The Great Pyramid built with Rolling Stones

7/31/2019 The Great Pyramid built with Rolling Stones

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BUILDING THE GREAT PYRAMID(Published in a Special Issue of New Dawn Magazine 2013, Vol 7 No 1)

Machines formed of short wooden planks.- Herodotus (484-425 BCE) on pyramid construction -

By Henk J. Koens

jan 2013

We have all wondered how the ancient Egyptians

managed to transport the 2.5 million individual limestone

blocks needed to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. The

handling of such an enormous quantity of stone blocks,with each block weighing an average of 2.5 metric

tonnes (t), constituted a gigantic operation, even by

todays standards.

The general idea in the existing literature is that the

Egyptians transported the stone blocks on wooden sledges,

which were dragged forward by a team of human workers.

However, the efficiency of a transportation by sledgesis extremely low. It would have required an enormous


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effort and so many human workers that the working area

and the road to the pyramid would have been

overcrowded. Sledges were probably used in special

situations, but it is difficult to believe that this was thecase for the great majority of transportation.

There must have been a more efficient transportation

system to meet the required building and time conditions.

IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?

In the late 1990s, Cambridge University engineer DickParry and, separately, researchers Roumen J. Mladjov and

Ian R. Mladjov, came up with a revolutionary idea: stone

blocks were transported by rolling . The use of a vehicle

on wheels was not an option because the wheel was not

known to the Egyptians and above all not solid enough

for such heavy loads. The authors failed to give us a

satisfying and practical solution. However, their idea was

not new. Already in 1977 an english engineer suggested

this method and it was earlier described by Vitruvius, the

ancient Roman architect and engineer, in his celebrated

treatiseDe Architectura (On Architecture).

Was there a simple and practical solution? We know

that the use of rollers for the transportation of heavy loads

was an every day technique in ancient Egypt.

Therefore, upscaling this proces for large items is a logicalthought.

The Eyptians did their work with ropes and levers.

The only materials available to them were copper, stone

(dolerite) and wood and probably also bronze, a

material 2 to 3 times as hard and strong as copper. (A

tool made of bronze was found in the pyramid.)

Simplicity had to be the key.


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A realistic alternative might have been the rolling

stone carrier. This hypothetical device consists of two

wooden discs, with a stone block placed in-between,

firmly tied together with a rope a practical solution forthe transportation of stone blocks weighing 2.5 t.

A disc could be made of a number of similar-shaped

wooden circle segments. If copper nails were not

available, wedges, wooden pins or a rope could be used toconnect the parts.

Stone block

TWO WOODENDISCS WITH A

STONE BLOCK

IN-BETWEEN

THE ROLLING STONE CARRIER

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE :

CONNECTED AND

FIXED

WITH A ROPE

A practical solution

for a load of 2.5 t.


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A carrier for the transport and temporary storage of

heavy stone blocks up to 15 t, used in the lowest layers of

the pyramid, is showed in the next design. The stone block

is supportedby four wooden bars and fastened by wedges.

HOW DID IT WORK?

The discs and stone as a whole is a rolling element.

With a pair of shafts and holes in the center of the discs

the carrier could be pushed and pulled forward by humanpower or by an animal. Long shafts would make it easy to

Carrier for stone blocs

up to 15 t.

With padding blocks it was

possible to use it fordiferent seizes.

1.7 m

to

2.5m

circle segment

A disc made of 8 identical

wooden circle segments and a

rope laced through the holes


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round sharp bends. As the force of the heavy load is

directly transferred to the bottom through the discs, the

centre holes would serve only as input for the light pulling

force, rather than suffer the heavy load. But even withoutthe shafts, the workers would be able to roll the stone

block by pushing upward on both discs.

On a firm, plain surface (wood, stone or bricks) such a

system with wooden discs has a friction factor against

rolling of about 0.025. This value can be determined by

experiments involving models. Furthermore, it is known tocertain transportation companies that large wooden cable

reels start rolling down at a slope of slightly more than

2.5 % (1:40), which means that the friction factor is equal

to the value of that slope, or 0.025.

Therefore the transport of a stone block with a weight of

2.5 t (2,500kg) on a plain surface requires a pulling force of

0.025 x 2,500 = 63 kilogram-force (kgf). So a team of6 human workers can easily pull this stone block forward.

In contrast, a wooden sledge with this load has a friction

factor of 0.2 to 0.4 and requires a pulling force of at least

0.2 x 2,500 = 500 kgf !

To reach the construction platform of the pyramid,

there existed a ramp or a spiral road around the pyramid

with a slope of about 5% (1:20).

