Ancient Egyptian Engineering

[Chacmool]

I saw an interesting programme on TV about how the ancient Egyptians moved a large, heavy block of gneiss (to be used for a beautiful statue of a pharaoh) several hundred kilometres over land and water. They built sort of an "amphibian" craft for transporting the rock. The wooden beams of the raft had air-filled goat skins in between, which meant that the massive block did not have to be transferred onto a boat once it had been dragged from the quarry to the Nile. The rock was slided onto the raft using a ramp, then dragged by animals to the river, and then simply floated down the river, pulled onto land again and then dragged to the desired location.

I while ago I also saw a recreation of a hieroglyph which showed that it was possible to used wind-power to move large stone blocks. The scientific team successfully erected a replica of an obelisk by attaching a kite to it and using the wind to lift it, while using ropes to steer it into place.

The point is, the ancient Egyptians seems to have been very inventive and resourceful. And I don't believe that we need to look to theories of aliens building all those magnificent structures. But the question still remains - how on earth did they move the REALLY heavy (200-ton+) blocks of stone?

[Qfwfq]

They had plenty of slaves. An overland technique was also the use of tree trunks that were constantly carried from after to before the block as progress was made.

[Chacmool]

How did they elevate those extremely heavy blocks and position them so precisely?

[Boerseun]

Interesting topic!

And the most interesting part, I'd say, is how they actually got the blocks on the pyramids in the first place. It has been calculated that getting the blocks up a ramp would demand a ramp several times bigger than the pyramid itself. And not a ramp made of ordinary desert-sand; the ramp itself would have to be reinforced and strengthened to be able to support the weight of the blocks.

However, the idea that the construction was primarily done by elbow-grease, is supported by the recent findings at Giza of ancient kitchens which they speculate could feed up to 40,000 slaves daily.

The other theory is that the blocks were moved up individual layers like steps, and on every next layer the block would be lifted into a new scaffold, lifted another layer, inserted into another scaffold, lifted another layer, and so on. With 40,000 non-union non-paid labourers at your disposal, I suppose they could've done it?

I don't suppose we'll ever really know, unless the aliens who've built it can give us some TV footage from their archives...

[rockytriton]

maybe they used dinosaurs to pull the stones for them.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Chacmool

I while ago I also saw a recreation of a hieroglyph which showed that it was possible to used wind-power to move large stone blocks. The scientific team successfully erected a replica of an obelisk by attaching a kite to it and using the wind to lift it, while using ropes to steer it into place.

___Anyway to find the hieroglyph image for us? I love kites! I have a kiting thread here somewhere & I mention the world's largest kite flown. Many historical luminarys have used kites such as Ben Franklin for lifting an aerial wire, Bill Cody for lifting military observers, Alex Bell in search of the first airplane, & Orville & Wilbur who made it.
___So much has to go right for any heavy lifting by kites; the time spent waiting probably exceeds by far the time needed to lever the stones up on cribbing. If you ever get the opportunity (it's on some TV science shows), watch a crew move a house. In the absence of a jack, a lever suffices; in the absence of an engine, gangs of workers suffice.
___I find the most facinating aspects of the pyramids as the design, artistry, & organizational system employed. The old age is cool too.

[damocles]

Pyramid construction, is amazing. What I like to do, though, is compare the different civilizatations' approaches to solving the same problem.

So I look at the Meso-American civilizations and compare their pyramid construction with the techniques employed by the ancient Egyptians.

Manpower, sledge, ramp, and lever seems to be the common solution.

Now I don't know if the Egyptians used kites to raise obelisks but it intrigues me. I am fascinated by the theory that the Nazca Indians might have used hot air balloons to aerially survey the drawings they made on the Nazca plains.

http://www.rotten.com/library/imagery/nazca-lines/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines

They didn't need hot air balloons to survey those lines in, but it just goes to show me that our ancestors were smart and it is we who lack the imagination, sometimes,to see how they might have solved their problems.

Best wishes;

[CraigD]

Many years ago, I read an interesting column by an industrial engineer and historian in Analog magazine. This fellow had examined several smaller (1-5 m) Egyptian tomb artifacts found in museums, and was impressed by 2 things:
1) their stone surfaces were more perfectly flat than one would expect bronze tool-users to be able to achieve, about as good as high-quality modern statuary; and

2) the many holes drilled for wooden dowels used to keep the stone slabs aligned and together would have taken many thousands of tedious and hazardous hours to be drilled with the tools most Egyptologists assumed were used.

He had read an article similar to the “ancient astronaut” writing of Von Daniken, in which these features were claimed to be evidence that these artifacts had been manufactured using lasers, sonic drills, or other tools as or more advanced than any currently existent. He concluded, however, that they could have been economically manufactured using bronze tools in arrangements similar to the belt-driven ones found in 19th century factories.

The Egyptians tomb-builders may have been surprisingly advanced in these kinds of ways, using belt-driven (but likely man or animal-powered) arrays of drills and polishers to overcome the limitations of their metallurgy. If this is so, why they didn’t proceed to develop mechanized industry as was developed millennia later in the West, or, if they did, what has become of the historic and archeological evidence for it, is a puzzling mystery.

[Chacmool]

It seems I got it the wrong way around - the investigators first thought of lifting the obelisk with a kite. They weren't recreating a hieroglyph, but one has been found that seems to represent just such an ancient endeavour.

Here's a previous Hypography article on the topic, as well as a National Geographic article .

[Turtle]

Nice links Chacmool! Back in the 80's when I was doing aerial photography from kites I wrote to National Geographic to suggest it as a way to take aerial photos in remote locations. I received a nice reply from one of their engineers telling me they had a system under development using balloons. Besides a steerable platform & still camera, they also attached a video camera with a feed to the ground so they could aim & focus. They use the system to this day.
___I fully believe it is possible to use kites to lift/move enormous loads, however I don't see evidence yet the Egyptians used the technique.