Pyramid Theories

For millennia, people have been asking the question, “How the heck did the Egyptians build those pyramids?” The other Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have long gone, (for example, the hanging gardens of Babylon) but the Great Pyramid still looks good and sturdy. What did the Egyptians know about building that the rest of the ancient world did not? Well, there have been considerable debates about exactly how the Egyptians constructed King Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza. In our social studies textbook, it says that Workers searched for stone in places throughout the Nile River valley or in Upper Egypt. After locating the stone, skilled artisans used copper tools to cut the stone into huge blocks. Next, workers used rope to fasten the blocks onto wooden sleds. The sleds were pulled along a path made of logs to the Nile River. There, the stones were moved onto barges that carried them to the building site. Workers unloaded the blocks and dragged or pushed them up ramps to be set in place at each new level of the pyramid.  However, after doing some research online, I found out that Dr. Joseph West of Indiana State University has a new proposal. He suggests the builders may have strapped three round wooden beams to each side of the stone block to "transform the square prism into a dodecagon which can then be moved more easily by rolling than by dragging." Advancements in math and technology that were developed to build these tombs at the time would have been the shape of the structure. For example, If the pyramids weren’t shaped like pyramids, it’s possible the structure might have toppled over years ago. I think this because the apex of the pyramid is a point. If there happens to be a rainfall, it wouldn’t stay on the top, but trickle down the sides. Or, if there is a sandstorm, the sand won’t knock the pyramid over because of the slope on the side. The sand wouldn’t go against the structure, but glide up the pyramid like a backwards slide.