Scott Creighton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>I noticed you deftly avoided answering the
>question in my previous post:

>SC: Well tell me then - how exactly do you lift
>and manipulate the 50-ton blocks of the KC in an
>area where only four to six people can stand when
>the elbow grease of at least 2000 workers would be
>required?

As for granite in the Great Pyramid... it's natural rock (Nicholson & Shaw 2000), after all it's a medium to coarse-grained holocrystalline igneous rock and not a geopolymer aggregate. So it's quite clear the ancient Egyptians were able to carve and lift them into the Great Pyramid with the tools that are attributed to them by Egyptologists. Old Kingdom technology is quite capable of moving 40-60 ton blocks by sledge and lever, and even up to a few hundred ton blocks for short distances and heights. If you are concerned that they could not use a big ramp to raise the 50-60 ton granite roofing beams to the King's Chamber then there are simpler methods. For example, they could just ramp the granite onto one of the lower courses and then ramp or lever them to the next course of core masonry (not really that high, about 1-1.5 m) as the course is being constructed... lots of storage and work space on the top surface of an unfinished pyramid. If they planned it right the heavy blocks would end up close to where they needed them for the construction of the King's Chamber. Granite can be carved with hand-powered stone percussion and copper lapidary tools too.

Nicholson, P.T. & Shaw, I. (2000) Ancient Egyptian materials and techniques. Cambridge University Press, New York, 702 p.

Archae Solenhofen (solenhofen@hotmail.com)

_snip>

>SC
>
> "The man o' independent mind is king o' men, for
> a' that." - Robert Burns