Mystery of the Great Pyramid of Giza may have been solved researchers say

OK so you float the stone about on a boat. Got it. It works.

Then what?

Here is a TEOT original (may be out in the weeds with my head up my....)

Remember all those stone spheres found all over the world? Bosnia, Costa Rica, and,... Giza! Have you ever had a bunch of marbles and put a book on top? You push it around, throw some more marbles in front, take the ones from behind and move them in front, etc. That is what they did with those stone spheres!! Pushing blocks around on wooden tracks with marble stone spheres. No wheels needed!

Again, just my idea which makes sense in a goofy kind of way!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
Remember all those stone spheres found all over the world? Bosnia, Costa Rica, and,... Giza! Have you ever had a bunch of marbles and put a book on top? You push it around, throw some more marbles in front, take the ones from behind and move them in front, etc. That is what they did with those stone spheres!! Pushing blocks around on wooden tracks with marble stone spheres. No wheels needed!

Again, just my idea which makes sense in a goofy kind of way!

When I was a lad, in the early 80's, I spent every day at a beach near my home town. A local fishery owned the beach and had a fishing boat (a cobbler) that they would lower down to the water by rolling it down the slip on a series of rounded posts, as you describe, these would be a lot more sturdy than spheres and would allow more controlled movement. Also, if spheres were used, would they not be abundant across Egypt?

a reply to: DeadElf

The daily fail?

This should be pretty easy to prove with a couple boats equipped with sonar mapping equipment.. If it's true that they boated in enough blocks to build the pyramids there would have to be probably a few hundred that were lost in the rivers and canals due to accidents. I'm betting the effort to resurrect them off the bottom wouldn't be worth the effort.

a reply to: dashen

I think it was Graham Hancock (maligned by many) who wrote a presentation about this. So is this old news or is this really a new discovery?
grahamhancock.com...

a reply to: djz3ro

Not sure how to get a google return from a PDF so will give the quote and link

"hundreds if not thousands of them [stone spheres] are still to be seen at Giza, studding the sand and strata of the archeologists' excavations."

Search term: "stone spheres giza"
Return link to pdf (Google books), The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited: books.google.com... &sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji1LCZ5sPWAhXHvJAKHSHtAMsQ6AEIZDAM#v=onepage&q=stone%20spheres%20giza&f=false

Goes on to say, "the stone [that the spheres are made of] is not native to Giza" (same source)

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: djz3ro

Not sure how to get a google return from a PDF so will give the quote and link

"hundreds if not thousands of them [stone spheres] are still to be seen at Giza, studding the sand and strata of the archeologists' excavations."

Search term: "stone spheres giza"
Return link to pdf (Google books), The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited: books.google.com... &sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji1LCZ5sPWAhXHvJAKHSHtAMsQ6AEIZDAM#v=onepage&q=stone%20spheres%20giza&f=false

Goes on to say, "the stone [that the spheres are made of] is not native to Giza" (same source)

Your link leads to a section of a book that concerns the dolerite pounding stones the AEs used to quarry granite, among other hard stone types. They are abundant, and they weren't mined at Giza, which is a limestone plateau.

This same pounding method was used in many other locations around the world for the same purpose.

Harte

a reply to: Harte

They are called "pounding stones", I'm saying they could be used for other purposes. The question was, "were any stone spheres found at Giza?" The answer is "yes" but their current name might be the wrong use.

Like I was saying, just an idea. A little lateral thinking to mainstream archeology.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: Harte

They are called "pounding stones", I'm saying they could be used for other purposes. The question was, "were any stone spheres found at Giza?" The answer is "yes" but their current name might be the wrong use.

Like I was saying, just an idea. A little lateral thinking to mainstream archeology.

As Harte noted where ever people have worked stone they have used pounders - because it works - if they cannot cut it by other methods, its also a good way to shape the stone. and was used until quite recently.

From my on experience one can see the evidence of it in the quarries at Rano Raraku

www.southamerica.cl...

originally posted by: dashen
Can NOBODY READ??
they found the canals, boats, port at the foot of the pyramid, and a CONTEMPORARY FIRST HAND WRITTEN ACCOUNT OF HOW THEY DID IT.

Seriously people, cmon!

