Speculative although sounds very credible...
Is this how Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids?
A RAMP is discovered in a 4,500-year-old quarry, a graphic reveals the complex system of pulleys used to drag huge stone blocks hundreds of feet.
Daily Mail (UK): 7 November 2018
A new graphic reveals the complex system of ramps and pulleys that may have been used by the Egyptians to construct the ancient pyramids.
It follows the recent discovery of Ancient Egyptian stone working ramps dating back 4,500 years in an alabaster quarry in the country's eastern desert.
The system raised stone blocks weighing several tonnes hundreds of feet into the air via enormous sleds, archaeologists believe.
This same technology may have allowed the Egyptians to haul blocks up steep inclines to build the Great Pyramid - the only surviving Wonder of the World.
The ancient ramp was discovered in Hatnub quarry by researchers from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo and the University of Liverpool.
It was flanked by two staircases lined with post holes, to which ropes were tied to drag the huge stone blocks.
Workers walked up the staircases on either side of the block, pulling the rope as they went, a system that alleviated some of the burden for the huge load.
The large wooden posts, which measured up to one-and-a-half feet (0.5 metres) thick, were key to the system, researchers said.
They allowed teams of workers to pull from below while others hauled the block from above.
It meant the ramp was inclined at double the angle that would have been considered possible, given the weight of the stones that workers were lifting.
'The arrangement allows people to be spaced up and down the ramp, and all the force to be exerted in the same direction,' Dr Roland Enmarch, of the University of Liverpool, told the Times.
The finding is significant because the stones lifted from the quarry would have been roughly the same size as those used in building the Great Pyramid.
Ramps used in construction were removed following completion, meaning the techniques used by the Egyptians to build the huge pyramid remain a mystery.
Researchers said the discovery is the first of its kind, and shows clear indication that it dates 'at least to Khufu's reign' – for whom the 481-foot Great Pyramid was built.
They argued it was 'plausible' to infer that the system discovered at Hatnub was the same as that used to build the Great pyramid.
'This shows that at the time the Great Pyramid was being built, this technology was also being used,' Dr Enmarch said.
Archaeologists had long assumed that the Egyptians used ramps to build the Great pyramid, but how that ramp system worked has remained a mystery for centuries.
It was long thought the ramps would need to lie at an angle of ten per cent at most to allow workers to drag the blocks so high.
This would have meant the ramps stretched long into the desert.
But the new find shows the ramps had an incline of up to 20 per cent, which they managed via the complex pulley system.
'This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes,' Dr Yannis Gourdon, co-director of the joint mission at Hatnub, told Live Science.
'Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more.'
Is this how Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids?
A RAMP is discovered in a 4,500-year-old quarry, a graphic reveals the complex system of pulleys used to drag huge stone blocks hundreds of feet.
- Archaeologists found ancient ramp system at site in Egypt's Eastern Desert
- Slope is lined with two staircases and wooden poles where ropes would be tied
- Researchers say this would lightened the load for workers dragging huge blocks
A new graphic reveals the complex system of ramps and pulleys that may have been used by the Egyptians to construct the ancient pyramids.
It follows the recent discovery of Ancient Egyptian stone working ramps dating back 4,500 years in an alabaster quarry in the country's eastern desert.
The system raised stone blocks weighing several tonnes hundreds of feet into the air via enormous sleds, archaeologists believe.
This same technology may have allowed the Egyptians to haul blocks up steep inclines to build the Great Pyramid - the only surviving Wonder of the World.
The ancient ramp was discovered in Hatnub quarry by researchers from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo and the University of Liverpool.
It was flanked by two staircases lined with post holes, to which ropes were tied to drag the huge stone blocks.
Workers walked up the staircases on either side of the block, pulling the rope as they went, a system that alleviated some of the burden for the huge load.
The large wooden posts, which measured up to one-and-a-half feet (0.5 metres) thick, were key to the system, researchers said.
They allowed teams of workers to pull from below while others hauled the block from above.
It meant the ramp was inclined at double the angle that would have been considered possible, given the weight of the stones that workers were lifting.
'The arrangement allows people to be spaced up and down the ramp, and all the force to be exerted in the same direction,' Dr Roland Enmarch, of the University of Liverpool, told the Times.
Ramps used in construction were removed following completion, meaning the techniques used by the Egyptians to build the huge pyramid remain a mystery.
Researchers said the discovery is the first of its kind, and shows clear indication that it dates 'at least to Khufu's reign' – for whom the 481-foot Great Pyramid was built.
They argued it was 'plausible' to infer that the system discovered at Hatnub was the same as that used to build the Great pyramid.
'This shows that at the time the Great Pyramid was being built, this technology was also being used,' Dr Enmarch said.
Archaeologists had long assumed that the Egyptians used ramps to build the Great pyramid, but how that ramp system worked has remained a mystery for centuries.
It was long thought the ramps would need to lie at an angle of ten per cent at most to allow workers to drag the blocks so high.
This would have meant the ramps stretched long into the desert.
But the new find shows the ramps had an incline of up to 20 per cent, which they managed via the complex pulley system.
'This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes,' Dr Yannis Gourdon, co-director of the joint mission at Hatnub, told Live Science.
'Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more.'
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