Monumental Shift
Tackling an ages-old puzzle, a French architect offers a new theory on how the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid at Giza
- By Diana Parsell
- Smithsonian.com, August 01, 2007, Subscribe
In 1999, Henri Houdin, a retired French civil engineer, was watching a television documentary on the construction of Egypt's ancient pyramids. He had supervised many dam and bridge projects, and much of what he saw on the show struck him as impractical. "It was the usual pyramid-building theories, but he wasn't satisfied as an engineer," says his son, Jean-Pierre, an independent architect. "He had a sparkle in the brain. 'If I had to build one now, I would do it from the inside out.' "
Jean-Pierre Houdin realized he could test the feasibility of his father's idea through computer-based 3-D modeling. That's what he set out to do, taking for his model the Great Pyramid at Giza. His inquiry grew into a passionate quest to solve a puzzle that has baffled humankind for ages: how exactly was the Great Pyramid built? Houdin thinks he's figured it out, and that his father was onto something.
The Great Pyramid rose 4,500 years ago on the Giza plateau, just outside Cairo, to house the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu (called Cheops by the Greeks). Covering 13 acres and originally 481 feet high, it survives as the last of the "seven wonders" of the ancient world. Its technical precision amazes modern architects and engineers, especially in light of the available resources. The pyramid's 2.3 million limestone blocks, most weighing more than two tons, were cut and hauled into place without the benefit of wheels, pulleys and iron tools.
After visiting Khufu's pyramid around 450 B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus surmised that 100,000 slaves spent 20 years building it. Many modern Egyptologists view that time frame as reasonable. But the notion that slaves did the work—long a myth of schoolbooks—has been discredited. Researchers now regard Egypt's pyramids as huge public works projects, to which all households in the kingdom provided workers, food and supplies.
Various studies have analyzed logistical movements, labor organization and the use of wooden sledges, ramps, levers and other devices to help explain pyramid construction. Some studies suggest that the work force may have been a fifth or a tenth of Herodotus' estimate. Yet the overall process by which the workers assembled the Great Pyramid remains a mystery.
To make his 3-D models of pyramid construction faithful to methods of the past and prevailing knowledge in the field, Houdin consulted with Egyptologists. Five years into the project, Dassault Systèmes, a French software company that makes 3-D models for cars and airplanes, stepped in to offer support. The company's software engineers spent 5,000 hours helping Houdin compile 3-D computer simulations to verify his ideas.
"The objective was to say, if we had to build the pyramid today using Jean-Paul's theories, would it be possible?" says Mehdi Tayoubi, a creative director at Dassault. "We found it would be."
Houdin announced the results of his study, which has not yet been published in a scientific journal, in March at a press conference in Paris. Members of the audience donned 3-D glasses to follow Houdin "inside" the Great Pyramid as he explained his view of how it was built. (His father, now 84, attended the event.)
As Houdin sees it, the process worked like this: First, workers used a conventional straight ramp to haul and assemble the large stone blocks for the pyramid's base layers, up to 141 feet; at that level, nearly three-fourths of the structure's total volume would be complete. That took about ten years. Next came construction of the interior King's Chamber—a separate engineering challenge because its ceiling incorporated granite beams weighing up to 60 tons each.
In the final stage, Houdin contends, the builders reached the steep upper layers of the pyramid by means of spiraling internal ramps, or tunnels. Stone blocks from the external ramp, he believes, were cut smaller to fill the top spaces. "At the end you have no waste," he says. "That's why we never found any remains at the site."
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Comments (15)
Diana, I have a great admiration for mr. Houdin, but his system is very sophisticated. There is another and more simple investigation, very interesting to know. See next link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/101327184/The-Great-Pyramid-built-with-Rolling-Stones Kind regards, Henk Koens
Posted by Henk Koens on March 12,2013 | 05:18 PM
So weren't the workers provided by the households slaves of the households? Just because the wealthy families were forced by the pharaohs to contribute with slaves for the building of their pyramids, doesn't mean they weren't constructed by slaves.