Granted its the most likely sceniro but logistics of the feat are no less amazing. To make the 20 year deadline they would need to transport 80 ton's of blocks per day from a quarry 934km from the pyramids. Given the round trip of a boat might take 10 days, they'd need 1x boat that could carry say 800 tons or 2x boats that could carry 400 tons etc.

They found the canal linking the quary to nile back in 2007 here

a reply to: glend

i think it was more like an endless line of boats running in a circuit to and from the quarry.
there was no lack of skilled workers and slaves.
just have to assign enough teams per block to carve, another to haul, another to ferry by boat.
there was no shortage of manpower

Something is wrong. 170,000 tons = approximately 85,000 cubic yards of limestone, that is just a drop in the bucket for the size of the great pyramid. It would take 205,511 cubic yards/411,000 ton just to cover the base 3 feet deep.a reply to: dashen

originally posted by: dashen
Can NOBODY READ??
they found the canals, boats, port at the foot of the pyramid, and a CONTEMPORARY FIRST HAND WRITTEN ACCOUNT OF HOW THEY DID IT.

Seriously people, cmon!

Howdy

It doesn't explain how the quarries were organized, the work crews or what type of ramps were used, or how many they were used. Its a great resource, a window on a distance piece of history, but doesn't show the entire story.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: TheScale
i remember this being the case when i was a kid learning about egypt. i even remember seeing them rebuild one of the boats from reeds and rope to see if it would work with a scale size block in a documentary years ago. i also remember this being the same theory for how the large granite blocks were transported to the site. now if only they would move that one block in the pyramid that would prove whether or not there is a spiral ramp inside the pyramids to get those blocks up the rest of the 2/3rds.

They wouldn't need a spiral ramp inside the pyramid. Outdoors would do just as well. My guess is that they polished down the stones on the current working level. Then all the waste chippings were used either to pack the inside of the pyramid or as counterweights to raise up blocks. If there was a lot more rain, then perhaps they could create wells that could be used to raise and lower those boats.

i suggest looking on youtube for the theories on the spiral ramps theres a couple really good documentaries on it. theres actually a ton of great evidence using gravity gradiometry to essentially measure the density within the great pyramid that shows an area of low density that spirals up the pyramid. theres also visible evidence that follows this same path that can be seen with IR cameras and if the sun is right with your naked eye from the outside of the pyramid. besides why would u build a ramp on the outside killing your sight lines to keep it straight which would also use more materials when you could just build an interior ramp that does none of that and is also far safer. there is also evidence of interior ramps in earlier egyptian buildings so its something they were familiar with. theres a notch about 2/3rds of the way up the great pyramid and in a documentary they sent an egyptologist to investigate the notch and what i found interesting is that inside this cavity some of the blocks are worked to have archways in them as if its part of the interior ramp that was filled in with blocks and for some reason some of those blocks have been removed over time. the egyptologist was also surprised cause in all his years of research there was no talk of this room albiet there was a ton of graffiti from hundreds of years inside this lil notch.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: TheScale
i remember this being the case when i was a kid learning about egypt. i even remember seeing them rebuild one of the boats from reeds and rope to see if it would work with a scale size block in a documentary years ago. i also remember this being the same theory for how the large granite blocks were transported to the site. now if only they would move that one block in the pyramid that would prove whether or not there is a spiral ramp inside the pyramids to get those blocks up the rest of the 2/3rds.

They wouldn't need a spiral ramp inside the pyramid. Outdoors would do just as well. My guess is that they polished down the stones on the current working level. Then all the waste chippings were used either to pack the inside of the pyramid or as counterweights to raise up blocks. If there was a lot more rain, then perhaps they could create wells that could be used to raise and lower those boats.

I dont' think there could be very much fill material in the Pyramid. If you use fill of any kind, you can't predict how it will deform when it settles over time. The pyramid wouldn't still be standing without visible signs of warping unless they avoided the use of fill, or at least minimised it. Such incredible weights had to be supported.

It has to be made of block in direct contact.

What size of blocks? We don't know. They could have used very big blocks near the bottom, and almost certainly built it on a natural rocky hill.

