As a professional construction engineer, what aspects of the ancient Egyptian pyramids are abnormal?

The materials used to build the pyramid are mainly local limestone and granite transported from other places. Limestone is mainly used for interior purposes. For example, the Great Pyramid of Gufu used more than 2 million boulders, most of which weighed about 2 tons. It was estimated that it took about 23-30 years to build, and 100,000 people participated in the construction; however, they also agree that the so-called construction , not from the beginning to the end of the year, but during the three months of the year when the Nile was flooded and farming was impossible. It is estimated that 2.3 million stones were used to build the pyramid. Assuming that workers work all year round and ten hours a day, they would need to place thirty-one stones per hour (one stone takes about two minutes) to complete within twenty years. But if the work is only carried out during slack periods, the workers must speed up to four pieces per minute, which is about 240 pieces per hour. How did people transport stones weighing two tons to build such a huge tower without any lifting tools and only primitive tree trunks?

The largest of all the pyramids in ancient Egypt is the pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty. The Great Pyramid was originally 146.59 meters high. After thousands of years of wind and rain, the top has been eroded by nearly 10 meters. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world until it was built in Paris in 1888. The base of this pyramid is square, with each side more than 230 meters long. It takes almost a kilometer to go around the pyramid. Khufu's pyramid, in addition to being awe-inspiring for its size, is also named for its high degree of architectural skill. There is no adhesive material such as cement between the stones of the tower body, but one stone is stacked on top of another. Each stone has been ground very flat for thousands of years. Even so, it is difficult for people to insert a sharp blade into the gaps between the stones, so it can last for thousands of years without falling. This cannot but be said to be A miracle in the history of architecture. In addition, there is a triangular entrance made of four huge stones on the north side of the Great Pyramid 13 meters above the ground. This triangle is used very cleverly, because if a quadrilateral is used instead of a triangle, then the huge pressure of the pyramid itself, which is more than 100 meters high, will collapse the entrance. By using a triangle, the huge pressure is evenly dispersed. Having such an understanding and application of the principles of mechanics and such a structure more than 4,000 years ago is truly remarkable.

The Pharaoh was the king of ancient Egypt, and the pyramid was the Pharaoh's tomb. Why did the Pharaoh build the pyramids? How were the huge pyramids built? Some people say that the pyramids were created by aliens. What is the truth? Pyramid If the legend about the bold and wonderful design of the Pyramid can still be accepted by modern people, then the construction process of such a huge scale is difficult to imagine. Khufu's pyramid was built with millions of huge stones. Each stone weighed more than 2,000 kilograms on average, and the largest weighed more than 100 tons. These huge boulders were quarried from the east bank of the Nile River and were not loaded and unloaded by cranes or transported by wheels. Herodotus, known as the "Father of Western Historiography", once recorded that the stones used to build the Pyramid of Khufu were mined from the "Mounts of Arabia" (possibly the Sinai Peninsula). However, we now know that most of the stone was quarried locally, and the limestone that decorated its surface was mined and transported from Tula east of the river. It was not easy to mine stone at that time because people did not have explosives or steel drills at that time. The Egyptians used copper or bronze chisels to drill holes in the rocks, then inserted wooden wedges and filled them with water. When the wooden wedges were swollen with water, the rocks would burst. This method may seem clumsy today, but it was an amazing technology more than 4,000 years ago. Transporting the quarry to the pyramid site was also extremely difficult. The ancient Egyptians loaded the stones on sleds and pulled them with humans and animals. A wide and smooth road is needed for this. It took 10 years to build the road to transport the stone and the underground tomb of the pyramid. When the Pyramid of Khufu was being built, the people of Egypt volunteered to build the Pyramid for Khufu. They were divided into large groups of 100,000 people to work, and each large group had to work for 3 months. Among these workers were slaves, but there were also many ordinary farmers and craftsmen.

Ancient Egyptian slaves used animal power and rolling logs to transport the boulders to the construction site. They then piled the natural sand around the site into a slope and pulled the boulders up the pyramid along the slope. In this way, a layer of slopes is piled, a layer of stones is laid, and the pyramid is gradually raised. It took 20 years to build the Pyramid of Khufu. Later generations raised many questions about Herodotus' statement. But to this day it is still a difficult problem that no one can give a complete answer to. How can people not admire the great strength and wisdom of the Egyptian people! In this century, as UFO observation and research activities become more and more widespread, some people even connect the mysterious pyramids with the unpredictable aliens on UFOs. They believe that thousands of years ago, it was impossible for humans to have the ability to build pyramids, and only aliens could. After calculation, they also found that the meridian passing through the Pyramid of Khufu in the suburbs of Cairo divides the earth into two hemispheres, the eastern and the western hemispheres, and their land areas are equal. This "coincidence" is probably the intention of the aliens in choosing the location where the pyramid was built. However, a French chemist named David Dewes proposed a new insight into the construction of the pyramids. He believed that the huge stones used to build the pyramids were not natural but artificially poured. From an archaeologist, he obtained five small stones taken from the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt and tested them one by one. Unexpectedly, laboratory tests showed that the stones were composed of shell limestone. Although archeology proves that humans mastered the art of making concrete thousands of years ago, it is difficult to believe that these shell limestones are cast so rock-hard that it is difficult to distinguish them from granite. David Dewes speculated from this that the ancient Egyptians used the "breaking into pieces" method to build the pyramids, that is, put the mixed concrete into baskets, and carry or carry the pyramids under construction on their backs. In this way, as long as you master certain skills, you can cast huge stones one by one and raise the tower layer by layer. This method is both "effort-saving" and labor-saving. According to his estimate, there were only 1,500 people, not 100,000 in each batch as Herodotus said.

