Giza

[Beagle]

I'll see it one day, Beagle, but its 1000 miles from my Ohio location.

Yeah, long trip. I had to include it in a package visit to Florida. One of those see all you can while you're there kind of things. Worth including though.

I'm in Tennessee Monk, not so far away.

BTW - Khufu, like many excellent Pharaohs, was a restorator, not a builder. But that's just my opinion.

[marduk]

. He never revelaed the 'secret' and took it to the grave with him.

His structre stands to day as a testament to the fact that he knew something

errr yes
apparently the secret of the pyramids is that the blocks were delivered by lorry and the manufacturer utilised a block and tackle

hmmm
i detect bs science again

[Forum Monk]

Now you've gone and taken all the romance out of it, Marduk. It was reading like a nice 'fairy tale' until you barged in with a 'cold slap' of reality.

Besides, Wiki, said there were pictures of him using block and tackle
(I don't see a truck).

[Beagle]

What "cold slap"? The business about Ed unlocking the secrets of the Pharaohs is marketing...of course. That does not diminish what one man did. It has to be seen to appreciated. Stones perfectly balanced, etc.

Very impressive.

[Beagle]

http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Cu ... 000718.htm

A cave cut in the rock has been discovered in the Pharaonic Port of Marsa Gawasis in Safaga.
In December-January, archaeologists found the timbers of sea-going vessels that were over 3,500 years old at Marsa Gawasis, which was a port on Egypt's Red Sea coast in Pharaonic times.

The cedar planks, which were imported from Syria, were found in two man-made caves. Among the other finds were rigging and inscriptions about expeditions to the Land of Punt.

Marsa Gawasis is located on a coral reef at the northern end of the Wadi Gawasis, 23 kilometres south of the port of Safaga.

From todays' Archaeologica News

[Digit]

My problem KB and Monk is this. If you use slings and lower the blocks into place how do you then get the sling out? I would have a groove in the base and up one side so that the sling would come free. Problem? No sign of slings and no groove.
Levers. I am assuming that any levers capable of moving the weights we are dealing with would have to be timber, that means they would have to be several inches thick. I have read many descriptions of how close the caseing blocks are set, so I'll simply say the mating faces are close, that is not possible with levers, as when you raise one edge you tilt the opposite edge, and when you withdraw the levers you are left with a gap that is dependent on the height of the block and the thickness of the lever.
It it much easier for me to say what they didn't do than to suggest what they did do, unfortunately.

[kbs2244]

I am thinking of the kites being on the far side of the pyramid from the ramp. Some kind of pully arangment at the top, and the ropes from the kite going up, over the top, and then around the back side of the block to pull it up the ramp. You would be sliding them, not lifting them. Once up to the current working level, you would lever them around into place. Maybe rollers or greased tracks of some kind to ease the drag.

[Minimalist]

If you use slings and lower the blocks into place how do you then get the sling out?

If you push them up a ramp on a sled you still have to get them off the sled and into position. A certain amount of manhandling must be assumed.

But then there is that old problem of placing a stone every two minutes. You can still place only one stone at a time and even if you envision a line of sleds back down the ramp to the quarry everyone who has ever sat in a traffic jam knows about "telescoping."

[marduk]

You can still place only one stone at a time and even if you envision a line of sleds back down the ramp to the quarry everyone who has ever sat in a traffic jam knows about "telescoping."

do you actually have any mathematical qualifications Min
seems you have completely missed the point

[Digit]

That is why Min, I suggested that the logical thing would be several ramps. For example, autos come off the line every few minutes but individually take days to assemble. Four ramps, one being raised, three moving blocks into place. If only one ramp were used, with the stated time scale, by the time they are near the top the single ramp would require its height increased every few hours. Multiple ramps also reduce the congestion, of one thing I am sure, it was one Hell of a task, which is why they appear not to have done it too often.

[Minimalist]

Multiple ramps means additional multiple crews building and extending those ramps. It's logical but it seemingly complicates the logistical problems by an order of magnitude.

[Digit]

Agreed Min, but the alternative is a lot of time when no blocks are being placed as the ramp is under construction, and that would be a lengthy task if they maintained the same incline as the height increased.

[Minimalist]

It would also get to be a hell of a hike through the desert if you placed a ramp on each side of the pyramid.

[Digit]

If this was a modern construction job Min a lot of the blocks would be on site before placement began, and I'm supposed to believe that these structures had a religious significance, if this is so then many objections, cost, damage, lives, etc may well have been unimportant.
Over here you can find small towns with massive churches, which if the cost was borne by the local population, must have represented a considerable drain in time and effort.

[marduk]

It would also get to be a hell of a hike through the desert if you placed a ramp on each side of the pyramid.

the ramp which they used to build the pyramid is still there
its part of the actual structure
this of course means that you can forget the logistics of having to dissasemble it when you finish and also for having ramps up each side as you can reach all the same spots from the middle far more easily
Herodotus clearly describes the method of the pyramids construction
the pyramid is also not smooth on the outside under its casing
it has steps which are very convenient for raising heavy blocks

The pyramid was built in steps, battlement-wise, as it is called, or, according to others, altar-wise. After laying the stones for the base, they raised the remaining stones to their places by means of machines formed of short wooden planks. The first machine raised them from the ground to the top of the first step. On this there was another machine, which received the stone upon its arrival, and conveyed it to the second step, whence a third machine advanced it still higher. Either they had as many machines as there were steps in the pyramid, or possibly they had but a single machine, which, being easily moved, was transferred from tier to tier as the stone rose

click on image

you also seem incapable of understanding linear as opposed to non linear time frames
just because it says that the time of construction means a block was placed once every minute or so does not mean that they needed to place a block every minute to complete the construction in the time frame


once again I'd like to point out that the reason you don't already know this is because you have been reading from pseudohistorians how its impossible for the egyptians to have done so requiring an advanced culture (aliens/atlanteans/lizards) to have assisted or because you have been reading from the orthodox egyptian sources which of course would not benefit from the pyramids becoming any less mysterious than they already are