Can we build the great pyramids of Giza with today technology and innovation?

[andnowweknow]

Oh it’s impressive but with modern tech, totally doable today.

no disagreement here.

 

[andnowweknow]

Meet Big Carl. It could sit on one side of the pyramid and set blocks on the other side, can lift 5500 tons and is 800 feet high.
https://www.constructionjunkie.com/...-crane-set-to-begin-work-on-its-first-project

That's great, but it would take "Big Carl" 5000 years to put 2.3 MILLION blocks of stone into place accurately. My point is, the weight isn't the issue, there are huge logistical challenges to every component of the construction of it from getting the platform done to quarrying the stone, to composing an 8 sided structure (why?), to aligning it more accurately to true north than the Greenwich Observatory is today, to planning the intricate internal chambers...it's a ridiculously complicated project and there is a reason nobody builds like this today, on any scale, let alone something that massive.

The structure simply defies everything we know about how we build with all our insane levels of technology and construction know how, which doesn't even scratch the surface of how head scratching it is that we have very little idea how they built it with far more primitive means.

 

[andnowweknow]

The only reason it wasn't built taller than The Great Pyramid was because the land was in the path of the airport runways.

The Science Channel had a series called, "If we built it today". The first episode was about building the Great Pyramid.

This is one of the recurring topics on this site. There are people who say it is so precisely built but it's impossible to measure because the casing stones are gone. Some people think it's built entirely of precisely cut stone but it's more likely that it's made of roughly cut irregular stone on the perimeter and filled in with stone rubble on the inside. With today's technology it could easily be built. The Great Pyramid weighs about 6 million pounds. That is the equivalent of about 261,000 fully loaded twenty foot long shipping containers. The Port of Shanghai handles 42 million containers a year or 115,000 per day so 261,000 containers would be about 2 days and 4 hours worth.

Today we have the capability of precisely cutting even hard stone like granite fairly quickly and we have machines that could set large stones at great heights.

This estimate said 1.2 billion in 2018.
https://www.bigrentz.com/blog/cost-build-ancient-structures
Other estimates go up to $5 billion.
I don't recall what the "If we built it today" estimate was.

They spent almost $2 billion to build a stadium for a mediocre Raider football team and $5 billion for the Rams and Chargers that nobody will go to.

The pyramid of Khufu weighs SIX MILLION TONS, not six million pounds. In other words, it weighs TWELVE BILLION POUNDS, if my math is correct.

It has as much stone in it as THIRTY Empire State Buildings, for a sense of what we are talking about here.

You bring up that "if it were built today"...I read a study in a book about the great pyramid that was done by the people who run the Indiana Limestone quarries, which are to my knowledge the biggest in the United States. They came up with the idea that with MODERN equipment, running at THREE times their max capacity at their quarries, they could cut, quarry and ship that amount of stone (in the Great Pyramid) in the specs required for the Great Pyramid in about 20 years.

no offense, but that discovery channel show or whatever didn't know wtf it was talking about.

 

[andnowweknow]

It is very easy to align the cardinal directions. Put a vertical post in the ground and mark it's shadow through the day from sunrise to sunset. The shortest shadow is at noon. An equal distance either side of that gives you East and West. Lay out a square with one side on the East-West line and the other sides are aligned. The people who think the pyramid is so accurate are grasping at straws because there is nothing left to measure to get any precision measurements.

lol. I don't know what else to say to this. You can't align a building on a 14 acre footprint to within 3/60ths of a degree to true north with sticks and shadows. That's not how that works.

and there are ORIGINAL casing stones in situ (in their original position) at the base of the pyramid. We know EXACTLY what the original base was and what the original alignment was. It's more accurate to true north than modern astronomical observatories.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

Casting doubt on African achievements. Racist.

They had slaves. Time to knock down the pyramids.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

reported for racism

Liked for BLM

 

[andnowweknow]

Architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has a cool theory, and he spent half a lifetime coming up with it. I don't know if he came up with the internal ramp theory, but he certainly has gone to great lengths to lay it out.

As mysterious as the construction is, how they cut the granite blocks, and carved/aligned them so perfectly astounds me just as much, at least at the Giza complex. What's equally astounding, is the plateau, and the basalt flooring. Don't forget, there are channels far underground too.

Either the dynastic Egyptians were far more advanced than we know, or someone else built them. The engineering is elite.

Look at the Serapeum of Saqqara . How they carved, and moved those "boxes", is incredible, even highly difficult by today's standards

The Serapeum, while not as grand as the Great Pyramid, is right up there in terms of how baffling what we see there is. The boxes go far beyond the bizarre, and the "apis bull tomb" idea is beyond dumb. Then you look at the chicken scratch "hieroglyphics" written on the sides of the boxes that Egyptologists use to identify them in comparison to the boxes themselves and you realize there isn't a chance in hell the same people are responsible for both.

The Osireon is another one that sticks out like a sore thumb, just like the Serapeum and the Great Pyramid as looking like the type of shit someone else was trying to copy but couldn't.

Look at the stone work at the bottom, vs the stuff at the top...they built some shitty structure on top of something that is perfectly cut massive blocks of stone. Some estimates have these blocks nearing 100 tons each. And they are just stacking them in perfectly cut form like it's no big deal.

 

[Kaybee]

Even better

 

[Deleted member 405583]

Nope. Not enough jews to build it. They had the goat manual labor ethic.

And we done doin' that shit for free

 

[90 50]

trump should build the biggest pyramid and the greatest wall

It’s got to be at least bigger than the Mexican/Guatemalan wall.

