The enigma
of Cheops pyramid solved?
THE BLOCKS WERE NOT TRANSPORTED, BUT CAST INTO
MOLDS
A Belgian physicist Demortier analyzed the material, used for construction of
the Cheops pyramid. He is convinced that cut stone
blocks were not dragged to the place.
It is not possible that almost 5000 years
ago, the Cheops pyramid was constructed in a way that
stone blocks were cut and put one upon another – this is the opinion of the
Belgian physicist Guy Demortier. For more than a
decade he was involved in physical and chemical investigations of the material,
used for the pyramid construction. His statements oppose the view of most of
Egyptologists. At the lecture, held in the National Museum of Slovenia and
titled Construction of the Cheops pyramid at Gizeh – an enigma solved, he presented arguments for his
thesis. The mighty pyramid, whose origin has provoked debates and excited
imaginations for centuries, was built by casting into molds
and using material available in the vicinity of
The scenes, where thousands of slaves
painfully drag huge blocks uphill and put them on the lower blocks, can only be
seen in Hollywood films, there is no scientific explanation for them, says Guy Demortier. As Head of the Laboratory for the Analysis of
Nuclear Reactions at the University Notre Dame de la Paix
in the Belgian city of
Contradictory to the wide-spread
theory
“The volume of the Cheops pyramid is 2.7
multiplied by ten on the sixth power cubic meters. The construction lasted
twenty to twenty-five years, and we can see that in a single day about 300 to
400 blocks of the volume of about one cubic meter were built. This means from
750 to 1000 tons or one block every two minutes. Every 20 seconds one square
meter of chiselled surface had to be produced, and this only with the use of
stone and soft copper tools. Lifting of more than two tons heavy cubes with
primitive means (wheels and pulleys were not known) is more than incredible”,
said Demortier. He listed some more facts in favour
of the most accepted theory about the construction of the mighty building: The
blocks clearly show irregular shapes, but the neighbouring blocks nevertheless
fit very well. The surface of the plateau, where the basis was built (its sides
measure 240 m) is not smooth. “We can see that the blocks are more porous on
the top than at the bottom, and this porosity cannot be explained with the
erosion of limestone due to climatic changes. We also observe that the numulites are spread in a chaotic way, while in natural
rocks the shells are aligned parallel. The measurements with electromagnetic
waves showed that the content of water is about 13% - in natural rocks it is at
most one percent. If it flows in with rain, then the cracks between the blocks
had to be 10 cm wide,” he pointed out. The narrow openings, explored by a
mini-robot, show no traces of chiselling. The records,
written in the period of Napoleonic conquests, mention that the use of tools is
not perceivable.
First a wooden mold
Using ion beams, Demortier analyzed pieces of material from the pyramid,
dated between 2551 and 2528 BC. His collaborators have determined alumino-silicate compounds. “In the 1970s, Josephs Davidovits studied chemical composition of polymers, with
the aim of finding a fire-proof material. He discovered geo-polymer and some
years later found out that the pyramid blocks have nearly the same composition.
Upon his initiative I analyzed the matterial and
found out that it is synthetic, not natural, especially because of the lixivial stone.” Said in a much-simplified way, Guy Demortier asserts that the Egyptians built pyramids on the
left bank of Nile from a kind of concrete, composed of 85 percent of limestone
and of 15 percent of binder, containing water and natron;
the latter is an alkaline sodium compound occurring in this area.
His theory is that the builders
made a wooden mold and poured this mixture in it.
Every block had to dry for one day, then the next
block could be put next by. The construction went simultaneously from different
sides, as demonstrated by the blocks of markedly irregular surface. “In the
inside, the blocks were put from the bottom upwards, but at the outer side it
was just opposite – first stood the top, then they cast the floors below it. At
the end, the surface was polished.”
The mixture was probably
invented by Imhotep, an architect from Gizeh. The same material was used for production of
different vases, which were discovered in the vicinity. This indestructible
material, anticipates Demortier, who has a lot of
experience with the analysis of gold objects – among others he discovered many
mysteries of the Etruscans – would be ideal for deposition of nuclear waste.
The masons were not slaves
The Belgian physicist thinks
that the masons were not slaves, but they belonged to the upper classes. This
should be evident from the remnants from the neighbouring cemetery. In
particular he asserts that the number of working people was significantly
smaller than it would be necessary for transportation of ton-weighting blocks.
“I calculated that the mixture was poured by six people. Everybody lifted about
400 kg per day, if he worked ten hours. The material was carried by a living conveyor
belt, handing it from one person to another across the steps half to one meter
high. About 10.000 people collaborated when constructing the base plate, their
number then gradually reduced with succeeding floors, reaching about thousand
at the 210th floor. In the text of Latin writer Pliny from the 1st
century AD he found information that at his times about ten thousand people worked
on the construction of public buildings. The number of these buildings erected
since the period of Rameses until the
It is hard to find the differences between
the natural and artificial materials, acknowledges the speaker. He worked in
the laboratory with most of the materials, but he also used the discoveries of
his colleagues from the “field’. “I wish I could attract chemists, physicists,
architects, Egyptologists and other people who find this problem interesting,
in order to make a common mission. We should organise into two groups, one should
try to test the cement, and the other the natural stone. We should make the
analyses and then meet again after five years and present the results. We are
not convinced that we found the real truth, but the transport of stone blocks
was indeed impossible,” concludes Guy Demortier.
Figure caption
The investigation continues. Up to now, Guy Demortier
devoted himself to the analysis of the Cheops
pyramid, but he intends to investigate the remaining two larger pyramids on the
left bank of
Slovenian text: Barbara Hočevar
Translated by Dr Ziga Smit