# How were the pyramids in Egypt built? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 7, 2014, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559 "2014-12-07T10:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 39
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/761 "2015-04-27T00:34:22Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > Ah, yes, I remember. They proposed a RAMP that wound itself up the pyramid. > That is what you see in that scan. It’s not 5 levels, it’ a spiral case. You must have missed a previous post where I proved beyond fear of contradiction that the scan can not depict only a spiral ramp. Almost all the lines in the scan are parallel to the base. It’s impossible for a ramp to have lines parallel to the base. This is by definition and has nothing to do with interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/762 "2015-04-27T00:35:26Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Yep, called it too, **cladking** still goes for the straw man of the very large and impractical ramp. All ramps are debunked (see post #152). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/763 "2015-04-27T00:37:00Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > All ramps are debunked (see post #152). Would you mind not using the word “debunked” again until you learn what the word means? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/764 "2015-04-27T00:37:35Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > You didn’t answer my question. I know what biologists believe. > > I’m suggesting that language in all animals and in early man reflected the wiring of the brain. This wiring contains the natural logic that the animal uses to think and communicate. > > The first beaver to figure it out used simple observation and natural logic. This was then taught to other beavers as language but through demonstration. The behavior is now inate to the brain after many generations. It’s in the very genes but the first beaver had to figure it out without any peer review. > > The logic should be pretty simple; aim the biggest trees at the fastest flowing water, rinse and repeat until there’s a nice little den that can be accessed under the water. Home sweet home and not one ramp required. Other animals need ramps, but not beavers and not pyramid builders. My observation stands, it is unlikely that the pyramid builders forgot how to use geysers in less than a generation. Even less likely because you are implying that they build it with innate knowledge. And chickens were nowhere to be seen yet. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/765 "2015-04-27T00:38:59Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Where did you get the number “2 1/2 million” stones? It is a calculation based on the size of the pyramid. V = (B x H x W)/ 3. It is adjusted slightly because there is a small rise on the west side. Of course this is based on the average size stone and the smallest visible is only abot 1 ton and the largest about 65 ton. The pyramid is 481’ talland has sides of 770’ if you’d like to try it on your own. Limestone has a density of about 2.7. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/766 "2015-04-27T00:39:48Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > All ramps are debunked (see post #152). Again, no independent source to support that, and no researcher that agrees with you. Again just a “neener-neener” debunking. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/767 "2015-04-27T00:40:21Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Nobody was dragging anything. They simply rolled them up, with pulleys and counterweights to do the heavy lifting. I do believe you’re on the right track. The most important thing to rememnber is they went straight up a step pyramid. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/768 "2015-04-27T00:42:12Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I don’t know! Flinders Petrie estimated it at a measly 2-1/3 million stones. Modern estimates are even lower. Some are realistic and many appear to be jokes. 2 1/4 million might be pretty close but I just prefer to stick to the math until someone proves otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/769 "2015-04-27T00:42:25Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > And chickens were nowhere to be seen yet. And yet I seem to see evidence of their having been here all over this thread. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/770 "2015-04-27T00:42:29Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > You must have missed a previous post where I proved beyond fear of contradiction that the scan can not depict only a spiral ramp. Almost all the lines in the scan are parallel to the base. It’s impossible for a ramp to have lines parallel to the base. > > This is by definition and has nothing to do with interpretation. Of course you are now denying what Bui and the other member of the gravimetric concluded what was what they detected. Not parallel levels. You are wrong indeed. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/771 "2015-04-27T00:47:46Z")
“as noted, the answer is we could if we really wanted too. We have no need for a pyramid, and we could spend that $5-10 billion on a lot of other things that are more meaningful. For instance, we could spend a few billion on sending a rover to Mars, something the ancient Egyptians couldn’t even dream of.” But bear in mind, shipping the big honking stone cubes from Egypt to Mars would have to be staged since building a car out of rock is somewhat impractical. And the aliens have such a sense of purpose, driving around the universe building large, essentially useless objects (in addition to eviscerating cows and flattening wheat). But seriously, in “Chariots of the Gods”, one of von Daniken’s examples was a wall in which the stones were so tightly fitted that a knife blade couldn’t fit between them and, therefore, aliens had to do it - really? It’s not rocket science (no pun intended); it’s a question of patience, planning and resources - no more, no less. