Figure 1, The pyramids at Giza, view from the southwest
In January 1997 the first part of my research, the desk study, was completed. The desk study is a theoretical study on the logistical aspects of pyramid construction without taking the local circumstances into account. In October of that same year I have been to Egypt to have a close look at the pyramids at Giza. This report will be a summary of my observations at the Giza plateau. One of the goals of my visit to Egypt was to have a look at the quarry sites used for production of the core elements, but due to a lack of time I did not manage to go there. Also I did not take any measurements of details on the pyramids, all observations are qualitative. All quantitative data mentioned in this report will be taken form other literature or are my own estimates. I did manage to meet dr. Zahi Hawas, the director of the Giza plateau and introduce the desk study to him. This site visit report is the starting point of further study which will conclude in an amendmend to the desk study.
A lot of the reactions on my web page that I have received were from people who can not believe that the pyramids have been constructed by the ancient Egyptians. My basic assumption is still that the pyramids have been built by these people by using only basic tools, endurance and divine inspiration. It is for us people who live in an automated world difficult to grasp what can be achieved by using manual labour only. From my experiences in Bangladesh I know that a lot is possible.
Let the message of the pyramids be that humans can do much more as we can conceive these days.
Figure 1, The pyramids at Giza, view from the southwest
In this paper I will give a brief description of my observations of each of the pyramids on the Giza plateau. In the amendment I will use these observations to draw new conclusions on the subject.
The site is directly accesible from Cairo by the eleven km long Sharia al-Ahram (Pyramid Road). The plateau itself rises about 40 meters above the ground level at the entrance which makes the pyramids look even more impressive comming up from the Pyramid Road.
The limestone mainly consists of limestone and quartz and is a sedimentary rock from the Upper and Middle Eocene age.
Figure 2, View of the Giza plateau
This is a rendered model of the Giza plateau seen from the northeast. It is made by the Giza plateau mapping project of the University of Chicago. Click on the pyramids in the picture to go to the more detailed descriptions.
From left to right we can see the pyramid of Menkaure, the pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops. Leading down from the pyramids are the causeways that run towards the vally temples. The small pyramids in front of the Khufu pyramid and behind the pyramid of Menkaure are the so called Queens pyramids.
The quarry that was probably used to yield a lot of the material used for pyramid construction lies southeast of the Third Pyramid, due south of the First Pyramid, and southwest of the Sphinx.
Although one of my goals I did not visit this quarry site. I was just to busy admiring the pyramids themselves.
In then ancient days the Nile used to run very close to the east side of the plateau. According to Mark Lehner (1997) there was a harbour close to the valley temples of Menkaure and Khafre which was used to ofload the materials coming from other places like the red granite from Aswan.
Also called The Great Pyramid because it is the largest of the three pyramids at the Giza plateau. This pyramid is used as the model in the Desk Study where its exterior and interior design are described in chapter 2.
The quality of the rock used for core elements in this structure is very variable. Some of the elements show severe damage from weathering and wear and tear from climbing and post quarrying. Other elements are still perfectly intact.
Figure 3, Pyramid of Khufu and two of the Queens pyramids
To enter this pyramid an extra ticket has to be purchased for another 20 Egyptian pounds. It is not allowed to bring a camera, but for a some small 'baksjees' the guards will close their eyes.
Visitors now enter the pyramid through a passage known as 'Mamun's Hole' which was, according to many authors forced by the Caliph Mamun in the 9th century AD. I think the passage was cut only a very short while after the pyramid was sealed because it goes straight into the interior where it meets with the ascending passage perfecty. This only could have been done by people who have knowledge of the interior design of the pyramid since the chances of hitting straight into the existing passage are very small. It is more likely that Mamun re-entered this passage by clearing it from debris and sand, centuries after is and been cut into the limestone.
Figure 4, The ascending passage
The ascending passage is most probably cut into the pyramid during construction. It would anyway be the most efficient method doing so since this would not frustrate the continuity of the core construction. The passage is very low and it takes some effort to climb. But the grand gallery at the top makes it very well worth it.
