How Were They Built?

The last standing, and greatest wonder of the world is the Pyramids. There are three of them standing at Giza. They were constructed over 4,000 years ago, but nobody knows for sure how. There are four (maybe even more) possible theories of how the massive structures were built.

The newest, most obscure theory, probably is that the aliens built them. Theory goes that an alien ship came down from the sky and showed the Egyptians advance technology. The people that believe this theory support their case by presenting weird facts such as the Pyramids are built on the center of the earth's land masses. They say the chances of that happening were one in three billion. Another fact is that the perimeter of the Great Pyramid is 36,524 inches. If you move the decimal point two places to the left, you get 365.24, the exact length of the year. These facts may seem real, but there are some contradictions. For instance, these facts use inches for the unit of measure. Four thousand years ago, those Egyptians didn't use inches. The building of the Pyramids by the aliens is a relatively new and bizarre theory.

The ramp-building technique is the most popular of all the theories. This theory is the most realistic of the three theories. The first step to building the pyramid is choosing a site. Once the sight is chosen, it is cleared of sand and leveled by means of water. This is done by creating a series of trenches that form about 20 by 20 foot sguares on the pyramid site. The trenches were filled with water and then drained. When the draining was finished, the water line was marked on the stone. Workers then removed all the stone above the water line and filled in the trenches with rubble. Next, stone blocks were brought in from quarries at places like Aswan. The stones were placed on the site. There are three sections of the pyramid, the inner core, the outer core, and the casing stones. The inner core consists of the roughest cut blocks, the outer core of more smoothly cut blocks, and the casing stones of precisely cut quality. Each of the courses (floors of the pyramid) were constructed by putting the inner core first, outer core second, and the casing stones last. The stones were brought up four mud ramps, one ramp starting from each corner of the pyramid. Once all the courses were completed, the ramps were removed. While removing the ramps, the casing stones were finished to form shiny and extremely smooth surfaces. The construction of the pyramid was then finished.

The third theory follows the same steps as the previous theory except for one. The casing stones were put on as the ramps were being removed. This theory would eliminate extra work at the pyramid site because the casing stones could be finished at the quarries. This is the most reasonable theory of the last two.

The last theory, the most unpopular of all, is the idea that the Egyptians used a type of cement to construct the pyramid. Picking a site would be the first step. Next, workers would create the cement mixture. The cement mixture most likely contained straw, clay, and water. The mixture was then poured into forms (since liquid levels itself, there is no need for leveling the site) and left to harden. Once the mixture hardened, the form was removed and the next block was poured. Each course is completed by that process. Workers transported the mixture up the pyramid by ramps. Once all the courses were completed, hard limestone casing blocks were brought in and placed on the pyramid while the ramps were being dismantled. The pyramid was finished by using the concrete method.

These are all theories that could be true. Some are more realistic than others though. They are all a start to uncovering the real secretes of the pyramids.

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