02-19-2024, 09:12 PM
(02-19-2024, 03:21 PM)Nerb Wrote: Thanks for posting all this. I have had a small fascination regarding Egyptology since queuing for hours at the British Museum as a kid in 1972 to see The Treasures Of Tutankhamun.
His golden mask was awe inspiring and at the age of 7 I still remember standing there infront of the display case in a daze as other people around me seemed to dissappear, until my mum woke me and apologised to the other visitors for my apparent selfishness for not moving along. I like to relish unique moments.
I still have the guide book from that day detailing the dig, the discovery and all about the treasures.
ISBN 0 7230 0070 0 for anyone interested.
Regarding the pyramids, I have been theorising about the construction for many years, as have so many, and cannot get one idea out of my head....
What if every single block was not dragged or rolled up an exterior slope to be raised to each level, but pulled up a central shaft using long ropes on all four sides? A roller mechanism at the top providing the lifting platform and timbers placed under each block as the exited the hole at the top. From there they are rolled or dragged into place on the flat surface of the previous layer.
This could account for why the largest pyramid showed the most obvious sign of this possible construction method by inadvertantly creating 8 sides instead of 4 when the flat faces were "creased". The dragging and pushing of each block from the centre would incrementally push all blocks below outwards over time, and the corners obviously have blocks pushed further than the centre ones and accentuate the effect towards the four corners more than the centre of each flat side.
Merely speculating and theorising.
Anyway, thanks for the thread and allowing me to return to some very fond memories. I would also like to visit Egypt, but would probably prefer to see King Tutankhamuns tomb and more of the sites off the beaten track.
You have to realize that there's not a lot of timber in Egypt. The trees are mostly small and spindly and the taller ones (palm) are basically just Very Big Grasses. Rope fibers and cables wear out pretty quickly under use, and it would require quite a bit of plant material and rope making to do that. They had (and named) heads of various departments (including "head of bead stringers") - but there's no rope manufacturer group that's ever been found, nor does there appear to be the remains of a lot of rope on the site.
They did a lot of this kind of lifting in Egypt... even in the New Kingdom they were hauling huge stones up to the top of temples (like the Karnak Temple) and using ramps of mud brick. The remains of one of those ramps is still standing today at one of the pylons in Karnak (saw it for myself.)
The tomb I wanted most to see (Seti I) was closed when we went, so I had to content myself with Ramesses III... and was most content with the beautiful place. I could have spent a lot longer down there, just looking at all the gorgeous art.