Figure 5, The grand gallery
The grand gallery is constructed with limestone and has a corbelled roof as can be seen in figure 5. Interesting are the metal angles in the ceiling. It is not know to me when these are installed. They do not seem to have any structural significance.
The queens chamber was closed at the time of my visit so I did not have the possibility to go in there.
The kings chamber is at the end of the ascending grand gallery and is completely constructed with red granite. The cracks in the ceiling are very well visible. I have made some quick calculations that show that these cracks must have been induced by dynamic loads such as an earthquake or loads induced during construction such as falling elements etc.
The so called relieving chambers which are the actual roof of the kings chamber don't actuall relieve anything. From this section it can be clearly seen that most of the load will be taken by the top beams. All the beams below only take their own weight. The load only reduction is the volume of rock that comprimises the releiving chambers. But now the question remains what the function o these relieving chambers was.
Figure 6, Statue of King Khufu in the Egyptian Museum
This last picture is taken in the museum in Cairo and is the only known statue of king Khufu or Cheops, as he is called in Greek. It is a very small statue of about 5 centimeters high. It is strange to think that of a king who has the power to build the Great Pyramid only this tiny image has remained.
The second pyramid at Giza, built by Khafre, a son of Khufu, has the most completely preserved pyramid complex. Originally the pyramid was 143.5 meters high and 215.5 meters square. On the top the original casing is still visable.
Figure 7, Pyramid of Khafre
The area chosen for the site slopes sharply from west to east, so that considerable labor was required for surface levelling. My estimate is that about 360.000 m3 material had to be removed before core construction could start.
Figure 8, Pyramid of Khafre, North face
In the picture below the traces of surface levelling can be cearly seen. The levelling has been done very accurate.
The red granite stones in the background show markings of post quarrying. These furrows were cut into the rock so that they could be split by means of a wedge.
Figure 9, Surface levelling (South side)
Figure 10 shows the used quarrying method very clearly. The blocks removed from here, measuring about 1.8 m square, were probably used to fill up the low ground on the southern side, see Clarke and Engelbach (1930) for further reference.
Figure 10, Levelled area on the north side
The internal architecture of the Khafre pyramid is not as complex as in the Khufu pyramid. The burial chamber is at ground level which was much easier to construct.
This leaves the question why the builders of the Khufu pyramid went to so much trouble of constructing the chambers at such a high level inside the pyramid. A technical explanation could be that they didn't quite know what the expense of high chambers was and when building the second and third pyramid they decided to use a much less complex interior architecture.
A historical argument could be that the rooms have specific functions that require them to be at certain positions in the structure.
For the time being I will not go deeper into this subject since most explanitions on this are very controversial and I need to study them in more detail to give my own opinion on this.
The third pyramid is the smallest is the three big pyramids. The structure measures about 108.5 meters square and originally stood 66.5 meters high. Around the pyramid there is a lot of rubble and red granite casing stones, probably dues to post-quarrying of the pyramid and earthquake damage. According to Herodotus, this casing of 'Ethiopian stone' extended for half the height of the pyramid. The burial chamber is underneath the pyramid so only the ascending passage had to be constructed.
Figure 11, Pyramid of Menkaure
The picture below shows the entrance to the pyramid of Menkaure on the north face. Here it can be seen how smooth the actual surface of the pyramids must have been. For some reason however it was never completed.
Figure 12, Entrance on the north face
This last photo shows a detail of a casing element seen from the side on the north face of the third pyramid. It will be clear that, judging by the size of the element, it could never have been lifted by the lever method as I have described in the Method Statement of the Desk Study.
Figure 13, Detail of casing stones on the north face
This discovery makes the method described by Hodges and many others, as analysed in the Desk Study, impossible as a candidate for the actual construction technique used by the ancient Egyptians. The Desk Study is, however, still a usefull documents, as the analysis gives a good insight into the logistical aspects of a hypothetical construction method.
Peter Prevos (1997-2004)
| Pyramidology | Pyramid Construction | Desk Study |
This Desk Study is licensed under a Creative Commons License.