Publication Type:
Archaeology Paper Prize Winner
Online Publication Category:
Archaeology Paper Prize Winners
2016

How were the ancient Egyptians able to move 2.5-ton blocks to build the Great Pyramid without today’s machinery? Khufu’s Pyramid at Giza was a massive undertaking, requiring approximately two million stone blocks weighing an average of 2.5 tons to be set into place, five every minute during the first years of construction (Romer 2007, 197). Without any records on the construction of this ancient wonder, scholars have proposed various theories on how the Great Pyramid was built. Many scholars believe that the ancient Egyptians created ramps beside the pyramids to transport the blocks to each new level, but even they are not completely convinced by the proposed models, the most prominent being the long ramp and the spiral ramp models. Over the last fifteen years, the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin has developed a new theory, one of an internal spiral ramp that was covered upon the Pyramid’s completion, which may solve this thousands’ year old mystery.