It is obvious that the Ancient Egyptians used other than muscle to build the pyramids. Describe the devices!?

Question

Some said they had anti-gravity machines to lift the great stones into place. Where, then, did the machines go? (Are they hidden inside the pyramid as a final step just to tidy up the work sites?)

Answer 1

Hahaha, antigravity? Hardly!

The Egyptians used a number of creative devices, most of which operated on the principal of rolling an object, rather than sliding or lifting it, a rather clever idea if you realize that the moment of inertia (roughly how "hard" it is to roll an object around some axis) is very, very low for those big stones along thier longest axis.

To transport them, they lashed four wooden "sleds" around the stone, which together forme several big wooden wheels that encompassed and surrounded the stone. This was discovered only recently during an excavation of an Egyptian engineer's tomb.

Another one of thier great ideas was to lift heavy stones by mounting them on a curved wooden structure (so that the stone is resting on a structure with a round bottom). They would tilt it one way, and slide thin slabs underneath the edge that was lifted, and then tilt it the other way, and repeat the process. By these means, only a few men could hoist a many-ton stone several feet in a few hours.

Apartently, though, the didn't use cranes of any sort of pulley.

Edit - No really, the Egyptians never used pulleys untill after the Greeks (viz. Alexander) conquered them. Also, they didn't use slave labor to build the pyramids. Essentially, when men were not needed in the fields, they "volunteered" to work for the state on such projects, recieving food and board, in addition to a small stipend at the end of thier term of service.

Answer 2

I'm not an archaeologist, don't know what the evidence says. According to the National Geographic Society's fairly limited web site on the Pyramids, the builders of the pyramids at Giza were mostly Egyptians, not foreigners -- ie. not the Jewish slaves suggested by the story in Exodus. However, the National Geo adds that the workforce may have included villagers "conscripted" from the region around Giza. "Conscripted" means "drafted," basically - ordered by the government to do the work, regardless of whether the individual villagers wanted to. The fact that the pyramid workers may have gotten high on beer & marijuana says nothing about whether their labor was voluntary, I think. And it certainly says nothing about whether they were well or badly treated. The factory workers of the early English Industrial Revolution in many cases worked under what we would now call abusive conditions. These included long hours, boring work, extensive employment of young children in certain kinds of production, unhealthy working conditions, and extended periods of unemployment and poverty. The English factory workers of the early 1800s, however, were notorious among social reformers for their heavy consumption of beer and -- more destructively -- gin. In some factory towns working people also used opium and gave their children opium-laced "medicines" to keep them quite and well-behaved when their working mothers left them in the care of crude day care centers. So there was a good deal of alcohol & drug use among the English working class during the worst years of the Industrial Revolution. The workers were formally free, not slaves, but this didn't keep them from being maltreated. I can't see why the Egyptians couldn't also have exploited their pyramid work force pretty intensely, but provided them with alcohol and THC to help them endure it.

Answer 3

Anti-gravity machines and extraterrestrial help are fundamentally ridiculous. As others have mentioned, ramps, sledges, ropes and manpower. However, it amazes me that people are still convinced (erroneously) that the workers were comprised mainly of slaves. Entire communities of workers chose to dwell near the pyramids to aid in their construction. Ancient Egyptian theology stated that the Pharaoh became a god (or became one with the gods) upon death, and the state of Egypt was dependent upon the state of the pharaoh's soul. Thus, all Egyptians had a vested interest in the proper construction of the pyramids. Their culture was not nearly so cruel and slave-based as the antiquated notions described by so many Egypt fanatics.

Answer 4

Obvious is a great word. Never use it in a rigorous math proof or presentation... it will hurt you.

Obvious doesnt exist outside the context of community. Alone it doesnt matter whether something is obvious or not. But it presupposes some things about the state of the members of the community, doesnt it?

Obvious suggests: if you dont get this then you are stupid.

When I was a kid I said "obvious" too much. I was obviously incorrect, and nobody had the kind manners to ask me to defend my "obvious".

Answer 5

Ramps, chisels, and LOTS of muscle! Discovery showed how to errect an obelysk - they posed a few theories and acted out a few to lift a 40ft high pillar.

As for pyramids, lots of low incline ramps and TONS of muscle - slave labor makes doing that pretty easy.

Answer 6

Sand. Afterward they moved the sand away from the pyramids.

Wooden rollers or wooden sledges. Long since decayed to dust.

Large rafts or barges. Long since decayed to dust.

Rope. Long since decayed to dust.

People. Most are long since decayed to dust, but you can find some remains in tombs.

Mud. It turned to sand after it dried out. No shortage of sand in Egypt.

Hammers, chisels, other tools. Probably rusted away, or melted down to make new tools.

Answer 7

Anti-gravity machines? I highly doubt that! They had complex systems of pulleys and things to help.