The mystery of how the ancient Egyptians built their iconic pyramids has fascinated people for centuries, but thanks to new research, we’re finally starting to piece together some answers.
How the workers moved and lifted those massive stones remains one of the biggest questions today.
“There’s still debate between scientists on the exact method of raising these heavy blocks to such great heights,” said Dr. Eman Ghoneim, a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the US.
One widely accepted theory is that the Egyptians used ramps to haul the stones up.
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In 2018, Dr. Roland Enmarch, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool and his team discovered a ramp cut into rock at a quarry at Hatnub, Egypt.
The quarry was reportedly a source of alabaster which was an important material for pyramid construction.
The ramp had a slope of over 20% percent, despite previous estimates suggesting the ramps in Ancient Egypt wouldn't exceed 10%.
Enmarch added: “If you don’t have a very steep ramp, then you need a ramp of such enormous proportions to get to the top of the Great Pyramid that it would be a greater engineering feat than [building] the pyramid itself.”
Meanwhile, Frank Müller-Römer, an archaeologist at the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology in Munich, theorised that several ramps were used on all four sides of the structure. “My theory offers a coherent solution for the construction of the pyramids in the shortest possible time,” he said.
Some researchers believe that other techniques such as levers, cranes and pulleys were used in the construction as well.
Xavier Landreau, from Paleotechnic, a privately owned research institute in Paris, proposed that a hydraulic lift system might have helped build the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest pyramid.
Landreau and his team studied the terrain of a nearby walled structure and figured it was likely to be a small dam, which fed water into trenches and shafts within the pyramid. A float system would have then lifted the stones as the water level rose.
While plausible, according to Enmarch: “Nothing in the paper suggested the Egyptians could apply pressurised hydraulics, which, in modern terms, would probably enable you to do that.”
Another piece of the puzzle is how the Egyptians transported the massive stone blocks to the pyramid sites.
Ghonheim and her colleagues investigated ancient branches of the Nile, which is known to be the main transportation method of materials.
Satellite images and radar scans from space revealed a 64-kilometre (40-mile) ancient branch of the Nile near the pyramids.
It turns out that segments of the Nile bordered 31 pyramids, suggesting that the river was an active function during pyramid construction.
“Our discovery provides insight into the method of transportation for the massive blocks used in the pyramids,” said Ghonheim.
“Over time, the Nile River shifted and branches disappeared because they silted up. There’s still an area in the upper and lower streams that needs to be mapped and this is what we’re after now. We don’t have the complete picture yet.”
Enmarch is hopeful that the continuous work will discover some really interesting findings about these iconic pyramids.
“In the last few decades, we’ve been getting an increasingly good idea of what must have been going on,” he explained. “I’m sure [archaeologists] are going to carry on finding really fascinating stuff.”