"The mystery of the construction of the Great Pyramid is solved" - such headlines appear in the press every two to three years. And each time the "sensation" gradually fades away, gets lost against the background of unresolved issues, goes into the shadows under the pressure of contradictions. Therefore, one more version of the "trick" used by the Egyptians 4.5 thousand years ago should be treated with caution. Nevertheless, recent discoveries in Egypt have given new breath to this hypothesis
The pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) was built for 20 years. At different stages of its construction, up to 40 thousand people took part in the work, but mostly about 14 thousand.
The corners of the spiral corridor, open until the last moment, allowed workers to use simple levers and ropes to turn the blocks lifted along an inclination 90 degrees in order to push them into the next tunnel. It is like a train depot with a turntable that helps the locomotives to turn around in tight spaces to travel in a new direction (illustration by Jean-Pierre Houdin).
Experts have long had a complete idea of how the Great Pyramids were built. But a huge army of researchers does not want to put an end to this question. The masterpiece of ancient architecture is too impressive to accept the simplest versions.
So the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin spent a lot of time and effort on developing his own version of the construction technique. As a result, in 2006 the original hypothesis “crystallized” - the upper part of the pyramid (about 70% in height) was built by the Egyptians from the inside!
How exactly? And why is Houden's hypothesis being revisited now? To compare the Frenchman's scheme with other technologies for building a pyramid, let's take a short excursion.
All versions of the construction of the pyramids, put forward in different years, even difficult to enumerate. We will not reasonably talk about the notorious aliens with their anti-gravity technique. But even within the framework of the possibilities of the XXVI century BC, there were many options for action.
The most likely scheme is also the simplest one. These are long embankments, along which the workers, with the help of ropes and blocks, pulled the limestone blocks up. This simplicity, however, turns into a colossal amount of earthworks.
A variation of the same principle of using slopes is a spiral or other form of a stone "track" laid out on the walls of the pyramid itself. On it, they say, stones were delivered to the top.
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In both cases, the authors of the diagrams include in them a large number of lifting mechanisms - wooden levers with ropes, which helped the Egyptians to set multi-ton blocks in place or even lift them from tier to tier.
Herodotus spoke about these simple devices. The latter, however, believed that the Egyptians used precisely "cranes", sequentially raising blocks from level to level. But only the combination of ramps with levers seems to most Egyptologists the most likely scheme.
There are also alternative hypotheses.
For example, that the pyramid was made of concrete (the supposed ancient, but not so primitive technology of its production has been tested by experience), and therefore the problem of lifting stones simply did not exist (unfortunately, this version modestly leaves granite monoliths, which are also available in a pyramid, and some of them weigh incomparably more than limestone).
Another version was discussed that wooden sluices built on the growing walls were used to lift stone blocks, and the force of Archimedes, respectively. And so on and so forth. Simple mechanics and the "basic" laws of physics allow you to literally work wonders.
Alas, none of the hypotheses can boast of the absence of weak points. So, the construction of a straight embankment requires work comparable to the construction of the pyramid itself, and the length of such a rise should exceed one and a half kilometers (at the end of construction), and it should also be based on stone blocks.
Egyptologist Bob Brier of Long Island University says, “It's like building two pyramids. Moreover, the remains of such a ramp have not been found anywhere."
In fact, some traces of the former ramps in the vicinity of the pyramid have long been discovered. But, according to calculations, they cannot be fully responsible for the construction of this grandiose monument. That is why the "official" Egyptologists are inclined to the aforementioned scheme of the combined use of ramps and lifting mechanisms built of wood.
As for the spiral road running along the outer walls, then, as Bob explains, it would hide during construction the corners and edges of the structure itself, constant measurements of which were necessary (everyone knows the high accuracy of the proportions and lines of the Great Pyramid). This means that "geodetic survey" would be impossible.
Jean-Pierre paints a different picture.
The lower third of the pyramid, which contains most of its mass, was erected by the already considered method of the external ramp, which at this height of the structure was not yet too cumbersome. But then the tactics were radically changed.
First, Uden believes that the limestone blocks that made up the ramp of the lower third of the Cheops pyramid were largely dismantled and reused to build the upper levels of the pyramid itself. Therefore, they say, there are no traces of the original ramp anywhere.