F

Weight

The stone block moves forward

when F is greater than:

friction factor x Weight


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To overcome the gravity component of the load, an

additional pulling force was necessary of 5% of 2.5 t, or

0.05 x 2,500 = 125 kgf, which makes the total effort 63 +

125 = 188 kgf.In order to obtain the required extra power, ten workers

with a rope were added at the foot of the Pyramid. With an

effort of 188 / 16, or about 12 kgf per worker, a team of in

total of 16 human workers could transport the load uphill.

Most researchers believe the Egyptians had to quarry

and transport daily 40 stone blocks per hour to meet the

required construction period of 20 years.

This means a delivery to the construction platform of one

stone block every 1.5 minutes. In this time, with anassumed speed of 1.5 km per hour, a transport team could

cover a distance of 1.5 / 60 x 1,500 = 37.5 metres. With

this system, it would have been possible to create a

continuous flow of stone blocks to the construction

platform, with a distance of 37.5 metres between two

successive transport teams.

Rope

Slope 5%

Stone block

Transportation of a 2.5 t stone block

- 6 workers for a horizontal transportation

- 16 workers for an uphill transportation

b

a

Slope = tan( ) = a/b


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It would have taken roughly one hour to transport a

stone block over a road (slope 5%) with a length of 1,400

metres from the foot of the pyramid to an altitude of 70

metres (halfway to the top).

Since the distance from the pyramid to the nearby

quarries was about 700 metres, the total length of the

transport line from the quarry to a construction platformhalfway to the top was 1,400 + 700 = 2,100 metres. With

an average distance of 37.5 m between two transport

teams, the number of carriers on the road was 2,100 / 37.5

= 56. This means that, together with the same number of

returning carriers, a total of 112 were in use daily.

The uphill transportations to a construction platform

halfway to the top, required 1,400 / 37.5 or 37 teams of 16

workers and the horizontal transportations 700 / 37.5 or 19

teams of 6 workers. This gives a total of 37 x 16 + 19 x 6

= 706 workers. The same number of workers was always

on the way back. The returning workers had time enough

to do additional jobs on the construction platform and in

the quarries. We can therefore conclude that roughly

706 x 2 = 1,412 workers were on the road daily.

Transport teams of 16

workers with each a

2.5 t stone block

Slope

5% 1:20

V = 1.5 km/h

28 m37.5 m

A continuous flow of stoneblocks to the

construction platform


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When the quarry workers with their stone or bronze

tools had finished removing the material on both sides of

the stone block and underneath it, two beams and rollers

were placed under the stone block. Then they carved agroove on the upper side of the stone block and placed

wedges to split it. Once split, the stone block rested on the

rollers and could be rolled away from the stone wall. In

this position, it was possible to give the stone block its

final size in accordance with the dimensions of the

rectangular area inside the carrier. Both sides of the stone

block were accessible now for mounting the discs.

A 1997 NOVA (television episode) pyramid building

experiment showed us that, allowing for the tools used by

the ancient Egyptians, it would have taken two workers

two days to carve a single stone block. (It therefore would

have taken four workers one day to carve a single stone

block). The production of 40 stoneblocks per hour, or 320

per day, required a daily manpower of 320 x 4 = 1,280

workers.

QUARRY

Loading of a 2.5 t stone block ( 0.7 x 1.1 x 1.3 m)

( thickness x width x length)

A rectangular

framework

attached to

the disc with

ropes and

wooden pins

Holes for rope

RollerBeam


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To prevent differences in height in a layer of stone

blocks, it was very important that each stone block

comprising that layer had the same thickness. Considering

that the thickness of each stone block was dictated by thedimensions of the centre area of the carrier, this

requirement was always met when the same-sized carrier

was used.

Unloading the stone blocks took place with rollers and

slanted beams. Afterwards the empty discs were returned

to the quarry to be used for the next load of blocks. If

necessary, adjustments could be made to the stone blocks.When possible, large fragments of stone were transformed

into usable building elements rather then discarded. Debris

was used as filling material. The final positioning of the

stone block took place with a heavy ram.

Positioning the stone block on the

platform with a 700 kg rolling ram

Cylindrical

stone


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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The rolling stone carrier was a simple design and

made of local available materials.

This tool made it possible to transport heavy stone

blocks in an efficient way and with human power.

The carrier was very compact, easy to handle and it

could easily round sharp corners. The activities in the quarry can be fully explained

with this device.

The carrier made it possible to deliver stone blocks

with a constant thickness.