Posted by livinginstone on October 19,2012 | 01:56 AM
interesting, take. should be totally provable or disprovable, with ground (pyramid) piercing radar :-) the math behind being spiraling around an almost square ramp, should be way beyond a civilization that didn't even have curved arches. it would show that the egyptians were far more advanced in their mathematics of the time, then we thought.
Posted by charles kafka on April 4,2012 | 08:40 PM
Anyone interested in the subject at hand would do themselves a great favor by examination of the books "Secrets of the Great Pyramid" , "The Magic of Obelisks" , and "Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids" by Peter Tompkins. I mention two ideas of note: 1) whatever was originally intended, a project needing years or generations to complete can have its purposes and goals augmented or even revised, possibly just to keep everyone working, and 2) that historian, Herodotus, who first named the object was a Greek. Translation from Greek for "pyre" "amid" is "fire" "in the center of" .
Posted by John Aikman on March 23,2012 | 04:34 AM
I believe that Ezekiel's "wheels within wheels" and his vision refers to the real event circa 2500 BC of Giza Pyramid building using ancient Egyptian four-lobed pinion-pulleys to raise the Pyramid blocks.
Fully explained at www.haitheory.com
or Google four-lobed pinion-pulley.
Posted by Paul Hai on December 18,2011 | 08:32 AM
The great pyramids could not have been built 4500years back. It must have been built 12500 years back , to pass on message to future humans by the then existing advanced civilisation. That was when temperature rose by 16degrees in 50 years and all technical civilisations were wiped out by the repeated tsunamic inundashons. As it is due to lingering ice age developed settlements were near the sea shores. The tunnel in the north face was exactly pointing at Vega , which was the pole star at that time. The egyptians only repaired the pyramids. Even that would be a herculian task for them.
Posted by PRADEEP GOSWAMI on October 7,2010 | 10:31 AM
How about this as a solution. Construction of the pyramid started on the peak of a hill. The first block was put in place first. Then, earth or rock underneath the first block was dug out to make a cavity underneath each end of the block but with enough earth/rock left in the middle underneath the block to suppport it. Two further blocks were then inserted in these cavities and the earth/rock that had been left in the middle to support the first block was removed as the first block was now supported by the two blocks inserted under each end of it. The principle was then continued until the pyramid was completed. Hence the VALLEY of the kings; "valley" because they built the pyramids downwards and not upwards. Any good?
Posted by Sean McLaughlin on February 27,2010 | 05:10 AM
Rampless Egyptian Pyramid construction has a definite AUSTRALIAN connection.
Captain Matthew Flinders navigated and mapped Australia’s coastline. His grandson became Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie who excavated ancient Egyptian artifacts. In 1895 as an employee of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) of London he was excavating artifacts at Deir el-Bahari and found a cache of ancient building equipment buried for preservation in a hewn out rock pit during Pharaonic times.
One of the wooden items is stated as being of “unidentified use” and has been named the “Petrie rocker” by Egyptologists.
Petrie considered the “rocker” was used to raise Pyramid blocks with a “rocking” motion and in 2006 he has been proven partly correct on the matter of raising Pyramid blocks using “rockers”.
The “rocker” is a component of an ancient Egyptian pulley which operates with a mechanical advantage of 2.8 and with CLASS 2 lever principle as a wheelbarrow does. (CLASS 2 lever: Pivot – Load – Effort).
The technical term for the “Petrie rocker” is “pinion-pulley lobe quadrant”. Four of these surround a Pyramid block and then the pulley is hoisted causing rotation and positive engagements of pulley lobes with Pyramid steps.
Consider the Pyramid as four RACKS of stone teeth on to which the PINION pulley lobes engage and here is the earliest form of RACK & PINION mechanics that we know of.
