How Sand Built the Great Pyramid

[Music] welcome to history for granite join me to explore ancient Egypt Please Subscribe and together we'll uncover Secrets From the Past written in stone the Great Pyramid of Giza contains many unique and mysterious design features compared to the pyramids that come before and after combined with the fact that it was the largest pyramid ever constructed it's no wonder that these peculiarities have fascinated explorers throughout history among these many special qualities the so-called Queen's chamber of the Great Pyramid stands out as confounding those who have studied the pyramids No modern researchers believe it was designed for a queen but rather its name comes from the Islamic Middle Ages the gabled saddle Vault ceiling was considered a feminine design at the time in comparison with the name given to the highest chamber in the pyramid known as the king's chamber this is why only the Great Pyramid has a king's chamber and a queen's chamber while later pyramids are simply designated with a burial chamber and an antichamber the Queen's chamber however is no mere antichamber as it stands isolated from the king's chamber and was sealed off within the pyramid at the passage which leads to it in previous videos I have discussed individual Mysteries of the Queen's chamber including old accounts of it containing a sarcophagus the decorative Coral Niche the sealed air channels and its other unfinished masonry in this video we're going to tie all the Queen's chamber Mysteries together and present a cohesive understanding of the space in doing so we're going to focus on one more mystery that has not been fully investigated in 1986 French architect and researcher xil dormian was granted permission to drill into the horizontal passage leading to the Queen's chamber micro gravimetry and ground penetrating radar surveys indicated a low density space was adjacent to this Corridor dormian hoped to find sealed magazine sto rooms filled with grave goods and drilled three times into the Western Wall of the passage each drill core penetrated at a slightly different angle but all of them came up with varying depths of sand packed between the inner Limestone blocks of the pyramid the first core drilled about 30° down from horizontal for about 2.6 M and passed through a 20 cm cavity of sand the second core drilled about 35° from horizontal for a similar depth and passed through a 10 cm sand cavity the final and southernmost core drilled about 40° from horizontal and reached a sand cavity at least 40 cm in depth but could not drill farther through it the discovery of sand rather than grave Goods was interpreted in the media as a failure at the time and consequently no drilling has occurred at the Great Pyramid since 1986 the sand itself is particularly interesting because microscopic analysis revealed it is a smooth and large grained pure quartz variety not native to the Giza Plateau the closest match for the sand is El Tour on the Sinai Peninsula hundreds of miles away egyptology has yet to take interest in this sand and Mark laner and zahi Haas characterize it in their 2017 book as simp filler material between the Queen's chamber passage walls and the rougher core masonry of the pyramid this explanation has also given rise to the idea that the Great Pyramid used sand as a filler throughout the entire structure it should be expected that a fair amount of windblown desert sand would find its way into the core of the pyramid during construction perhaps when small gaps were present between blocks sand was also intentionally deposited into those areas as well the sand found near the Queen's chamber passage however is not what the ancient Egyptians would use as a cheap filler for a structure the size of the Great Pyramid this quartz sand was transported from a great distance and not comparable to the cheaper materials at Giza used for the rougher fill of the pyramid there was plenty of sand available near the pyramids so importing a different variety would only be done for a specific reason the differences between the queen chamber passage sand and Giza desert sand are as follows the passage sand is 99% quartz with Trace bits of plagia whereas Giza sand is a mixture of calite quartz and plagia the passage sand is large with grain size ranging from 100 to 400 microns Giza desert sand is smaller ranging from 10 to 100 microns in size finally the passage sand grains are smooth and rounded in contrast to Giza sand which is angular and sharp clearly the passage sand is very different from the desert sand but what benefit would this difference bestow upon the Builders of the Great Pyramid attempting to read about engineering properties of sand it became clear I was in over my head thus I reached out to experts who might help me understand the distinction between the passage sand and the desert sand at Giza an engineering professor at the University of Sydney was kind enough to explain how the quart sand found in the passage would be more efficient for various methods of construction this well-graded quartz sand would reduce the friction of dragging heavy Stones over it by up to half compared to the local desert sand the more homogeneous grain size and the rounded shape of the pure quartz sand contribute to this reduction in friction