For a massive building of this size, stability is key. The architects planned to use giant marble blocks arranged layer by layer in a descending fashion, the most stable structure possible. After the construction site is selected, it will first be cleared and leveled, and then the foundation will be built by skilled stonemasons. A large square marble floor will become the core of the pyramid. A rough estimate shows that 5 million tons of stone are needed to build the Great Pyramid. Although the demand is huge, most of it can be supplied near Giza. The quarry is south of the pyramid construction site, and about 1,500 quarry workers work there. Because copper was the hardest metal the ancient Egyptians had at their disposal, every quarry worker was equipped with a copper chisel. They used copper chisels to cut small holes in the boulders, drove them into wooden wedges, and poured water on them. The force of the swelling of the wooden wedges caused the stones to crack. However, the copper chisel will become dull after dozens of hits, so another group of people are required to use fire to soften the blunt chisel, sharpen it and then pass it through water to cool down so that the masons can use it again. Each piece of quarried stone weighs more than one ton, and some even weigh two and a half tons. How to transport it is a big problem. A very special kind of clay is produced in Giza. If you sprinkle water on the road paved with clay, heavy stones can slide on it. However, the control of the amount of water is very important. If the amount of water is not enough, it will be more laborious. In places where watering is not suitable, craftsmen would lay logs on the road and let the boulders roll on the logs. After the giant stones were gathered at the pyramid site, they were cut and processed by specialized stonemasons and embedded where they should be placed according to the marks marked on each stone. Using only simple triangular plates and plumb bobs, they were able to cut and polish each stone smoothly and flatly, making the stones closely connected and still standing even after thousands of years of wind and rain erosion. The Pyramid of Khufu took 20 years to build. By building long ramps, workers can continue to transport the stones to higher places. Workers used Giza's natural sand, bonded it with mineral gypsum and mortar, piled it into long slopes, and pulled the boulders up the pyramid.

Archaeologists estimate that the length-to-height ratio of the slope is about 10:1, which is the best ratio to ensure easy transportation and use the least amount of materials to build the slope. But as the pyramid gets taller, this long slope is no longer suitable, because by this calculation, the length of the slope to the top of the tower will reach an astonishing 4,800 feet, and the required building materials will also be three times that of the Great Pyramid. . Therefore, in the final heightening project, architects will choose to build a spiral ramp that saves materials. An opening 30 feet above the ground, blown open by 19th-century explorers using dynamite, is the only place where the inside of the pyramid can be seen. Between the neat outer stones of the pyramid and the inner tomb chamber, substandard stones were filled. This may be how the ancient Egyptians speeded up construction. As the pyramid grew taller, architects had to consider the arrangement of the burial chambers within the pyramid and allow for corridors leading to the chambers. There are three burial chambers inside the Pyramid of Khufu, the first of which was built when the foundations were being built as it is 600 feet deep into the ground. The second, about 100 feet high inside the pyramid, is the so-called "Queen's Chamber," which has been empty since its excavation. In 2474 BC, construction began on the third - the tallest and most important - mausoleum, which will be the final resting place of King Khufu. The construction of the large corridor leading to the tomb also began at the same time. The Grand Gallery is 153 feet long, and its inner walls are made of giant slabs of polished limestone that are tightly joined together. A dozen years after construction of the Great Pyramid began, a barge brought some special cargo from the Aswan quarries 250 kilometers away: nine giant granite blocks. Each piece weighs more than 50 tons and requires 200 people to move it. Of the millions of stones used to build the Great Pyramid, they are the most important. The sacred burial chamber is the center of the pyramid and must be protected. When the pharaoh's tomb is completed, these nine pieces of granite will be used to build the roof above the tomb. The architect would draw a center line with red hex stone on each granite block to center the boulders. The size and weight of the boulders presented considerable difficulty. If placed directly on top of each other, the granite will crack. Finally, to distribute the enormous pressure between the stacked boulders, the architects placed triangular wedges between each layer of granite, causing the weight to spread outward rather than push down. Five of the nine rocks were ultimately used, leaving four gaps in between. The gaps are 3.5 feet high and can be crawled through. Therefore, the workers who participated in the construction of the pyramid at that time were able to leave some graffiti on the walls in the gaps, spelling out some names, and in some places, reference lines traced by red hexagonal stones could be seen. When the Great Pyramid was built to about 100 meters high, the materials for the last third of the height could no longer be transported from the main slope, so the architects relied on the Great Pyramid and built a spiral "winding" ramp to avoid accelerating the process. Additional bulky work on high main slopes. The four-sided pyramid-shaped capstone needs to be handled and transported more carefully than other stones because its sides are very smooth, so the masons specially made a protruding stone bolt below. Workers can rotate the stone to make it smoother. The stone bolts fit into the grooves of the stones below, holding the capstone in place. After the capstone is placed, the pyramid is actually built, but the outer tower still needs final touches. The outer spiral ramps needed to be removed and sloped stone slabs added to make the pyramid's appearance smooth and flat. The pyramid we see now no longer has the outer beveled stones - because these stones were taken away and used as building materials when the city of Cairo was built in the Middle Ages. In 2460 BC, the monumental tomb was built. A large gravel road east of the Great Pyramid leads to a temple on the Nile River. It will serve as a temporary resting place for the remains of Pharaoh Khufu. After the pharaoh's mummy is transferred to the interior of the pyramid, according to ancient Egyptian customs, it will first be placed in the underground tomb, then moved to the second-level tomb, and finally the coffin will be moved to the third tomb and placed in the sarcophagus. Astrology was the basis by which the ancient Egyptians measured everything. In their eyes, the regular flooding of the Nile could be found in the starry sky. Their calendar was also based on the movement of stars in the night sky, so the construction process of the Great Pyramid was also indispensable. The ancient Egyptians called a specific location in the starry sky the "Invincible Star" (the Gongpole Star), and they were full of respect for it.