Calculations concerning transportation capacity and

the use of manpower lead to reasonable values.

The device could be used for temporary storage

purposes, and was an optimal solution for long distance

transportation by ship.

Althought the wheel wasnt known to the ancient

Egyptians, the rolling of heavy objects and the use of

rollers were every day techniques in those days. So far, no

single system has been excavated other than some tools

with wooden circle segments found by the Britisharchaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie.

Wood was a valuable material for building and fuel, so

it is understandable that not much of this material can

nowadays be found. Nevertheless, we know that the

Egyptians built ships and were good craftsmen. Therefore,

use of the rolling stone carrier is a realistic possibility.


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OTHER MYSTERIES

Use of the rolling stone carrier applies to the bulk -

though not the entirety - of the building materials used to

construct the Pyramid. Left unanswered the question of

how the Egyptians managed to transport the extremely

heavy granite blocks needed for the construction of the

Kings Chamber and how they lifted them to a height ofabout 60 metres. About 50 such blocks were used, each

with a weight of between 50 to 70 t. Furthermore, much

speculation surrounds the type of ramp or upward road

used by the Egyptians.

How were stone blocks of 50 tons and more raised to

a high level? The answer is simple. At the beginning of

construction of the Pyramid, these heavy objects were

placed on one of the first levels of the working platform.

After the completion of each layer, blocks were lifted to

the next level of the platform, until the required height

was reached. There was space enough on the platform for

special tools and extra workers.

How were these stone blocks transported? Theseenormous granite stone blocks arrived by ship from

Aswan, located approximately 800 km south of Giza. If

additional transportation took place with a wooden sledge,

at least 400 workers would have been required. Even

with lubrication and a very low friction factor of 0.2 , the

pulling force was already as high as 0.2 x 50,000 =

10,000kgf. A better solution, of course, would have been a


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How were these heavy stone blocks placed in the

transport discs? This process required a special wooden

tool, consisting of two circle segments connected by

wooden bars. The moment the stone block in the quarry

had been removed, it rested on this tool. Using levers andropes, the workers then moved the block away from the

stone wall, allowing them to mount the discs on both ends

of the stone block.

A special tool for

large stone blocks

Lifting and

floating bylowering the

water level in the

ponton

A 60 ton

stone block in

transport discs

Canal tothe Nile

Ponton

system,filled with

water

Transport over the Nile(BoatmodelFranz Lhner, adapted for a ponton system)

Roll-on, roll-off

facility


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What type of ramp was used? The step-by-step method

described earlier of lifting heavy stone blocks on the

working platform of the Pyramid had a great advantage.

That construction of the Pyramid began at low height

would have eliminated the need for a large capacity ramp.

Only a short ramp would have been needed to place these

enormous stone blocks on the first layers of the Pyramid.

A spiral road for the bulk of transportation. A

transportation team with a rolling stone carrier was usually

no wider than 1.5 metres and the great majority of loads

were no heavier than 2.5 to 3 t. These values are such that

a normal road with a width of 5 metres would have been

adequate, providing enough space for the upgoing and

downgoing transportations. Therefore, from a logistical

point of view, an ascending spiral road along the periphery

of the pyramid would have been the most appropriate

solution.

A special tool for mounting the discs on a

60 t granite stone block ( 1.5 x 2 x 8 m)

The stone block was

rolled away after

splitting

The discs were

mounted on both ends

of the stone block

4m

Transport

QUARRY


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An ascending road along the Corner and serviceperiphery of the pyramid area (10 x 10m).

( 5m width).

Top view of the pyramid at a height of 40m and

64% of its final volume. Estimated building time

up to this phase is about 13 years.

Centre of the working

platform is the spot for

the construction of the

Kings Chamber.

Lined up material for

the Kings Chamber.

Ascending road,

slope 5%, for thetransportation of

stone blocks and

other material.

232m

164m


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LAST WORDS

Described above are some possible solutions to

unanswered questions or so called mysteries thatcontinue to circulate about the construction of the Great

Pyramid. Many of these mysteries can be realistically

addressed by considering the proper use of locally

available materials, simple engineering techniques,

skilled craftsmen and human labour and, above all, high

quality management. All of these suggestions can be

supported by simple calculations. Not all thesesuggestions are new, but they are now placed in a

context that gives us possible answers concerning how

this incredible structure was built!

FOOTNOTES

1. John D. Bush, The Rolling Stones, October 1977.

2. Vitruvius,De Architectura, Vol. X, chapter 2

The Great Pyramid built with Rolling Stones

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