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/772 "2015-04-27T00:51:23Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Nobody was dragging anything. They simply rolled them up, with pulleys and counterweights to do the heavy lifting. > [@cladking](#): > > I do believe you’re on the right track. > > The most important thing to rememnber is they went straight up a step pyramid. No, I don’t think he is helping you **cladking** , in more ways than one, the ones proposing devices to roll the stones also think that ramps facilitated the use of those devices: > **[The Great Pyramid and Transport of Heavy Stone Blocks](https://blog.world-mysteries.com/mystic-places/the-great-pyramid-and-transport-of-heavy-stone-blocks/)** ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/773 "2015-04-27T01:01:46Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Sorry, this is nonsense that does not support what you claim. Some odd photos of cylinders does not magically turn into “drills” because you need them to do so. (And you really think that citing woo master Erdogan Ercivan, with his claims that the ancient Egyptians had measured the speed of light and that their technology was brought here by space aliens is helping your arguments?) I didn’t know I did that and I have no clue who he is. There’s not really much doubt as to the purpose of the pipes. It’s not established fact but it is known that they created cores when they drilled since there are cores that match drill holes. This is just a freakin’ picture so please ignore the source; [![](http://www.gizapower.com/petrie/giza5.gif) ](http://www.gizapower.com/petrie/giza5.gif) This is a granite core with a spiral groove on the edge. It is not really understood how it was made but it seems quite obvious a pipe must have bbeen involved. Since these pipes are known in large diameter and long segments it seems apparent they might be able to drill wells. The physical evidence suupports the concept of geysers from several directions. There are no gaps in the theory other than the evidence of deposits and there is the ben ben in the Sphinx temple as well as the logic that explains why more evidence of the deposits aren’t known. Believe it or not some of the best researchers in the field today disagree with Egyptologists who still won’t run the tests. No, I don’t consider myself a very good researcher but I believe I’m probably the one who stumbled on the correct answer. Egyptologists are not what people think they are. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/774 "2015-04-27T01:07:08Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Even less likely because you are implying that they build it with innate knowledge. No, no, no, no, no! All true knowledge is inate (visceral). The builders acquired all their knowledge through observation and logic which was primitive science. An Egyptian could have memorized the names of sekhmet but unless he could compute her course he lacked the visceral knowledge needed to build pyramids. One could speak with knowledge that wasn’t visceral but just as today it requires “experience” to truly “know” anything. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/775 "2015-04-27T01:10:40Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Not parallel levels. Are you really going to argue with simple observation? This I can’t respond to. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/776 "2015-04-27T01:12:52Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Are you really going to argue with simple observation? > > This I can’t respond to. It is clear what is going on, Bui and the experts at gravimetric reported to Houdin that it was a spiral structure, not what you describe, you are only demanding that experts be ignored. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/777 "2015-04-27T01:13:53Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > No, no, no, no, no! > > All true knowledge is inate (visceral). The builders acquired all their knowledge through observation and logic which was primitive science. > > An Egyptian could have memorized the names of sekhmet but unless he could compute her course he lacked the visceral knowledge needed to build pyramids. One could speak with knowledge that wasn’t visceral but just as today it requires “experience” to truly “know” anything. So why did they forget it when the next pyramid was build? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/778 "2015-04-27T01:19:21Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Believe it or not some of the best researchers in the field today disagree with Egyptologists who still won’t run the tests. Name or link to two, since they are “some of the best.” Please don’t include yourself. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/779 "2015-04-27T01:23:04Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > So why did they forget it when the next pyramid was build? They didn’t forget it. They just had used up the seltzer on the first one. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/780 "2015-04-27T01:29:03Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I didn’t know I did that and I have no clue who he is. > > There’s not really much doubt as to the purpose of the pipes. It’s not established fact but it is known that they created cores when they drilled since there are cores that match drill holes. > > This is just a freakin’ picture so please ignore the source; > > [http://www.gizapower.com/petrie/giza5.gif](http://www.gizapower.com/petrie/giza5.gif) > > This is a granite core with a spiral groove on the edge. It is not really understood how it was made but it seems quite obvious a pipe must have bbeen involved. Since these pipes are known in large diameter and long segments it seems apparent they might be able to drill wells. The physical evidence suupports the concept of geysers from several directions. There are no gaps in the theory other than the evidence of deposits and there is the ben ben in the Sphinx temple as well as the logic that explains why more evidence of the deposits aren’t known. > > Believe it or not some of the best researchers in the field today disagree with Egyptologists who still won’t run the tests. No, I don’t consider myself a very good researcher but I believe I’m probably the one who stumbled on the correct answer. > > Egyptologists are not what people think they are. No, the most likely way the drills were used was not to dig wells: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiyTF9W4BwY) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=38) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=40)