Ancient Egypt
Neolithic Civilization
Understanding
the Pyramids
Pyramid Builder's Handbook The Pyramid Calculator
Exploding the Pyramid Myths Systems
Engineering the Pyramids
It might seem like quite stretch from systems to ancient Egypt, but it isn't really. Not if you look at ancient Egypt as one of the first flowerings of societies and systems.
In these pages I look across much of the history of ancient Egypt, but in particular I concentrate on the Old Kingdom, the time of the Pyramids. I must admit that when I first visited Egypt, I was captivated by the culture of the New Kingdom. Queen Hatshepsut cavorting with a false beard as a king. Pharaoh Tuthmose III, the Egyptian Napoleon. Rameses II with over 90 sons. Who could fail to be captivated?
As to the pyramids? Aren't they big? Yawn!
Then I read "The Orion Mystery" by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, and that got me really interested. (You may remember, Bauval believes that the three Pyramids at Giza are aligned like the three stars in Orion's belt.) I shall be ever-grateful to Robert Bauval for the inspiration. Even though I do not agree with him.
After a second visit, however, I started to see past the hugeness of these constructions, and began, like so many others, to wonder how they did it. We have all seen the Hollywood version, with slaves being crushed under the feet of cruel overseers. That was being shown by archaeological finds to be nonsense - the workers were not slaves, they were well looked after and honored in death.
Then there were the scenes where hundreds of workers struggle to drag an enormous, 70-tonne stone beam up a gigantic ramp. Looking at the Hollywood representation, it seemed that the ramp was bigger than the pyramid, and the whole ramp could deal with only one stone at a time.
A simple pyramid calculation shows that, on average over the 20 years or so that it took to build, stone was laid on the growing Great Pyramid at over 90-tonnes per hour. Day in. Day out. Every hour. For 20 years! Too much for one ramp, even an enormous one. And if an enormous ramp had been used, where are the remains of it now? Ramps were used by the ancient Egyptians, and they left traces of their construction. There is none around the Great Pyramid.
So, Hollywood got it wrong. Nothing new there then. But in modern times, there has been a tacit assumption by all and sundry that ramps must have been used. Herodotus was told by Egyptian priests that the stones were raised using "contrivances made of short timbers." Admittedly, that was some 2000 years after the Great Pyramid was built. As it turns out, I suspect that Herodotus may have been told the truth. Again, however, modern analysts have presumed that "contrivances" meant wooden levers of some sort, and have discounted these as inadequate for the job; they are undoubtedly right. Still, there are other "contrivances..."
In the Egypt pages on this site, I try to set the record a little straighter. It may be difficult to know how the ancient Egyptians went about their monumental building program, but it is not so hard to rule out some ideas as impractical or downright nonsense. When you have ruled out enough, what is left may help us Understand the Pyramids!
My Egypt pages, then, are not about any alternative philosophy. Instead they are a hard-ish look at what may have happened. And, since I am actively researching this area at present, you might like to keep your eyes open for new material from time to time. Not to mention a book or three.
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