How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? – Part 5
Houdin’s Internal Ramp
French Architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has a revolutionary theory on how the pyramids were built.
He looked at the three main existing theories: the large long straight ramp used to drag the stone up on sleds or rolled on logs, the wooden ‘machines’ mentioned by Herodotus & the spiral ramp theory.
None of these theories convinced Houdin. He felt that the large long ramp would have had to have been either short and therefore too steep or long and therefore would be enormous and require too much material and effort to build. The ‘machines’ referred to by Herodotus used to lift the block from one course to another was deemed unlikely as the counter weight required would be greater than the weight of a few workmen and would not have worked for large blocks. Houdin regards the more popular theory of the spiral ramp as being the more likely of the three but adds that this would have blocked the ability to check the geometry of the pyramid and that this ramp would be fragile and too narrow to be practical.
Jean-Pierre Houdin has his own insight of a more practical solution to the riddle of how the pyramids were built. He suggests that a ramp was used but that it was an internal ramp and that the Grand Gallery was used to move counter weights to raise the nine granite beams for the King’s chamber ceiling. Houdin worked with Dassault Systemes to test his hypotheses and to demonstrate the validity of the theory with the aid of their scientific 3D technology. He now plans to prove his claims by scanning the pyramid with radars and heat detecting cameras.
“During 2000, we met with members of the team who, in 1986, had worked on the mystery of the Pyramid of Khufu under the aegis of the Foundation EDF. They showed us plans on which we discovered a construction anomaly, a detail in the drawings that none of the hypotheses could account for. This anomaly, baptised “the spiral structure”, looked exactly like a ramp built inside the pyramid which could have played a part in its construction!”
- Jean-Pierre Houdin.
Khufu: The Secrets Behind the Building of the Great Pyramid
by Jean-Pierre Houdin
You can watch another video on the theory at How Stuff Works
Read more at the Khufu Project’s Website: 3D Unveils the Mystery of the Great Pyramid where you can:
- Watch the Real-Time 3D Teaser
- Download the Full ‘Khufu Revealed’ Story in PDF
- Subscribe to Subsequent Episodes in the ‘Khufu Revealed’ Adventure
- Download the Website’s Soundtrack
Next: How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? – Part 6: ‘They Were Not Slaves’.
Related posts:
- More Evidence of Secret Passages in the GP National Geographic has posted a video to their YouTube channel...
- How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? – Part 4 Were the pyramids made of concrete? The question of how...
- Secret Chamber Discovered in the Great Pyramid Corners of the internal ramp Breaking in the news this...
- Ancient Egyptian Architecture Egyptologist Bob Brier is to teach a course entitled “Ancient...
- Update on the Pyramid’s ‘Houdin’ Chamber Corners of the internal ramp In volume 62, the latest...
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You’re asking the wrong questions. Ask why the 3 smaller pyramids are falling down, while the 3 larger ones remain relatively intact.
Hi Paul,
What are your thoughts on why the 3 larger pyramids are in better condition than the 3 satellite pyramids?
hi, I just wonder how the counter weight is lift up again to ascend the next stone block … I saw some animation in the video but it’s not clear to me …
and nobody I know mentioned any smart-and-easy pulley construction for pulling the stones : using a multi-pulley-setup can drastically decrease human force to lift a stone …
Vincent:
Sorry for the delay in responding. It is my belief that the larger pyramids were built by the ORIGINAL creators of the pyramids. Judging by the condition of the smaller pyramids that we KNOW were built by the Egyptians, it is clear to me that The Egyptians did NOT build the larger pyramids. In fact, I believe that the larger pyramids were UNCOVERED, rather than build, by the Egyptians. Thereafter, I believe that they tried to COPY the original pyramids, but couldn’t get it right, because they were using any one of several conventional methods of building, and the problem was that through conventional methods, the size of stone was limited. Whoever actually built the larger pyramids, used an advanced technology to move stones that were perhaps twice or three-times the size of the stones used in the foundation of the Egyptians’ pyramids. Also, using conventional methods, I don’t believe that the Egyptians were able to fit the stones tightly enough together, so that air and wind would not be a significant factor in stone deteriorization.
Ultimately, I think the answer lies with the man who built all of the stone structures around his home in the Miami area, some years ago. It is thought that he discovered the secret of levitation…
Yu can see a new hipotesis about pyramid construction in the next blog, is the fractal theory:
http://construccionpiramides.blogspot.com/
Hi Marcos, thanks for your comment. I followed the link but it’s just a diagram with no description. Would you care to explain how your theory works? It looks like you are suggesting it was built from the top down?
The smaller pyramids, not just those at Giza, are all in various states of destruction because the arabs have plundered and destroyed them over the centuries, searching for loot or to use the stones for building.
The beautiful outer casing of the Giza pyramids withstood the
sands of time, but again, were removed by present day arabs
and used in the building of Cairo.
Z Hawass all the time calls for the return of things from foreign
museums. Let him first put his own house in order and return
what can be saved of the outer casing. The beautiful things in foreign museums have been saved for eternity, while that taken by Egyptians have been destroyed or melted down and lost forever.