Mystery Provides a Summary (2) Theories Explain Essay

mystery" provides a summary (2) theories explain mystery. Because theories sound -fetched, include source promoter theory -- a scientist, a historian, a theologian,

The mystery of Giza: How was the Pyramid of Giza constructed?

One of the great mysteries of the ancient world is how the Pyramids of Giza was constructed. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the only remaining wonder, the historian Herodotus stated that slave labor, using ramps, was the primary method used when constructing the impressive structure:

He [Cheops] closed the temples, and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice, compelling them instead to labour, one and all, in his service. Some were required to drag blocks of stone down to the Nile from the quarries in the Arabian range of hills; others received the blocks after they had been conveyed in boats across the river, and drew them to the range of hills called the Libyan. A hundred thousand men laboured constantly, and were relieved every three months by a fresh lot. It took ten years' oppression of the people to make the causeway for the conveyance of the stones, a work not much inferior, in my judgment, to the pyramid itself (cited by Orcutt 2000).According to Herodotus, the great blocks of stones were transported by boat and by human hands down a ramp or causeway, which was itself a tremendous work of labor to construct. After the foundation stones were laid, machines made of wooden planks were used to transport stones higher and higher up the top of the growing structure.

Given the great weight of the stones used in the construction of the pyramids, "as a means of raising large numbers of blocks vertically up tiers of stone in as short a time as possible, levers do not appear to be as practical as ramps" (Orcutt 2000). But professional stonemasons today, based upon the weight of the materials used and the feasibility of lifting them state that "ramps were used to perhaps 1/2 or so of the pyramid's total vertical height, after which levers may have been of more use for the smaller volume of material" (Orcutt 2000). A combination of ramps and levers thus seems likely, although the exact method used still remains in doubt.

However, although the precise method of constructing the pyramids is debated, there is increasing evidence that Herodotus' statement….....