User:Hany Halim Yousef
THE BROKEN VASE THEORY
IT has always puzzled me to see the amazing joints between the stones of the
pyramids, especially those used for the outer cladding. Close inspection reveals
that you cannot insert a pin or a sharp razor blade in between the stones and I
believe that they were probably meant to be water-tight in order to prevent water
Leakage into the building. They adhere perfectly to each other with no cement at
all.The question that nagged me was how the Ancient Egyptians managed to do that with such great precision?
I decided to try and discover their secret, with the strong conviction that it was a task that must fall to one of their descendants.
I imagined myself to be the engineer who was given the task as the project manager. How would I do it and where to start?
I started by deciding the location of the construction site and the quarries; the cutting technique; the number of stones required; how many workers needed; the building technique that would be employed; how to move the stones and how to lift them up, etc.
The time allowed for the project was not more than 25 years (according to our knowledge about the average rule time of Khufu and Khafra (the builder of the great pyramid and his son respectively).
Watch this Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epcHjb4H13E&feature=user
Number of needed blocks by calculations:
The great pyramid height =148 m.
The base is a square = 237 m each side.
Number of layers (steps) are =202
Average layer height = 148m/202 layers = 0,7236 m
Average length and width of each block =
237 m/202 meter = 1.173 m
Average block dimensions according to calculations
Width = length =1.17 m, height =.7236 m
The base requires
1st layer 202*202 = 40804 stones
2nd layer 201*201 = 40401
3rd 200*200 = 40000
… =
Until: Layer 201 3*3 = 9
The last layer = 1 stone
-----------------
Total = 2,758820 stones
Let us say 2.75 million blocks
If they worked 10 hours a day
This means:
25 years * 365 = 9125 days *10 hours = 91250 hours * 60 minutes = 5475000minutes
2,75000 / 5475000 = 0.50 stones/minute i.e.
One stone every 2 minutes in case of continuous work 10 hours a day for 25years.
A very high work speed and no delay or stop of the stone flow is permitted. How can this allow for the amazing precision of the joints between the stones?
Were stones cut and smoothened to fit each other?
-If we try to make any two stones fit perfectly to each other (as we can notice in the cladding stones) it would take a pretty long time and the bigger the stones are the more difficult and longer it would take, it is actually impossible to reach the accuracy and perfection we can employed on the Great Pyramid, besides, we have to keep in mind that this fitting procedure would stop the work completely until the accuracy of fit is obtained between two adjacent stones before fitting could begin on the next stone – this could never work and achieve the required work speed.
Was there any cement or filling materials put in the joints?
- the answer is a definite NO.
Did ancient Egyptians have special machines to do that?
No
Did other people or creatures come from space and make this?
Of course NO, it’s only fiction.
Did they mould the stones on site?
Another definite NO is the answer, if you only care for a minute to look closely at any pyramid, you’ll see that its stones are not uniformly shaped, they are not cubes, rectangles, cuboids or any regular fixed shape. On the contrary every stone is different and is unique in shape and size.
Therefore, they must have had a very simple and efficient way of doing it, it is only that no none before has tried to think in simple terms in order to find a solution for this mystery. I discovered that a simple method of working really is the solution to this complicated problem.
How were the stones cut from the quarry?
It is generally accepted that they made small rectangular holes where wooden pieces were inserted, then soaked in water. When the wood expands due to the moisture, it exerts pressure and cracks the stone causing irregular planes according to the stratus of the stone.
The Broken Vase theory
Let’s notice what happens if we break a vase into pieces then try to fix it by putting the pieces back and gluing them.
If we do a good job, it will be difficult to tell where the cracks of the joints are, we’ll probably see a hair-line crack where we can’t insert a pin or a sharp razor blade.
Isn’t this exactly the same case as the cladding stones used in covering the pyramids?
If we follow the same technique to build the pyramids
We would Break the quarry into pieces, move it to the construction site and put the pieces back exactly as they were in the quarry.
This method required the stones to be marked or numbered at the quarry in such a way that enabled putting them back together in the correct order at the construction site. The stones were arranged exactly as they were cut from the quarry but flipped (turned upside down) to hide the cutting marks under the stones.