This is the ancient method of Pyramid construction as used on at least four large Pyramids: Sneferu’s RED Pyramid and those at Giza of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
This ancient method of construction DOES NOT REQUIRE RAMPS and uses the Pyramid under construction (using all four sides simultaneously) to complete the Pyramid, thus using a Pyramid to build a Pyramid.
Petrie died in Jerusalem in 1942 unknowing that “Petrie rockers” are components of an ancient pulley, unlike any pulley in the modern world, and his most important excavation.
Posted by Paul Hai on December 26,2009 | 06:18 AM
A Google search for "Egyptian pyramid construction" and "Egyptian pyramid ramps" displays my web page as number one on page one. It is the only web page that describes the use of movable wooden ramps. My web page also points out the absurdity of the mud rubble ramp theory postulated in almost all the other web pages. Perhaps you can tell my why it is totally ignored by your page and all the others when it is so widely viewed.
Posted by Frank Steiger on October 9,2009 | 01:38 AM
The Cheops pyramid was designed by skilled architects, and the construction was supervised by very skilled Engineers. The very moment that the Cheops pyramid was completed, with all its fittings and precision surfaces in place, was the only time that this Instrument was ready for use, for the purpose to which it was designed. The outer casings were precision ground to optical tolerances. The so called “ventilation shafts” measured 8.2 inches square, the same dimensions as the wave length Of galactic Hydrogen ( 1,420 MHz), There was no metal used in their construction because a more efficient method was used ,. Namely a UHF plasma beam. Using one side of the pyramid, fitted with a small hyperbolic reflector, would convert this paraboloid surface Into a very high gain UHF antenna. Few people are interested in the original purpose of this instrument. The outer casings are seldom referred to. Of course the shafts ( wave guides) were closed up, which is the most intelligent thing one can do, when not using the shafts, particularly if you want to avoid filling the interior of the pyramid with water from the rain . All we have left now is a huge pile of stones, it is no longer a purpose built pyramid. B .Sallur
Posted by Brian Sallur on January 19,2009 | 07:49 AM
Canto's Pyramid Sides As Ramps Theory of Construction... Henry Houdin was partially correct. The internal ramp was used to haul up sand and small stones as well as equipment by workers. My theory contends that the Egyptians used the SIDES OF THE PYRAMID AS RAMPS from launch points on a base ramp. The building stones were placed on sleds that were pulled straight up the side of the pyramid using vessels as counter weights on the opposite that were filled with sand and small stone. Winches were used at the top to guide ropes and tracks in core stones guided the sleds. Once the building stones reached the top, the sand and stone were emptied out the bottom of the vessels. This method was duplicated all along the side of the pyramid which accounts for the speed of construction. The outer casing stones were cut and polished in the quarry and put in place first and then the core stones were put into place as needed and cut to size on the spot to fit. My theory does not require massive construction of external ramps, complicated pulleys/lever mechanisms, nor extra terrestrials. It uses simplicity and the resources of the time. I can email a pdf diagram for further illustration. canto_lee@hotmail.com
Posted by Canto Lee on December 2,2008 | 06:03 PM
The Pyramids were made by Telekinesis by the Sirians from Sirius, you will find the answers you seek in The Pleiadian Agenda. Peace. Love and Light. B
Posted by Brett Berg on June 10,2008 | 01:56 PM
May I request that the Smithsonian update their websites concerning ancient Egyptian Pyramid construction theories by including the new discovery and Australian rampless theory of 27 August 2006. The new work is carried within a 121 page book. http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an41968130 The National Libraries Australia link.
Posted by Paul Hai on June 10,2008 | 03:45 AM
Thank you for allowing me to comment on the new theory of internal ramps. I was very surprised when Archaeology magazine seemed to come out in favor of Houdin's theory lot stock and barrel. How do the experts at the Smithsonian feel about it. To me, it is the most fascinating thing I've heard about in years. I've e-mailed Houdin, but is there anyone else who has an opinion on the matter who I might contact? Fascinated but still skeptical James Webster Auburn, Ala.
Posted by James Webster on June 9,2008 | 04:27 PM