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Going beyond even the expertise of archaeologists and historians, world-class engineer Craig B. Smith explores the planning and engineering behind the incredible Great Pyramid of Giza. How would the ancient Egyptians have developed their building plans, devised work schedules, managed laborers, solved specific design and engineering problems, or even improvised on the job? The answers are here, along with dazzling, one-of-a-kind color photographs and beautiful hand-drawn illustrations of tools, materials, and building techniques the ancient masters used. In his foreword to the book, Egypt's Undersecretary of State for the Giza Monuments Zahi Hawass explains the importance of understanding the Great Pyramid as a straightforward construction project.
Packed full of fun and facts, accompanied by internet links, about everyday life in ancient Egypt, this book answers questions like what were pyramids for? Why are they so big? How were mummies made? And, why did the Egyptians write on walls?
This book examines the architectural achievements of the Egyptian pyramid builders and how they may have accomplished those deeds. Many of their building techniques we today cannot explain. The baffling puzzle of how the stones were raised is one of these. The big puzzle aside, many minor mysteries are for the first time explained. Egyptologists agree that those performing the heavy labor were conscripted citizens, not slaves. The builders were inventive, motivated, daring, and superbly organized. They made mistakes, the price of innovation. Still, they persevered, and created some of the most impressive monuments in history. This book should help the reader understand the problems the builders faced, and instill admiration of their work.
In this book, Professor Joseph Davidovits explains the intriguing theory that made him famous. He shows how the Pyramids were built by using re-agglomerated stone (a natural limestone treated like a concrete), and not with huge carved blocks, hauled on fragile ramps. Archaeology bears him out, as well as hieroglyphic texts, scientific analysis, religious and historical facts. Several independant scientific studies reveal the ultimate proofs that the pyramids blocks are not natural. You may find various papers or opinions challenging the theory, but all prefer ignoring these analysis. Believing or not in the artificial stone theory is now simply irrelevant. It is a fact, a truth that is still fought by some people for irrational purposes. Here we finally have the first complete presentation on how and why the Egyptian pyramids were built. We discover its brilliant creator, the great scribe and architect, Imhotep. Joseph Davidovits sweeps aside the conventional image which cripples Egyptology and delivers a captivating and surprising view of Egyptian civilisation. He charts the rise of this technology, its apogee with the Pyramids at Giza, and the decline. Everything is logical and brilliant, everything fits into place. Chapter by chapter, the revelations are sensational, especially when Joseph Davidovits explains why the pharaohs stopped building great pyramids because of an over-exploitation of raw materials and a likely environmental disaster. We understand why Cheops and Ramses II represent two Egyptian civilisations completely different in their beliefs. On the one hand, the God Khnum mandates Cheops to build his pyramid in agglomerated stone, while on the other hand, the God Amun orders Ramses to carve stone for the temples of Luxor and Karnak. 30 years after the best seller book: The Pyramids: an enigma solved, after 30 years of new research, and new discoveries, you will understand why the theory is more alive than ever, why more and more scientists and archaeologists agree, simply because it is the truth.
Joseph Davidovits explains the intriguing theory that made him famous. He shows how the Pyramids were built by using re-agglomerated stone (a natural limestone treated like a concrete), and not with huge carved blocks, hauled on fragile ramps. Archaeology bears him out, as well as hieroglyphic texts, scientific analysis, religious and historical facts. The author sweeps aside the conventional image which cripples Egyptology and delivers a captivating and surprising view of this civilisation; the first complete presentation on how the pyramids were built. The revelations are sensational, especially when he explains why the pharaohs stopped building great pyramids because of an over-exploitation of raw materials and a likely environmental disaster. He charts the rise of this technology, its apogee at Giza, and the decline. Everything is logical, everything fits into place.
Could the Great Pyramid of Giza be a repository of ancient magical knowledge? Or perhaps evidence of a vanished pre–Ice Age civilization? Misinformation and myths have attached themselves to the Egyptian pyramids since ancient Greece and Rome. While many Americans believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, archaeologists understand that the Giza pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty around 2450 BCE. So why is there such a disconnect between scholarly opinion and the popular view of Egypt? In The Legends of the Pyramids, Jason Colavito takes us back to Late Antique Egypt, where the replacement of polytheism with Christianity gave rise to local efforts to rewrite the stories of Egyptian history in the image of the Bible. When the Arab conquest absorbed Egypt into the Islamic community, these stories then passed into Islamic historiography and reentered the West. Colavito's The Legends of the Pyramids lays open pop culture's view of Egypt in movies, TV shows, popular books, and New Age beliefs, detailing how the hidden history of Egypt has grown alongside the official history of archaeology and Egyptology.
A decade ago, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin became obsessed by the centuriesold question: How was the Great Pyramid built? How, in a nation of farmers only recently emerged from the Stone Age, could such a massive, complex, and enduring structure have been envisioned and constructed? Laboring at his computer ten hours a day for five years—creating exquisitely detailed 3-D models of the Pyramid's interior—Houdin finally had his answer. It was a startling revelation that cast a fresh light on the minds that conceived one of the wonders of the ancient world. Written by world-renowned Egyptologist Bob Brier in collaboration with Houdin, The Secret of the Great Pyramid moves deftly between the ancient and the modern, chronicling two equally fascinating interrelated histories. It is a remarkable account of the step-by-step planning and assembling of the magnificent edifice—the brainchild of an innovative genius, the Egyptian architect Hemienu, who imagined, organized, and oversaw a monumental construction project that took more than two decades to complete and that employed the services of hundreds of architects, mathematicians, boatbuilders, stonemasons, and metallurgists. Here also is the riveting story of Jean-Pierre Houdin's single-minded search for solutions to the mysteries that have bedeviled Egyptologists for centuries, such as the purpose of the enigmatic Grand Gallery and the Pyramid's crack.
This engaging account is the result of Massey's pool-side ponderings, in which he gives a detailed alternative theory of how the ancient Egyptians could have used water to their advantage to make pyramid building much easier.
Masterworks from a golden era of ancient Egyptian culture are gathered in this volume, which accompanies a landmark exhibition organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, running from September 16, 1999 through January 9, 2000. 130 color illustrations.