And people act like we don’t have a wall already, it’s just not 100% all the way across the border.

it’s actually more like “finish” the wall than “build” the wall.

 

[Jack Stevonovich]

It’s got to be at least bigger than the Mexican/Guatemalan wall.

And people act like we don’t have a wall already, it’s just not 100% all the way across the border.

it’s actually more like “finish” the wall than “build” the wall.

that fence looks weak

 

[FadeLess]

yeah, sure, we are the apex of Earth´s civilizations … but we still havent figured out who built them, how, and most importantly, why ...

 

[Tol]

Do we have the tools/technology/innovation/determination to build these pyramids?

Stone for stone? Technology sort of. Determination no. There hasn't been a large stone pyramid built in thousands of years. Unless it can generate money, like an attraction or amusement park, it's just a vanity project.

If you threw enough money, organization, manpower & brain power at it, you should be able to build a pyramid. Still, there's a lot of obstacles you have to overcome.

Cutting: Current cutting methods are slow, and not exactly precise. Large blocks are rough cut and later cut into multiple thin slabs. Of course you could adapt the technology and methods, but it would be expensive. And that's not including the constant replacement of diamond tipped blades you'd blow through trying to cut fast while also cutting for quantity.

Transport: You'd need multiple quarries, and they would likely be quite a distance away from your build site. But I guess you could just brute force it and have as many cranes and trucks as you want or need to constantly be moving stone blocks.

Placing: Are you going to put stones in place with cranes? Or create new heavy machinery to pull/push up a ramp? Using cranes is really slow. I would imagine that most of the blocks that are hidden from view can be roughly placed, so long as they are still level and not part of any important internal structures. There's still a lot of precision that goes into setting the outer stones in place. Coming up with a system for accurate placement and alignment shouldn't be too hard. Probably won't be fast though.

For me the verdict is still out on whether we can match the precision in constructing a stone structure of such size. I mean just look at this:

 

[MicroBrew]

That's funny, because doesn't the Nile water flow from outside egypt into egypt?

Both the Blue and White nile originate outside Egypt, but Egypt acts like the river belongs to it only. The Blue Nike originates in Ethiopia and contributes most the water to Egypt.

While Egypt has built the Aswan dams to harness the power of the nile and to use it for irrigation, Egypt demands Ethiopia not do the same.

 

[TheRash]

Even better

My brother was the head biologist at that place.

 

[terrapin]

Just amazingly how accurate and precise it was considering it's size. Do we have the tools/technology/innovation/determination to build these pyramids?

easily. but costly.

 

[90 50]

that fence looks weak

There are parts that look more like the Texas wall above it, and some parts pretty dang substantial, but not everywhere.

The crossing south of Pelenque , by the big Park in Guatemala is pretty good size.

Crossed there to go to the Park when I was down working in Villahermosa at the time.

Getting into the park is pretty Sketchy but inside it it’s nice.

 

[90 50]

yeah, sure, we are the apex of Earth´s civilizations … but we still havent figured out who built them, how, and most importantly, why ...

Or when??

Pyramids have aquatic FOSSILS on the blocks for frig sake.


https://curiosmos.com/fossil-discovery-suggests-the-pyramids-and-sphinx-were-submerged-under-water/


https://curiosmos.com/fossil-discovery-suggests-the-pyramids-and-sphinx-were-submerged-under-water/

more food for thought
https://www.robertschoch.com/sphinx.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_of_the_Sphinx

In these two links you see water erosion that lines up in the timeline with astronomical theory by separate people , coming to the same timeline conclusions.

And newer evidence is possibly suggesting the previous astronomical alignment another 12-15k years earlier. Pushing the possible timeline to maybe even 30+k years ago.

Also there is the younger dryas ice age theory for it too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis

 

[GtehMVP]

The Serapeum, while not as grand as the Great Pyramid, is right up there in terms of how baffling what we see there is. The boxes go far beyond the bizarre, and the "apis bull tomb" idea is beyond dumb. Then you look at the chicken scratch "hieroglyphics" written on the sides of the boxes that Egyptologists use to identify them in comparison to the boxes themselves and you realize there isn't a chance in hell the same people are responsible for both.

The Osireon is another one that sticks out like a sore thumb, just like the Serapeum and the Great Pyramid as looking like the type of shit someone else was trying to copy but couldn't.

Look at the stone work at the bottom, vs the stuff at the top...they built some shitty structure on top of something that is perfectly cut massive blocks of stone. Some estimates have these blocks nearing 100 tons each. And they are just stacking them in perfectly cut form like it's no big deal.

Yeah man, the Serepeum always amazes me.

Prince Khaemweset (fourth son of Ramesses II) is considered the first archeologist. He spent much of his life studying ancient Egypt, namely the Serapeum. He lived in 1300 BC, so he's incredibly ancient for us lol. It was a mystery to him as well, which goes to show just how ancient the great builders were, whoever they were.

I love the theory of them being used to generate electricity

 

[90 50]

Yeah man, the Serepeum always amazes me.

Prince Khaemweset (fourth son of Ramesses II) is considered the first archeologist. He spent much of his life studying ancient Egypt, namely the Serapeum. He lived in 1300 BC, so he's incredibly ancient for us lol. It was a mystery to him as well, which goes to show just how ancient the great builders were, whoever they were.

I love the theory of them being used to generate electricity

Well I mean there are what appears to be big light bulbs in hyrogliphics there