Day 1212 – How did they move those stones? And other mysteries.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Lots of folks know I like ancient places, and that I visit them.

They are kind enough to send me articles about these places.

This exposes me to things I might not have seen. Of course, a lot of it is stuff I already knew, but often presented in a slightly different way.

One of the things that I’ve seen are these reports that suggest they know “How the rocks were moved” or carved, or whatever. Some of these are absolutely fantastical.

The Sphinx has had its share of illustrations of secret compartments and staircases. To be fair, there is a cavity in the Sphinx. Mark Lerner, noted Egyptologist, has been inside it. He recounted how he had heard that during repairs to the Sphinx work crews had noted an opening near the back of the monument. He managed to find one of the older workmen who had been in the crew. The man stood at the back of the Sphinx, looking. Finally, he pointed to a stone and said, “that one.” They removed it and a few more and sure enough there was an opening in the limestone. A natural opening. That was it. Big enough to crawl inside and move to the end a few feet away. But that’s the end of the Sphinx and secret compartments and openings. There is no trap door on his head, or back.

Recently, I saw an article that claimed they knew how the Pyramids were built. The article said they had experimented with dragging large stones. They had use sand underneath them to make the job easier. The investigators then added some water to the sand and discovered that with just the right amount of water the friction was reduced and the stones were easier to drag. And that’s how the Pyramids were built! – they claimed.

I’m like, wait a sec. There are a few other details, like how did they get the stones up to the top 480 feet from the ground?

Yes. Maybe they dragged the blocks on ramps with sand as a lubricant and maybe they added some water, but that doesn’t explain how the pyramids were built, only how the stones might have been dragged.

We know they used sleds to move the stones because we have one. It was in the Cairo Museum, but last time I was there I couldn’t find it. It has probably been moved to the GEM (the new Grand Egyptian Museum).

But it looks a lot like this sled from LLBean, only bigger:

I’ve seen articles suggesting the limestone blocks were floated to a pool at the base of the Pyramids where they were carved to fit.  Problem: no pool has ever been found, and no pictures on walls, etc. have ever been discovered showing such a thing.

I’ve had a buddy that was asked to bring a large kite to see if it could pull a large block of stone. It did.

There are numerous books and articles suggesting various ways that could have been employed to move the stones: ramps, rollers, sleds, block and tackle, cranes.

The problem being that many of these are guesses and there is no evidence to support most of the claims.

It seems ramps and sleds were the main way the ancient Egyptians moved the blocks. There is evidence of ramps at the base of some pyramids. We know the ancient Egyptians were excellent rope makers because we have the ropes. We also have evidence that at quarries it seems they used a system of vertical poles to place ropes around to help leverage the blocks.

But all the other ideas? No. No evidence.

Then there are the Incas. How did they move the large stone blocks? How did they carve them? Etc. Etc. Etc. Typically, Saqsaywaman is mentioned because there are huge stones in place there. Archaeologists have discovered a roadway that runs to the site from below where the stones were quarried. The road has round stones placed at spaced intervals. Why? To reduce the friction when they dragged the stones. How did they carve the stones so precisely? We can see nubbins on the bottom of many stones, leading to the conclusion that the nubbins were used to wrap rope around o the could be carried on the shoulder of four men who help long poles attached to the ropes, much like a stretcher can be carried. It has been shown that the blocks could be held on a stand close to where they would be finally placed and the bottom and edge could be compared to the adjoining blocks and they could be shaped to match at this point in time. 

So, although we don’t know for sure you can be reasonably certain of the techniques involved.

For the best, ie most reasonable, theories on how the pyramids were built look up the papers and National Geographic video on Jean-Pierre Houdin, and History for Granite on YouTube. Both resources are terrific.

Jean-Pierre believes that a ramp built inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu was used to finish the top third. It would be easy to see if that is true. Yet, for reasons I cannot understand it hasn’t been done. A few years ago many people who are knowledgeable about such things said they no longer believed in the internal ramp theory as it is called. When I asked, “Why not?” or “How do you think it was done?” I received silence.

Archaeology is a weird and wonderful place for the mind to dance.