And secondly, and this is the main thing, in the process of erecting new tiers, the workers left a large corridor inside the walls, which rose upward in a spiral. Along it, new blocks were dragged to the top of the structure. And when it was finished, the tunnel itself was completely out of sight. So this "road" did not have to be disassembled.
(To be fair, it should be noted that in its raw form this idea belongs to Jean-Pierre's father.)
“The paradigm was flawed,” says Uden of conventional hypotheses. - The very idea that the pyramid is built outside is wrong. And how can you solve the pyramid problem if the very first element that you introduce into your mental construction is already wrong?"
Last year, Uden, with the help of Dassault Systemes, performed a computer simulation of his pyramid-building method and showed that it worked. But it is much more interesting that indirect evidence of the correctness of Jean-Pierre came from Egypt, directly from the ancient monument.
At about 90 meters in height, on the northeastern edge of the Khufu pyramid, near the corner, there is a hole discovered by archaeologists some time ago. Egyptologists are, of course, well aware of it, but they cannot say anything concrete about the purpose of the premises located behind the manhole.
Recently, Bob Breyer, who became a supporter of the Uden hypothesis, climbed inside this manhole with the National Geographic team (for the first time in detailed photography). What he saw surprisingly fit into the scheme with an internal sloping corridor.
The fact is that in order to turn the raised blocks by 90 degrees, when moving from one side of the pyramid to another, the builders had to leave open places in the corners of the structure (where the secret ramps intersected).
Only after the erection of the tomb of the pharaoh was completed, it would be possible to sequentially fill these openings with new blocks drawn along the same corkscrew-like corridor.
So, Breyer saw an L-shaped hall behind the manhole, which is the remains of one such turn. And it is located exactly in the place predicted by Uden's computer model.
There should be two walled up portals located at an angle of 90 degrees to one another. Behind them could well be the very same tunnels that do not go so deep under the surface of the walls. “Perhaps all that stands between us and the solution of a centuries-old mystery are massive blocks that sealed tunnels thousands of years ago,” the French architect suggests.
Why did the Egyptologists not attach importance to this emptiness in the corner before? It just makes sense only if you already have a general plan in your head. “If you didn't think about internal ramps and notches and climbed into this room, it won't mean anything to you,” Brier explains.
This corner turn may well be the missing piece in the Great Pyramid puzzle. Moreover, there is another trace in this story.
In 1986 and 1998, French archaeologists visited Giza. They searched for hidden cavities in the Cheops pyramid using microgravimetry. Among other things, the researchers found a void under the queen's chamber. This cavity, according to their assumption, is the beginning of a corridor leading to the original burial place of Cheops. But in this case we are interested in another involuntary discovery.
This find did not fit into existing theories, so the researchers did not explain it in any way. But a few years ago, at a conference on the pyramids, Wooden approached one of the members of the "gravimetrists" team, engineer Hui Duong Bui. He showed him diagrams showing fluctuations in the density of the material inside the pyramid. One of the figures showed a spiral-like structure running along the outer walls at some depth. Jean-Pierre immediately knew what it was.
“If I hadn’t seen that diagram, I would probably have thought (of building with a coiled tunnel) that this is just another theory,” says Bob Brayer, who was forced by the French knowledge to support Houdin's hypothesis.
And to find new solid evidence, says Jean-Pierre, it is not at all necessary to drill a pyramid or, in general, to penetrate inside. To begin with, it will be enough to show these "phantom" corridors on thermal images of the pyramid.
One such frame will not show any lines under the thickness of the walls, but the computer can show them if it takes into account the subtle difference in the heating and cooling of different sections of the walls during the day and night. After all, the hollow corridors are not so deep from the outer surface of the monument.
In order to identify them, you need to install highly sensitive IR cameras against the three faces of the Cheops pyramid, at a distance of about 50 meters from it, and then take one picture every hour for 18 hours.
There is no permission for such an experience yet. It's a pity. "It is enough to get the 'green light' from Cairo," Jean-Pierre is sure, "and the mystery of the pyramid will be solved."