reducing the friction of dragging Stones would have an obvious benefit when constructing a pyramid but there's another benefit to reducing the friction coefficient of sand and this is how the grains of sand act upon each other the pure quartz sand found in the passage would have have a much better flowability than the local desert sand rounded grains flow better than angular grains also the quartz sand has a 1 to four size distribution compared to a 1 to 10 distribution for the desert sand a more homogeneous size distribution increases flowability smaller sand grains are also more subjected to cohesion when moisture is introduced and a few drops of water combined with 10 micronized sand grains turns them into a sticky paste the larger grains of pure quartz sand are thus more resistant to moisture finally quartz is mechanically stronger than calite and the pure quartz sand would be subjected to less breakage and abrasion introduced by compressive stress the breakage of sand produces fine particulate that further increases friction all of these physical characteristics combined to make the quartz sand found in the Queen's chamber passage far superior as a building material the ancient Egyptians may have been unaware why this sand created less friction and flowed better but nonetheless they could observe these effects when using it if there's one thing Egyptians had a lot of experience with its sand but this premium quartz sand was transported a great distance to Giza and it seems unlikely the primary function was to fill empty gaps in the rough pyramid masonry the Queen's chamber is not far from where the Court Sand was discovered and so perhaps a connection can be made between the two the floor of this chamber is conspicuously rough and lacks a finished highquality pavement furthermore the physical evidence suggests the floor was never finished because the subfloor was only cut down in the center of the room to receive blocks fitted on top the question of how enormous Stones making up the saddle Vault ceiling of the Queen's chamber were installed can perhaps be combined with the missing floor and the sand the other saddle vaults in the Great Pyramid include the Chevron blocks above the entrance and Campbell's chamber high above the king's chamber but these other saddle vaults cover small spaces and have large notches cut to receive logs that could support the beams as they were set in place they were also never meant to be seen and thus cutouts in the stone were not problematic the Queen's chamber however is a spacious room with a high ceiling and was designed to have a finely finished appearance thus the same technique of cutting into the walls for a log false work of support would not be suitable the solution first commented on by flender Petri was to build up a structure inside the Queen's chamber on top of the subfloor to support the ceiling beams as they were installed other researchers such as geod dormian have attempted to make sense of the stone layout in the floor and explain every detail that can be observed but taking one individual cutting such as the lightning bolt-shaped Edge in the center of the room and extrapolating an entire design is too specul speculative for my liking I prefer patterns and there are only two clear patterns that I can see the first is that the perimeter of the floor has a raised Edge 75 cm from the wall on all sides this Edge is clearly seen on at least eight different floor Stones including all four corners ancient Egyptians always cut down stones to fit blocks that would sit on top of them and thus it can be concluded that the center of the Queen's chamber was built up with masonry leaving a 75 cm Gap along the walls on all sides the second pattern is the numerous round holes found cut into the subf floor all of these holes except for one in the center of the room are found along the perimeter of the chamber thus the holes would be supporting beams that were placed in the empty space surrounding the masonry in the center of the chamber we can be confident the Queen's chamber never received finished pavement because the subfloor would have been recut to set the pavement on top yet we still see The Cutting pattern for the construction massive in the center of the room however the walls of the chamber are dressed nicely smooth so why would this feature of the Queen's chamber be finished and not the floor the answer is that in leaving a 75 cm Gap along the perimeter the builders were able to continue to finish dressing the chamber walls as it was constructed along with building the stone support in the center of the chamber these small holes in the floor perimeter may have supported lad or scaffolding that the builders would use to work on the chamber as it Rose in height finally to install the ceiling enormous Limestone beams would need to be pitched about 30° above horizontal and dragged over the chamber in 1837 Howard Vice and John pering excavated the northwest corner of the ceiling to determine how far the roof beams extend into the pyramid the beams are about twice in length as they can be seen in the chamber so about 6 M long in to total their thickness is unknown but referencing the 2 m thick Chevrons above the pyramid entrance allows us to estimate the weight of each ceiling Beam at 30 to 40 