Great pyramid of Giza -- Could we rebuild it?

[Crossbow]

Sure we could build pyramids now if we wanted to, it is just that no one wants to spend tens of millions of dollars to make something that would be nothing more than the world's largest mausoleum.

Anyway, the main thing that bothers me so much about the pyramid guys is that seem to think that one day the Egyptians just woke up and decided to start building these huge pyramids. But what actually happened, is that the Egyptians started with very small tombs, then over the course of some 15 centuries, they gradually made them larger and larger, until the huge pyramids were the result. And apparently, they learned a great deal in the interim.

Such as, watch the angle and supporting materials, otherwise the pyramid may collapse.
Such as, make sure that the quarry used to produce the stones used to build the pyramid, can actually be shipped to the site of its construction.
Such as, build a ramp to make it easier to huff the stones to the job site.
Such as, use the organization and resources of a wealthy dictatorship to make it all happen within the lifetime of the pharaoh who is commissioning the job.
And so on.

 

[hgc]

Such as, watch the angle and supporting materials, otherwise the pyramid may collapse.

Oops! Now, what alien intelligence would have made this mistake?

 

[Hutch]

Nathyn, I am no expert on the Pyramids (someone page Joshua Korsoi), but I have stood on the Great Pyramid (twice) and been inside the smallest of the three Giza Pyramids (along with visiting the Step Pyramid at Shakkra). So I can speak with a small amount of knowledge.

The stones are not perfect fits and show where the stonemasons and folks at the site had to do some interesting fitting and arrangements to get the thing to fit right. I'll try to download some of my pictures once I get home.

A massive achievement, a Wonder of the World, but nothing that intelligent people working together (it is now generally accepted in archeology that the Pyramids were not built by slave labor and that the workers were well-fed and looked after) to create a monument for their leader. And doing it using tools that were at hand and a brain that is not inferior to yours or mine.

IMHO of course.

 

[LawnOven]

What about this one? This is the best Pyramid yet, you can gamble inside this one (and get drunk for free).

 

[Almo]

I personally think the Luxor is one of the best-looking of the Vegas Casinos. I could do without the sphinx on front, but the simple pyramid with the mega-light on top is neat. When I was in Vegas for an interview (with Budcat Creations) the guy said that you can see the light reflect from the moon when it passes over in exactly the right spot. Not sure if that's true, but it is certainly a REALLY bright light!

 

[Hutch]

As promised, a few shots of the pyramids, taken in 2004 by yours truly..

This is The Great Pyramid at Giza. Note that the stones are far from uniform and that the fitwas not always the best...

The next three are from the Step Pyramid, an older one that, on a clear day, you can see from Giza (A clear day in Cairo..HA!)

Note the size of the stones in comparison with the Giza ones (the Step Pyramid pre-dates the Giza ones by about 80-100 years, IIRC) and how thefit is no more "perfect" that the Giza ones. But the evolution from Step to Giza is pretty clear.

IMHO as always...

 

[666]

... my mum works in that building.

Well, you ask your mum to look after my money properly. (Smile customer here)

 

[MortFurd]

As promised, a few shots of the pyramids, taken in 2004 by yours truly..

This is The Great Pyramid at Giza. Note that the stones are far from uniform and that the fitwas not always the best...

(Cool pics deleted)

The next three are from the Step Pyramid, an older one that, on a clear day, you can see from Giza (A clear day in Cairo..HA!)

Note the size of the stones in comparison with the Giza ones (the Step Pyramid pre-dates the Giza ones by about 80-100 years, IIRC) and how thefit is no more "perfect" that the Giza ones. But the evolution from Step to Giza is pretty clear.

IMHO as always...

(Cool pics deleted)

Kinda blows the "accuracy" woo out of the water.

 

[Ove]

Kinda blows the "accuracy" woo out of the water.

Well bear in mind that the pyramids originally was covered with white limestone, a bit of this can be seen on top of the great pyramid. The inhabitans of Cairo has however used most of it for housebuilding (back BC i guess). The pyramids would have looke vastly different during King Tut & Co.

 

[NeilC]

I think the question is: could the egyptians have built the golden gate bridge otr the empire state building?

Obviously not. So their alien help or magic clearly was pretty crap. I mean, some guys can travel light years but the best they can offer is how to make a pointless pile of stones to bury dead people in at the cost of thousands of lives. Gee I hope they come back soon.

 

[Big Les]

Well bear in mind that the pyramids originally was covered with white limestone, a bit of this can be seen on top of the great pyramid. The inhabitans of Cairo has however used most of it for housebuilding (back BC i guess). The pyramids would have looke vastly different during King Tut & Co.

Yes; the original effect from any kind of distance would have been of very straight, uniform, polished white sides. So not only could the squared blocks have been dressed in-situe, but the casing stones would have to have been. Rather easier to control the final shape when you consider this. There are South American stone walls made with simple tools that you can't fit a knife between; ancient masons were extremely skilled, extremely patient, and extremely motivated. Doesn't mean they were Xenu's poker buddies.

