Mystery of the Great Pyramid
The theories of French architect Jean-pierre Houdin may hold the key to an ancient mystery
Has a French architect cracked an ancient riddle that has confounded people for centuries?
Although Egyptologists have been studying the Great Pyramid of Khufu for centuries, they haven’t yet reached a consensus on how exactly it was built. How were the massive two-tonne blocks placed almost 150 metres above the desert floor? A French architect named Jean-pierre Houdin has formed a theory to explain the mystery. Houdin has devoted his time to studying the Great Pyramid and creating graphical models using 3D software. Houdin believes that an external ramp was built to haul the rocks – pulled by means of ropes – for the first 60 metres or so of the pyramid. Then an internal ramp was built to continue hauling rocks up. It is a narrow structure spiralling inside the pyramid, much like the ramps in a parking garage. To allow for men to haul the stones, the ramp is at a seven per cent slope. Somehow it has remained hidden inside the pyramid since its completion 4,500 years ago. However, how would men hauling the blocks up the ramp be able to make the turn at each corner of the ramp? They would need a place to stand and pull ahead of the blocks. Houdin believes that each corner was temporarily left open. Wooden cranes were stationed in each of these open spaces to lift and turn the blocks onto the next part of the internal ramp. Later these notches were filled in. There’s evidence that an internal ramp exists. In 1986 a team of French scientists used microgravimetrics to survey the pyramid. They were looking for hidden chambers by checking for areas of low density, which would indicate open spaces. The team did find one new chamber that was filled with sand. However, one diagram puzzled them – there appeared to be a low-density spiral inside the pyramid. In 2000 a member of the team met with Houdin and showed him this scan, which lends weight to his internal ramp theory. During a 2007 visit to the Great Pyramid, Egyptologist Bob Brier pointed out two more
features that could be evidence of the ramp. When the Sun hits the pyramid at a certain angle, you can see broad white lines at a seven per cent incline running around it. Brier climbed the pyramid to examine what appeared to be a notch, and although it had irregular measurements, there was a small chamber that he had never heard about before. It could be the remains of the open notch leading to a ramp. In addition, Brier has pointed out that the Sun Temple, built 100 years after the Great Pyramid and now partially in ruins, contains an internal ramp. This shows that the Egyptians were building these types of ramps. Working with the former director of the German Archaeological Institute, Houdin has petitioned the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities to survey the pyramid in a non-destructive way. If he gets the go-ahead to do so, he may be able to prove his theory after all.