How I Would Build The Great Pyramids

to illustrate how I think this was done I'm building a fairly crude model and even though I can't even come close to the scale of the originals I do want to get the proportions right on the individual stones because I think that's an important factor I did some calculations to determine how many blocks I would need and figured around 200 would do except that's just around the perimeter of the pyramid like the outside it wouldn't be practical for me to make enough to fill up the interior as well the cuts on the blocks were neat enough but the edges were a little bit of rough and rather than individually sanding each one I'm gonna put them inside this empty paint bucket and dump in about a cup of dry sand pounding on the lid and shaking it vigorously does a very good job rounding over the corners although it did make them a little bit dusty but nothing that can't be blown away with all the blocks made I can start building and the first step of course is to pick a good location and carefully lay it out and as I understand that they excavated it around the entire perimeter of the base before they started the first course and that's what I'm trying to replicate here what you're watching here is a key point in how this was built construction can happen on all four sides at the same time specifically in the corners masons of every kind throughout history have always started it on the corners and worked their way towards the middle and I'm pretty sure that's what they did here as well in fact I have some evidence that I'll show later that backs this up you would always put your best workers on the corners your most skilled people since it's the corners that actually dictate how each course goes up after the first course is finished all the way around they moved up to the second and to get the right slow all you need to do is step back the next course up by a specific amount from the course below and again while the outside perimeter was being constructed the interior was being filled up as well and right about now you might be saying how exactly did they move the stones up of everything else involved in building these this seems to be the biggest mystery now we get back to the dimensions of the individual stones and I'll show how I think that's important the stones are roughly twice as long as they were wide and deep so that when you actually stand one up on end the tipping point is in the middle which is level with the top of the block you want to put it up on so it really wouldn't take much effort to tip it up on to that course and slide it forwards and you're probably saying that these stones are massively heavy and there's no disputing that I think we can all agree that moving stones across flatland is fairly trivial especially for the people that built these it seems like they didn't have any problem whatsoever moving and handling large stones there's been lots of conjecture on how they were moved up some have suggested that giant ramps were built others have put forth ideas of elevators that use water to lift the stones which in my opinion is absolutely not feasible or practical of all of the theories the ramp idea is the most likely however you don't really need to build another ramp when you're already building around the size of a pyramid are sloping after all and if you use the method that I described earlier to lift the stones up all you'd have to do is make allowances for that as you build the pyramid higher and what I mean are areas where the stepping up is not as steep as the outside of the pyramid and if I were building a pyramid I'd want one of those on each side and if you look closely at the sides or especially on an aerial view you'll see these very noticeable lines where it looks like the pyramid face dips in on my pyramid this would be where I left out blocks so that I can move other blocks up very much like a stairway eventually it could have gotten to the point where they could have eliminated two of those stairways but given how big these pyramids actually are I think that would be very close to the top it's also not beyond the realm of possibility that at some point they could have built over one or two of these stairways using larger stones to bridge over the opening and with that done they can continue building above while the stairway is still being used but I personally don't think that's what happened it's just a possibility another possibility is they built stairs on the outside of the pyramid and this would be especially useful for the very top but again given the overall size of the pyramid I really don't think that they would have to do that either the stones they used at the top were much smaller than the ones they use at the bottom so they might have been able to use the natural step structure of the pyramid itself to lift those stones up as I demonstrated before as you probably know the pyramids were not just big piles of blocks like this they were actually clad on top of this with much better-looking stone and I believe that that was done from the top down you would start with the capstone and get that in place and then do the next course down and in the model I'm just using straight pieces but you have to imagine that these are individual blocks and I'm also only doing one side when all four sides would be done at the same time on a real pyramid that brings us to the end and I hope you found it entertaining at least the fact is no one knows for sure exactly how they did this and unless we develop time travel we never will I do know one thing for certain though it wasn't with the help of aliens from outer space [Music]

Channel: John Heisz - I Build It

Views: 1,577,112

Rating: 4.6788077 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, how to, diy, jpheisz, ibuildit, great pyramids, pyramid, egypt, joe rogan, graham hancock

Id: ZFEjBtPOPNk

Length: 7min 7sec (427 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/McFigroll]

Id just like to say, the editing is great.

[u/anarrogantworm]

The internal ramp theory is my favorite explanation. The pyramid, while under construction, was its own ramp.

Not only is it incredibly elegant and clever but it's supported by all sorts of physical evidence including density scans taken of the whole Great Pyramid. Houdin even has an incredible and plausible explanation for the construction of the Grand Gallery at the center of the pyramid, which involves counter weight elevators which also are supported by physical evidence.

Full doc on the subject

Edit: Check out SpookySP's reply to this comment for even more!

[u/DysfunctionalSloth]

this guy sounds a little like chef John and a little like Bobby Baccalieri.

[u/31TonBallZack]

Where did ancient Egyptians get a paint can big enough to smooth out the rough edges on their huge limestone blocks?

[u/jordinismyname]

Pretty sure they built them from the bottom up. Would have been a lot harder starting from the top or side

[u/[deleted]]

Aliens is a much better explanation.

[u/rob_woodus]

While I can appreciate the effort to make the video demo, unfortunately this leaves out so much physics of scale as to be rendered useless. His model is cute, but I don't believe anyone fails to understand the design of the exterior blocks. It's how they were placed in concert with the detailed inner structure that's the mystery.

In almost every aspect of this demonstration the author simply overpowers the obstacle with either giant levers, brute force, or his fingers (flipping blocks up steps). These blocks were 6-10 tons and there were over 2 million placed. Yes I've seen the guy who spin blocks on a pebble, but quite simply to place so many of these block (~13 per hour non-stop for 20 years) you would need a much more elegant system than a shallower ramp down the center. And I'm not saying there isn't one. I'm saying this isn't it.

[u/skeptibat]

Fun fact: Before the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889, the tallest man-made structure in the world was the Great Pyramid at Giza, constructed around 2560 BCE.

[u/iq8]

what about the burial chambers and other random chambers. They by themselves seem impossible, how did they build those?

With those this theory does not work I believe. The pyramid is not solid inside completely, there are rooms and tunnels.