Last of the ancient wonders: The Great Pyramid
Al Ahram Weekly (Assam Deif)
It has variously been claimed that the pyramids served as power plants, water pumps, astronomical observatories, sources of ill-defined pyramid- power energy vortices, guidance beacons for alien spacecraft sites for mystery initiation ceremonies.
Unfortunately there remains no known written record as to how the most famous of the more than 100 pyramids in Egypt, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was built, nor have any reliefs depicting the building ever been found. The Greek geographer Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, mentioned the theory that levers were used to lift pyramid stones. Perhaps this is the most tenable of the alternate theories; as reported by Egyptologist Selim Hassan in his opus Ancient Egypt, Part 1, Cairo, 2000, p. 288. Hassan verified Herodotus's theory based on excavation conducted by Cairo University in the mid-20th century on the Giza Plateau, where the debris of two pulleys were found, one near the second pyramid and one inside the workmen's village east of the valley.
Leaving aside this theory, Egyptologists generally agree that the heavy blocks were most probably lifted into place by maintaining an ascending ramp of fractured pebbles. This view was supported by the discovery at Saqqara of an unfinished pyramid for King Sekhem-Khet of the Third Dynasty, where ascending ramps were found. This view of ascending roads is not shared by the Danish engineer Garde- Hanson, who reckoned that such a ramp as needed for the Great Pyramid would require 13,400,000 m3, seven times the amount of material used for the pyramid itself and necessitating a work force of 240,000 to build the ramp alone during Khufu's reign. Moreover, it would then require a workforce of more than 300,000 to dismantle it in a space of at least eight years. Even if such a ramp were to have been built on only one side of the pyramid, it would have required three times the pyramid volume instead of seven. However, since the ramp inclination could be at most to allow for the pulling of the heavy blocks, it would be about 10km long. In addition, to be able to support the weight of the stones the ramp would need to be made of nothing less in strength than the limestone material of which the stones themselves are made. These engineering facts cannot be disputed, and explain why there is as yet no convincing theory concerning the construction.
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