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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.
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.
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?
“The mystery of the pyramids is solved before our eyes” in this illustrated YA guide to their construction by the Caldecott Medal-winning author (Kirkus). In Pyramid, acclaimed author and illustrator David Macaulay explores the construction of ancient Egyptian pyramids from the initial planning stages to the methods used to lift stones up to the structure’s highest level. Through concise text and richly detailed black and white illustrations your readers are introduced not only to ancient Egyptian engineering, tools, and labor practices, but also the philosophy of life, death, and afterlife that made these awe-inspiring monuments necessary as a pharaoh’s final resting place. "Macaulay's brilliant Pyramid shows, detail by detail, how the great pharaohs' burial places were conceived and constructed… His draftsmanship is unexcelled, and his book is pharaonic in opulence and design."—Time
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.
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.
In Rosalie David's hands, the Egyptian builders of the pyramids are revealed as simple people, leading ordinary lives while they are engaged on building the great tomb for a Pharoah. This is an engrossing detective story, bringing to the general reader a fascinating picture of a special community that lived in Egypt and built one of the pyramids, some four thousand years ago.
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.
