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Old superstitions you've heard of/still use
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Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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Less sophisticated and scientific? The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with magic and superstitions and they built The Great Pyramid. An absolute feat of scientific mathematical engineering, including astronomical knowledge. Their acquisition of it remains a complete mystery to modern day scholars and scientists.
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Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
That little stick man 'thinks' they used ramps. They didn't, ramps that are required to carry a load of up to 20 tonnes up to a level of 139 metres on nothing but rollers and planks would have to be as permanent a structure as the pyramid itself."You have disgraced yourselves again" - W. B. Yeats
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Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 88935
Only if you build a ramp like thisThat little stick man 'thinks' they used ramps. They didn't, ramps that are required to carry a load of up to 20 tonnes up to a level of 139 metres on nothing but rollers and planks would have to be as permanent a structure as the pyramid itself.
other options are way better but still use lots of material
A better option is to put the ramp inside and cover it with the outside layer and you'd need no excess material to make it. You'd have to dismantle a pyramid to check though.0 -
Capt'n Midnight wrote: »Only if you build a ramp like this
other options are way better but still use lots of material
A better option is to put the ramp inside and cover it with the outside layer and you'd need no excess material to make it. You'd have to dismantle a pyramid to check though.
Drawings are all well and good, but until you have to deal with such massive amounts of weights and loads with nothing but your hands utilising nothing but wood and ropes the drawings soon become pretty useless. I know because I work in the monumental stone trade. All those ramps there have to be the same structure as the pyramid itself, so how did they get the blocks up there for the ramps and how did they remove them? They still don't know. The master masons who trained me didn't even know."You have disgraced yourselves again" - W. B. Yeats
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Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,071 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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They're impressive alright, but not close to the same height or scale. The Egyptian ones absolutely dwarf them. The very biggest of the Sudanese pyramids is under 30 metres in height, the biggest Egyptian one is Khufu's at 140 metres tall and would have been taller again when new, because what we see today is missing the majority of the outer finely carved outside casing. That's before we get to the sheer weight of stone involved. The largest by volume pyramid(whose name escapesWater John wrote: »Still on this pyramid side track. There are more of them in Sudan than Egypt. They are the same height but have a steeper 70 degree side. How did they build them?
) is found in Mexico, though it's not as tall and was made from mud bricks.
Yeah, but the great thing about that superstition is that it has meant Ireland has so many such sites still around and left alone because of it. In other countries a lot of them were dug out/flattened over the centuries including in the UK.Wanderer2010 wrote: »So if you dont truly believe in any ghosts etc then why wouldnt you disturb one? Is there a tiny part of you willing to accept the possibility of something else in this world?Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,071 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59000
It does and it doesn't B. Over the years we've found out more and more and some of their solutions were simple genius, like how did they make such level foundations for pyramids. They built a low dam around the site and filled it with Nile water and chipped the bedrock away until the depth was the same across the site. No spirit levels or lasers required. Clever bastards.Less sophisticated and scientific? The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with magic and superstitions and they built The Great Pyramid. An absolute feat of scientific mathematical engineering, including astronomical knowledge. Their acquisition of it remains a complete mystery to modern day scholars and scientists.
One thing they had a lot of was labour and muscle. Egypts economy was based almost entirely around the NIle and the growing season, so when the crops were planted you had tens of thousands of able bodied farmers ready and eager because of their faith to work. Much more recently navvies(many who were Irish) dug canals and built railways across the UK at a breakneck pace only using shovels and picks with dynamite for the big jobs. The Great Wall of China was built using no machinery we have today. They also dug massive canals. The medieval Cathedrals of Europe were raised by muscle power augmented with cranes also driven by muscle power. Athens had a population of only around 40-50,000 people, a GAA final crowd as it were, and they built the city walls, the Parthenon and surrounding buildings and then slapped incredible carvings on them, as you do.Drawings are all well and good, but until you have to deal with such massive amounts of weights and loads with nothing but your hands utilising nothing but wood and ropes the drawings soon become pretty useless. I know because I work in the monumental stone trade. All those ramps there have to be the same structure as the pyramid itself, so how did they get the blocks up there for the ramps and how did they remove them? They still don't know. The master masons who trained me didn't even know.
Even so the Egyptians had a few trial goes at things. They started off with stepped pyramids, then figured, hey we'll cover them and make them smooth, but that had some teething stages too.
Halfway up they went; oh crap! :mad: angle's too steep, change it before anyone notices... Now the bottom bit would have taken a couple of years most likely so someone didn't get a bonus when the mistake was realised. The next pyramid built was more like the later good ones, but again there were some problems. Soon after it was pretty much finished the main internal vault started to slump, so they brought in a load of big thick cedar logs as RSJ's. They're still there.
A large amount of extremely organised and skilled manpower mixed with very clever engineers and builders can build incredible things. There's a long list. Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the largest religious building on the planet in what was the largest city on Earth at the time(1 in 15 people alive anywhere lived there), surrounded by massive waterworks dug from the living ground. All built by manpower and no machines.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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