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: TheScale
i remember this being the case when i was a kid learning about egypt. i even remember seeing them rebuild one of the boats from reeds and rope to see if it would work with a scale size block in a documentary years ago. i also remember this being the same theory for how the large granite blocks were transported to the site. now if only they would move that one block in the pyramid that would prove whether or not there is a spiral ramp inside the pyramids to get those blocks up the rest of the 2/3rds.

They wouldn't need a spiral ramp inside the pyramid. Outdoors would do just as well. My guess is that they polished down the stones on the current working level. Then all the waste chippings were used either to pack the inside of the pyramid or as counterweights to raise up blocks. If there was a lot more rain, then perhaps they could create wells that could be used to raise and lower those boats.

I dont' think there could be very much fill material in the Pyramid. If you use fill of any kind, you can't predict how it will deform when it settles over time. The pyramid wouldn't still be standing without visible signs of warping unless they avoided the use of fill, or at least minimised it. Such incredible weights had to be supported.

It has to be made of block in direct contact.

What size of blocks? We don't know. They could have used very big blocks near the bottom, and almost certainly built it on a natural rocky hill.

theres a foundation that extends out past the pyramids which gives them a good idea how it was laid. im not sure if they ever found hard proof of this but i remember that there was a theory atleast that postulated that before laying the foundation they flooded a section of the bedrock that had been cleared then chiseled it level until there was the same depth of water across the surface giving them a relatively flat surface to then lay the blocks for the foundation which are of varying sizes and shapes. u can see a nice cross section in pictures online where the earth has eroded away from the foundations way out past the pyramids. these days the area is used like a picnic site for the tourists. youll also find interesting saw marks in these blocks that were once buried under the earth among other oddities

originally posted by: glend

originally posted by: dashen
Can NOBODY READ??
they found the canals, boats, port at the foot of the pyramid, and a CONTEMPORARY FIRST HAND WRITTEN ACCOUNT OF HOW THEY DID IT.

Seriously people, cmon!

Granted its the most likely sceniro but logistics of the feat are no less amazing. To make the 20 year deadline they would need to transport 80 ton's of blocks per day from a quarry 934km from the pyramids. Given the round trip of a boat might take 10 days, they'd need 1x boat that could carry say 800 tons or 2x boats that could carry 400 tons etc.

They found the canal linking the quary to nile back in 2007 here

You suffer from the misconception that the Great Pyramid is constructed of stone from elsewhere, when the quarries for all the Giza pyramids are plain to see right there on the Giza Plateau next to the site.

Only the exterior facing stones and the small quantity of granite inside the GP came up the Nile. 90% of the stone (if not more) came from right there at Giza.

Harte

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: TheScale
i remember this being the case when i was a kid learning about egypt. i even remember seeing them rebuild one of the boats from reeds and rope to see if it would work with a scale size block in a documentary years ago. i also remember this being the same theory for how the large granite blocks were transported to the site. now if only they would move that one block in the pyramid that would prove whether or not there is a spiral ramp inside the pyramids to get those blocks up the rest of the 2/3rds.

They wouldn't need a spiral ramp inside the pyramid. Outdoors would do just as well. My guess is that they polished down the stones on the current working level. Then all the waste chippings were used either to pack the inside of the pyramid or as counterweights to raise up blocks. If there was a lot more rain, then perhaps they could create wells that could be used to raise and lower those boats.

I dont' think there could be very much fill material in the Pyramid. If you use fill of any kind, you can't predict how it will deform when it settles over time. The pyramid wouldn't still be standing without visible signs of warping unless they avoided the use of fill, or at least minimised it. Such incredible weights had to be supported.

It has to be made of block in direct contact.

What size of blocks? We don't know. They could have used very big blocks near the bottom, and almost certainly built it on a natural rocky hill.

Because of holes blown in the side with black powder - done by early Egyptologists - we know for a fact there is plenty of fill in the GP.

Harte

a reply to: dashen

I have a couple of questions:

Are the pyramids foundations not above the normal water level of the Nile River ? In order to "float" anything through a canal to their bases would require some kind of lock system.

How did they plug the ends of the canals after they were finished building? You are talking about a large flowing body of water which exerts a lot of pressure on it's banks. Should there not be some very wet sandy areas if the canals were used and not plugged up when no longer needed?

As was noted before, this still does not address the primary question of how these structures were assembled. But that has, and will be, covered in other posts.

a reply to: Harte

Thanks for advising Harte.