleavage. Some types of granite eve have two directions of cleavage, which allow for easy blocks to be cut, which can then be polished with more granite.

Hope that helps.

I spoke to one of my archaeology profs at one time about some of this Graham Hancock Egyptian stuff, which he dismissed pretty handily. I was curious about the relationship of the pyramids, etc, to Orion. What I do recall from the conversation is his mentioning that there is no mystery about how the stone was cut, as archaeologists have uncovered partially cut stones along with the tools (and wedges, if I recall) being used in situ. Sorry to disappoint...but this guy was is no desk jockey (most of his work is in Syria), and I take him at his word. I'm sure a little academic Googling will produce lots of documentation.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
I spoke to one of my archaeology profs at one time about some of this Graham Hancock Egyptian stuff, which he dismissed pretty handily. I was curious about the relationship of the pyramids, etc, to Orion. What I do recall from the conversation is his mentioning that there is no mystery about how the stone was cut, as archaeologists have uncovered partially cut stones along with the tools (and wedges, if I recall) being used in situ. Sorry to disappoint...but this guy was is no desk jockey (most of his work is in Syria), and I take him at his word. I'm sure a little academic Googling will produce lots of documentation.

Right on!

In fact, they've found stonecutters' graves with their tools (wooden mallets, copper chisels (which you can actually harden well enough to cut stone), saws, and other implements. There's drawings of them at work (done by the ancient Egyptians themselves... and others around the Mediterranean used the same technique.

This page features some reasonably accurate drawings of some of the old paintings as well as good translations of texts relating to these professions. There's one of them working on the huge granite statue of Thutmoses III
www.civilization.ca...

They also have text and drawings about moving this statue, which was far bigger and more complex than any pyramid block.

pages showing drawings of tools:
www.geocities.com...

Sawing was done using sand:
www.pbs.org...


Pyramids were hardly the be-all and end-all of architecture.

Graham Hancock doesn't know how it was done. However, the people who dig up the ancient cities and who translate the manuscripts and open the tombs to find the tools certainly know how it was done.