For years, Egyptologists have hotly debated how the massive pyramids of ancient Egypt were built more than 4 thousand years ago. Now, a team of engineers and geologists presents a new theory — a hydraulic lifting device that would have floated heavy stones through the center of Egypt’s oldest pyramid using stored water.
The ancient Egyptians built the Step Pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser in the 27th century BC, and it was the tallest structure at the time, standing at around 62 meters high. But how exactly the monument was erected, with several stones weighing 300 kilograms, remained a centuries-old mystery, according to the study published Monday in PLOS One magazine.
“Many detailed publications have discussed pyramid-building procedures and provided tangible elements, but these generally focus on newer, better-documented, and smaller pyramids from the Middle and New Kingdoms (1980 to 1075 BC),” said lead author Xavier Landreau, CEO of Paleotechnic, a private research institute in Paris that studies ancient technologies.
“Techniques involved may include ramps, cranes, capstans, lever elevators, winches, pivots, or a combination of these methods,” he added in an email. “But what about the pyramids of the Old Kingdom (2675 to 2130 BC), which are much larger? While human strength and ramps may be the only construction force for small structures, other techniques may have been used for large pyramids.”
Using an interdisciplinary approach, the new paper was the first to report a system consistent with the internal architecture of the Step Pyramid, the authors wrote.
A complex water treatment system using local resources would have allowed for a water-powered elevator within the pyramid’s inner vertical axis. Some type of float would have lifted the heavy stones through the center of the pyramid, according to the study.
While the theory is an “ingenious solution,” some Egyptologists are not convinced, as a more widely accepted theory is that the ancient Egyptians used ramps and traction devices to lift the heavy blocks into place, said Egyptologist David Jeffreys, a senior lecturer. retired from Egyptian archeology at University College London, England, who did not participate in the study. Here’s what experts have to say about the new theory.
The Egyptian desert was once a savannah
By analyzing available data, including paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climates, and archaeological data, the study team suggested that water from ancient streams flowed from the west of the Saqqara Plateau into a system of deep-water trenches and tunnels that surrounded the Pyramid. of Steps.
Water would also have flowed into the Gisr el-Mudir — a rectangular limestone structure measuring 650 by 350 meters — which would have acted as a retention dam. This device, previously considered a fortress, a celebration arena or a livestock enclosure, would control and store flood water, as well as filter sediment and dirt so as not to clog water passages.
The theorized water treatment system would not only allow water control during flood events, but would also “guarantee adequate quality and quantity of water for both drinking and irrigation and transportation or construction,” said study co-author Guillaume Piton, a research scientist. from the French National Institute for Research in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), based at the Institute of Environmental Geosciences at Grenoble Alpes University.
The authors pointed to several previous studies that found that the Saara’s desert it had more regular rainfall thousands of years ago than it does today. The landscape would have resembled a savannah, capable of supporting more plant life than the arid conditions of the desert. However, there is debate over when exactly weather conditions were at their wettest.
There may have been enough water to support a system like the hydraulic elevator, said Judith Bunbury, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Cambridge in London who was not involved in the new study. She pointed to previous research that found rainwater gutters being built and used in the Old Kingdom, as well as previous research that looked at the diet of birds at the time, which consisted of wetland species such as frogs.
“I think there is a fairly widespread belief that it was rainier in the Old Kingdom, certainly in the early Old Kingdom when the Step Pyramid was being built,” she added.
On the other hand, experts debate whether there would have been enough constant rain to fill the structures that would have supported the hydraulic elevator, such as the “Dry Moat,” a giant canal that surrounds the Step Pyramid and nearby structures, which the authors believe collected water that helped power the elevator when in use.
The Sahara’s greenest period likely ended in the early third millennium BC, according to Jeffreys. The low rainfall would not be able to fill the structures to the extent needed for a hydraulic lift, and furthermore would not be able to keep up with the loss of water within the structure’s limestone, added Fabian Welc, director of Cardinal Stefan University’s Institute of Archeology. Wyszynski in Warsaw, Poland. Welc was not involved in the new study.
“There was an increase in climatic humidity (seasonal – winter rains) in northern Egypt (also in Saqqara) during the 3rd Dynasty (2670-2613 BC), but its intensity was relatively low. These rains, even filling the wadis (a dry valley, except in the rainy seasons) with water, would not have been able to fill the dry moat nor even to a small extent would these waters have been immediately drained by gravity deep into the rock mass, over which there is no doubt (unless it was a biblical flood),” Welc said in an email.
The study authors agreed that it is very unlikely that the system was permanently filled with water and argue that it is more likely that flash floods at the time could have provided enough water to support the hydraulic lift during the pyramid’s construction. However, more research is still needed to know exactly how much rain and flooding likely occurred during this period, the authors noted in the study.
This is not the first time the Nile has been investigated to see if it played a role in the construction of the pyramids. One study published in May found a dry branch of the massive river and theorized that the stream was likely used to transport massive blocks of limestone to the construction sites of several pyramids. There is also some evidence that the ancient Egyptians used hydraulics on a smaller scale, Jeffreys said.
Mysteries of ancient Egyptian structures
Researchers have previously not determined a clear purpose for the vertical axis within Djoser’s pyramid. Some later pyramids, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza, have shafts that are believed to have been used for ventilation, and it is possible that the inner shaft could also have been intended for lighting or to relieve pressure in the chamber below, Jeffreys said. But as the first of its kind, the Step Pyramid was an experimental structure that is believed to have started as a mastaba (a flat tomb) and was built upwards, so it remains unclear exactly what its internal features were intended for, he added.
The shaft inside the Step Pyramid is connected to a 200 meter long underground tunnel that connects to another vertical shaft outside the pyramid. The outer shaft could then connect to a hypothetical water-carrying section of the Dry Trench, referred to as the Deep Trench, but more research is needed, the authors wrote in the study.
The inner shaft begins directly beneath the pyramid, near the center, where a granite box sits with a plug at its base. This box is most widely believed to be King Djoser’s burial chamber, but instead the authors suggest it was built for the purpose of opening and closing the hydraulic elevator, allowing water to fill the shaft when in use.
As for whether other pyramids were built using this method, Landreau said more investigation is needed. “It may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of how the largest monoliths, found in pyramids like Khufu or (Khefren) were erected. These monoliths weigh tens of tons, making it seemingly impossible for them to be transported using only (human strength). On the other hand, a moderately sized hydraulic lift can lift 50 to 100 tons. Exploring hidden axes within these pyramids could be a promising avenue for research,” he added.
Despite the more than 4,000-year-old mysteries surrounding the pyramids and their features, there is sufficient documentation that the ancient Egyptians used certain technologies, such as scaffolding and mudbrick ramps, to help build various structures, said geoarchaeologist at the University of Cambridge, Bunbury, while there is no documentation or representations of a water-powered lifting device to his knowledge.
“I think people, even from ancient times, have been inspired by the pyramids as a massive construction project,” Bunbury said. “And they find it quite difficult to believe that they were just built by ordinary people at that time, in part because they see it as something very old… It is intriguing that there are so many proposals for what could be a technological innovation that were then abandoned, when we know that they had technical solutions for these things anyway.
“That doesn’t mean (the hydraulic lifting device) wasn’t used,” she added. “But there’s a kind of Occam’s razor about what the simplest thing is based on what we already know.”
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