I would ask you to consider then, is this only a clever guess, a theory, or a proven fact??!!
Evidence:
* Quarry Men Writings
* Logic , common sense and Work order
* Knowledge of Ancient Egyptians
* Is it feasible and practical
* Inherited tradition
* Stratus and Geology
Quarry Men Writings:
It is a fact that quarry men used to write on the blocks
We know that the Great Pyramid belongs to Khufu because of the writings (in red colour) of the group of workers who named themselves as the Strongmen of Khufu).
A French Egyptologist found more than1500 stones used in building the pyramid of PEPI the first in Sakkara having quarry writings on them, he translated it and found that most of them are names of workgroups, numbers & marks, …etc.
What were these writings for?
· Fun at leisure time (I don’t think they had that)
· Memorial writing (Stones were to be eventually hidden inside the building)
Functional role, or constructional reasons
Of course, we will have to come to the conclusion that
They Had a functional role or constructional reasons
Logic, common sense and Work order
The simple principle first cut - first moved and then built must have been applied and if it was followed accurately we will end up having the stones built in the same order as they were cut with no effort needed to make them fit accurately to each other.
Did Ancient Egyptians know these techniques?
Yes, we could find assembly marks on some of the wooden pieces of KHUFU’S Boat found in 1954 next to the great pyramid and that helped in reconstructing it.
Tutankhamen’s shrines in the Egyptian Museum carry assembly writings that help when putting the pieces together.
Does this technique really work?
Sure it does
It is the same technique used in cutting the temple of ABU-SIMBEL and reconstructing the blocks 60 meters higher than their original location.
Every piece was given a number and carefully moved and put back exactly where it belonged.
The same was followed in moving the temple of Philae from its original island to another island – the project taking 4 years to complete.
The visitor to these two temples can never notice they were even moved from their original places and find it difficult to believe this.
Inherited tradition:
I wanted to ask the modern stone cutters and builders about the eligibility of this theory. So I paid a visit to a quarry and asked to meet the stone cutters. I was invited to a cup of tea and asked to wait for half an hour for them because they were building a wall nearby.
I thought the man whom I had met misunderstood who I wanted to meet, so I told him, “sorry, I want to meet the stone cutters not the builders”.
He answered, clarifying my misunderstanding, “Sir, in our career the stone cutters are stone builders at the same time. So every stone-cutter is a builder and every builder is a cutter, this is how it is now and how it has always been from generation to generation.”
I was delighted to hear this and know that it strongly supported my theory.
I eventually met them and suggested my theory and asked if they could work like this or would there be any difficulty carrying it out.
It was one of the best moments in my life when I saw their eyes and mouths open wide with happiness to tell me “God enlighten you, it must be this is how our grandfathers built it, it’s a wonderful idea”
We cannot reach that old precision now because we get ready cut stones that we have to build with and we have to fill the joint with cement to make them hold each other and fit.
I knew then that I was on the proper track and that
Our grandfathers did cut the stones, move them to the construction site and built them again and -
- They marked the stones with necessary marks for assembly;
- They wrote the names of the work groups responsible for each stone to assign the responsibility and to help the reconstruction.
- The work team did the cutting and building to give no chance for workers to blame each other for any mistakes - they had the same group cut, move and build a whole length or side or area to limit the responsibility and guarantee quality.
- Stones were flipped at the construction site to hide the cutting holes (a good observer can see that in some places where the sides of stones are visible).
Stratus and Geology
Only a month ago I had guided an American geologist who showed great interest in my theory and he started observing and drawing my attention to the stratus that continues from a stone to the one next to it, but what was easier to notice was the same erosion pattern going horizontally from one stone to the other. He told me that this proves that the stones were originally next to each other in the quarry; he even showed interest in carrying out his own scientific research about it.
My theory was published years ago in Egyptian newspapers and magazines and I gave many lectures in the Egyptian Cultural Centre and Tourism Training Centre and some cultural saloons.
I had no opposition of any kind and now you can find guides explaining my theory as a known fact.
I’m publishing it now on the internet for the whole world to know and I’m happy to receive your feedback or comments. Hany Halim Yousef (talk) 17:17, 23 October 2008 (UTC)