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 Systèmes 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’.