On the north wall of the king's tomb, there is a small passage that passes through layers of stone walls and leads directly to the outer wall of the pyramid. The position of this hole is aimed at the "invulnerable place" in the night sky. The ancient Egyptians believed that after the death of the pharaoh, he would experience an "ascension" journey. Hieroglyphs describe this journey in various ways: the pharaoh would transform into a falcon, or ascend by natural forces such as storms, hail, and lightning. Ancient Egyptian architects believed they had completed a resurrection machine that could create immortality. "In the name of the king..." The true meaning of this sentence should be: "In the name of the king, with the help of our hands, he may obtain eternal life." A pharaoh died, but it seemed that he was still around those who built it. Geometry in the Pyramids. A British man named John Taylor was an amateur in astronomy and mathematics, and a pyramid enthusiast. He made many amazing discoveries about the pyramids. He studied the pyramids based on data provided in literature. After calculation, he found that the Great Pyramid of Khufu contained many mathematical principles. First, he noticed that the base angle of the Great Pyramid of Khufu was not 60′ but 51′. Thus it is found that the wall of each triangle is equal to the square of its height. In addition, the ratio of the tower height to the circumference of the tower base is the ratio of the earth's radius to the circumference. Therefore, the pi ratio can be obtained by dividing the tower height by twice the base. Taylor believes this ratio is no accident. He proved that the ancient Egyptians already knew that the Earth was round and that they knew the ratio of the Earth's radius to its circumference. Taylor's ideas were supported by the British mathematician Professor Charles Peachsmith. In 1864, Smith visited the Pyramid of Khufu on the spot. Claims he has discovered more mysteries of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. For example, the height of the tower multiplied by 109 equals the distance between the earth and the sun; the circumference of the tower base calculated in a certain unit is exactly the number of days in a year, etc. In other words, the Great Pyramid contains more than just units of length. Also contains the unit for calculating time. Smith's fieldwork was praised by the Royal Society, and he was awarded the Society's Gold Medal. Later, another Englishman, Ferendzi Petrie, took the measuring instruments that his father had carefully improved over 20 years of hard work to survey and map the Great Pyramid. During the surveying and mapping, he was surprised to find that the errors in lines, angles, etc. of the Great Pyramid were almost zero, and the deviation was less than 0.25 inches in the length of 350 feet. But Petrie's book written after the investigation rejected Smith's assertion that the circumference of the base of the tower was equal to the number of days in a year. Petrie's book caused an uproar among scientists. How much knowledge and wisdom the ancient Egyptians embodied in the pyramids remains a mystery. The Egyptian Ministry of Culture issued a statement on January 10, 2010, saying that an Egyptian archaeological team discovered a group of tombs of pyramid construction workers in the Giza Pyramids area on the outskirts of Cairo, proving that the pyramids were built by workers rather than slaves. The picture on the right shows the workers’ graves and grave goods discovered. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and Pyramid Workers' Tombs, said that these tombs were built during the Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, from 2575 BC to 2467 BC. Similar to the tombs of pyramid builders previously discovered in the area, the distribution of these tombs proves that the pyramids were built by hired workers rather than slaves. "These tombs were built next to the pyramids of the pharaohs (i.e. kings), which means that the people buried in the tombs are definitely not slaves," Hawass said, "because it is impossible for slaves' tombs to be built directly next to the tombs of the pharaohs." The picture on the right is in Workers' tombs found near the Pyramid of Khufu (photographed on an unknown date). Egypt's Antiquities Administration said on January 10 that archaeologists had discovered the tombs of some pyramid builders, indicating that the pyramids were not built by slaves. Zahi Hawass, chairman of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement that the tombs were built during the Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, from 2575 BC to 2467 BC. Similar to the tombs of pyramid builders previously discovered in this area, the distribution of these tombs proves that the pyramids were built by hired workers rather than slaves.