Imperial tons these would be some of the most challenging stones in the pyramid to transport and install perhaps the anomalous sand found by geod dormian near the Queen's chamber passage could have been used in this process this well-graded quartz sand could reduce the friction of dragging the beams into their final position furthermore more the sand would make an ideal filler for the 75 cm deep perimeter of the Queen's chamber that was left empty the rounded quartz sand resists compression compared to angular sand and thus a 40 ton Limestone beam would be better supported as it was aligned for the chamber roof after the chamber ceiling was completed the chamber could be unblocked at the passage and fluid quart sand would be easily removed then the builders could immediately begin dismantling the masonry inside the chamber ber from all sides the polished Queen's chamber walls would also have been protected by the rounded quartz sand and this contrasts with angular sand which is the kind used for sand blasting in modern construction also leaving the air channels uncut in the chamber would prevent the sand from clogging them up the builders conspicuously left the corner of the Queen's chamber entrance with extra Stone to protect it from being damaged during this construction process workers carrying the support Stone out of the chamber would be prevented from damaging the sharp corner this is the only reason to leave the edge protruding like this and it's the only Corner found like this in any pyramid transporting fragile grave Goods is not a threat to Limestone walls after removing the quart sand from the Queen's chamber what do you do with it some was probably stored for other uses but excess could have been recycled as filler for the pyramid in nearby locations this of course is exactly where the sand was found 1 meter beneath the Queen's chamber passage seems like a low elevation for this sand to appear but remember the ceiling beams of the chamber angled down deep into the pyramid in this exact location therefore much of the Queen's chamber had to be constructed earlier than the surrounding parts of the pyramid for the roof to be laid in place ground penetrating scans conducted by was University in 1987 also detected low density space in this area of the pyramid perhaps some C cavities were intentionally left in the pyramid to quickly receive the excess sand therefore in connecting the Court's sand to the Queen's chamber we have explained why the air channels the subfloor and the corner threshold all remained unfinished this also explains why the chamber remained so mysterious throughout the ages imagine you were Among The Intruders to discover the Queen's chamber you dismantle the false floor in the grand gallery and thus know with certainty you are the first to enter but you only find an empty room nothing inside at all you would assume that Hidden Treasures still lay uncovered this is the motivation necessary to dig 15 M through the niche convinced that a hidden passage lay behind it the niche is by far the longest ancient dig into an Old Kingdom pyramid that resulted in Failure it took the extraordinary circumstance of the Queen's chamber being empty to provoke such a reaction from Intruders the chamber being abandoned also explains why its air channels were not uncovered until 1872 if these channels were sacred spiritual conduits some knowledge of their existence would have survived long enough for someone to search for them every conceivable hidden space was examined for valuables but the air channels were never used utilitarian Vents and thus entirely forgotten by everyone in ancient Egypt now having explained the many anomalies in the Queen's chamber with a cohesive model I feel satisfied that most of the puzzle is solved but I'll leave you with one last unexplained mystery to ponder before the end the horizontal passage to the chamber is laid with stones which align their joints vertically and the joints also mirror each other on the walls for much of its length the Egyptians always staggered joints for stability so what is going on here it is this very anomaly that led geod Dorian to probe the walls and discover the quartz sand nearly four decades ago for myself these joints seem decorative a rare aesthetic choice for the layout of stones it gives the impression of a canvas perhaps an aborted idea of adorning the walls with decorations or texts interestingly the later pyramids which contain texts are deliberate with the layout of stones on which the texts are inscribed the openable puses in pyramids made a queen's chamber obsolete but perhaps its passage walls were ahead of its time the idea that if you're going to recite prayers for the king it's so much easier to have them written on the walls this way unlike the Queen's chamber nothing of importance could ever be truly forgotten thanks to everyone who watched this video to the end please subscribe to the channel to see more of this content give a like or comment as you see fit and above all remember to ask your friends if they take their history for granite [Music]

Channel: History for GRANITE

Views: 246,723

Keywords: Pyramids, Egypt, History, Granite, History for Granite, Ancient, Old Kingdom

Id: 0GXSNNuQfX0

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2024