How were the pyramids built? by Esther Wolf

Alongside the Taj Mahal and Stonehenge, The Pyramids of Giza are some of the only remaining wonders of the ancient world. This being said, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt attract a lot of attention not only from tourists but also from archeologists, historians and engineers. They pose many questions that remain unanswered. Recently, there have been discoveries made by archeologist Zahi Hawass that lead to new understanding of who built them; yet, there is no concrete proof to explain how they were built. It is thought that materials for the pyramids were transported on rafts down the Nile, as well as by sled or by rolling logs beneath them. The Pyramids of Giza in particular were constructed out of both local and imported blocks of limestone, however, the means by which the limestone climbed more than 480 feet in the air has been debated ever since 450 BC. The world has given credit to the hot Egyptian sun, over the past 4560 years, for crumbling and deteriorating the evidence of how the Pyramids were built. Fortunately, various theories have been presented to try and explain how these magnificent monuments were constructed. Each hypothesis was modeled off the use of a ramp, although some had more flaws than others. The first theory was based on a straight external ramp, but mathematically, it seemed very impractical. Then, later theories followed and involved spiralling external staircases; however, they would have made constructing the corners of the pyramid virtually impossible. Finally, the most recent theory involved the use of an internal spiralling staircase that was discovered through the use of 3D imaging technology and seemed to be modeled after the classic step-based pyramid. Although the first two theories would have pot...

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...to their age and brittleness, it is difficult to gain permission to explore them, and while historians wait, more evidence is lost as it crumbles away. The majority of the mystery involving how the pyramids were built is derived from the lack of internal evidence that archeologists can access. As of today, the 3 most commonly used theories have been the external ramp theory, the modified external ramp theory and most recently, the internal ramp theory. Although the chances of the external and modified ramp theories being correct are slim, the evidence supporting their existence might have worn away by now, especially if the material that was used to build the ramps was weaker than that of the pyramids. This thought indirectly challenges the internal ramp theory as well because it also mentions the use of external ramps in building the bottom half of the monument.