This is also very interesting re the blocks behind the facade:

http://www.cycle-of-time.net/Radiocarbon.htm

Apparently this pyramid (Khafre), along with the Great Pyramid, (which is even bigger) had gypsum mortar "slopped" on all these stones to "level, align and bond the stones". From Mark Lehner's 1995-6 report, we read that,

"The cores of the giant Giza Pyramids were built with great quantities of gypsum mortar slopped between the stones that the builders set with far less precision than the fine masonry of the outer casing."

 

[JamesDillon]

I haven't read all the replies, so apologies if this has already been pointed out, but the obvious response that that creationist canard is that 1) evolution does not require steadily increasing complexity, because there may be circumstances (see, e.g., cave fish) in which a less complex design has a survival advantage, and 2) in any event, "degradation" of human culture, even if real (and it's probably fair to say that there have at least been historical periods of decline and revitalization, regardless of whether we are currently in a period of decline) has nothing whatsoever to do with the biological complexity with which the theory of evolution concerns itself. So whether we could or could not rebuild the pyramid of Giza today is entirely irrelevant to the validity of the theory of biological evolution.

 

[geni]

This is rubbish. The precision of modern bridges etc. is much higher, and we have tools that can provide precisions several orders of magnitude better, so that part is simply false. Also, I suspect the information is false, especially the .02 inch figure.

given that the source was:

The Giza Power plant: technologies of ancient Egypt, by Christopher Dunn. published 1998 by Bear and company Pages 49 - 66

that seeems likely.

 

[sackett]

I don't get it. Those Egyptians were all HEATHENS. They can't have been superior to CHRISTIANS. They're all burning in HELL; have been for 4,000+ years.

They were pretty straight-laced heathens, too, probably rather more so than the majority of Christians today. Something's not right here.

 

[Panhead56]

Good craftsmen

Beeng a newbee I'm browsing through the forum and found this thread. Had to reply since I also visited the pyramids of Giza (heartely recommended). As shown by hutch's picturies, the accuracy of the main building blocks are.. not really that great. However in the main burrial chamber, there have been some crafty stonemasons at work. (I'm not allowed to post pictures yet). Very impressive, but nothing a master stonemason couldn't reproduce today. The pyramidiots have a lot in common with crop-circle believers. They all obviously flunked in geometry and never discovered what you could do with some simple string and a ruler (and some water in the case of the pyramids).

 

[Ove]

Beeng a newbee I'm browsing through the forum and found this thread. Had to reply since I also visited the pyramids of Giza (heartely recommended). As shown by hutch's picturies, the accuracy of the main building blocks are.. not really that great. However in the main burrial chamber, there have been some crafty stonemasons at work. (I'm not allowed to post pictures yet). Very impressive, but nothing a master stonemason couldn't reproduce today. The pyramidiots have a lot in common with crop-circle believers. They all obviously flunked in geometry and never discovered what you could do with some simple string and a ruler (and some water in the case of the pyramids).

Aaaannnnd don't forget Getafix and his magic potion

 

[drkitten]

I was arguing with a creationist, and they claimed that humanity is becoming less advanced as an argument against evolution. They cited the well-known linguistics study a while back in which asserted that human language overall is becoming less complex.

I'm sorry, I missed this the first time through the thread.

What "well-known linguistics study"? No reputable linguist would make such a claim; few reputable linguists would consider the question to be amenable to study -- and the few who have studied such things, people like McWhorter, Juola, and Karlsson, have come to exactly the opposite conclusion.


I'd appreciate it if you could give me the citation he used....

 

[supercorgi]

The most interesting part, though, was the claim that the pyramids only look cool on the outside, and around the rooms and hallways. The guys doing the documentary claimed that the largest part of the volume of the pyramids is just rubble - boulders and the scraps left from trimming the nice stones. They built the interior walls and the outside walls of properly dressed and set stones, and filled the space between with packed junk.

To the best of my knowledge, the Egyptian pyramids were all built of solid stone blocks of varying sizes. The technique you describe was used in the construction of the Mayan pyramids. The Mayan pyramids were also built bigger and bigger. They'd start with a small pyramid, decide they wanted to make it bigger, and build a new shell around the old one. Some of the pyramids have up to 7 earlier pyramids inside them.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Could we rebuild it?

Gentlemen, we can rebuild [it], we have the technology. We have the capability to make the worlds first Bionic [pyramid]. [The Great Pyramid of Giza] will be that [pyramid]. Better than [it] was before. Better. Stronger. Faster.

 

[NobbyNobbs]

Heard another story way back, it was probably that one that started me out on scepticis'm. One of my teachers told about this man who had calcluated the measurements of the great pyramid. He had discoveret that phi could be found in all numbers (sidelenght = nnn*phi) and i thought wow, these ancient egyptians knew about Phytagoras & Co long before they were born. But then it dawned. If you use a wheel to make your measurements and that would have been a logical tool for them then phi IS present in all measurements.
Ohh well natural explanations are SO boring..

Actually they didn't build them off course, The pyramids was buildt by some Gauls with the gelp of the magic potion made by the famous druid Getafix.

I think you meant "pi". Phi, the golden ratio, is a different number entirely.

I seem to recall a Nova special where some engineers decided to build a (miniature) pyramid using only the technology of the day. It was very interesting.