alt Hacker NewsBuilding the pyramids is the easy part. You need food, labor, stone. Designing the bastards is where the true mystery lies for me. And it doesn't seem that we have very good history on the design process. Unlike the building one.
Building the pyramids is the easy part. You need food, labor, stone. Designing the bastards is where the true mystery lies for me. And it doesn't seem that we have very good history on the design process. Unlike the building one.
Design in what way? A pyramid is the natural shape any pile of stuff takes when created because it is the most stable.
Heck, when just playing in the dirt or sand as a little kid you sort of instinctually learn that.
So once you have that, what is left to learn of the design process? Cutting and assembly.
Cutting we figured out already, with copper tools you can use the desert sand as a diamond abrasive (has microscopic diamonds in it). Put sand on block, move a saw blade with no teeth back and forth.
Assembly: we do have some idea of the assembly process, but yes we will never know for certain because it was either taken for granted in that age (like we take for granted how to use modern technology), or written on parchment long since destroyed.
Design: we have countless examples in the region of pre-giza pyramids that have different height/width ratios. And how the older ones are less stable due to having more height to width (taller than wide).
So yeah, designing really is do it at smaller scale. Heck hand held bricks would give you a lot of practice and design reference when building the real thing, for a fraction of the cost.
And you missed the most obvious thing we learned, (a) they had a ton of time (no YouTube), (b) they built it in the off-season and paid the workers in food - not slaves. It was a public works project, that was used to keep the citizens fed.