The Great Pyramid reveals how it was built!

Welcome to History for Granite. Join me to explore ancient Egypt. Together, we'll uncover secrets that only stones from antiquity can reveal. Please subscribe to the channel to show your support for this line of inquiry. That drives me to make more of this content for you. For thousands of years, people have gazed upward to marvel at the size and grandeur of the Great Pyramid, pondering how such an enormous stone structure could have been made by human hands. The ravages of time and greed have stripped the pyramid of its valuable white casing stones, laying bare the outer core backing stones which give the structure its rigidity and strength. The weathering of these blocks and their somewhat irregular horizontal spacing make it difficult to infer much about the pyramid's construction at a glance. Fortunately, the past decades have brought a renaissance of technology that allows everyone around the world to get an up-close look at the pyramids. We are no longer limited to the low resolution and wide-angle photographs that populate Egyptology textbooks. Anyone can search online for beautiful and detailed images of the pyramids to satisfy their own curiosity. A key innovation has been aerial drones which can photograph the structures from above, up close, at any conceivable angle. No longer confined to the desert floor, we can gaze down at the pyramids from up high and appreciate their beauty from this unique perspective. There was a time not so long ago when intrepid tourists were allowed to climb the Great Pyramid, but this practice is now forbidden, so drone photography is the only way the general public can inspect its summit for themselves. A favorite exercise of mine is finding an exceptional image of a pyramid complex and to just sit back and search for patterns or details that might easily be overlooked. These subtle clues can sometimes be profoundly revealing, and I want to share that experience with all of you in this channel's premiere video. Here we see a series of photographs taken directly above the apex of the Great Pyramid. This allows us to easily inspect the design for symmetry because anomalous blocks will stand out much better. As the images get closer, various details come into focus, and you can appreciate all of the history written into the limestone. The graffiti of travelers from thousands of years, the beveled surfaces which give the stones lateral stability, and boreholes which may anchor modern climbing equipment or perhaps assisted with original scaffolding. These particular photos have been digitally modified to increase contrast, which allows us to make out each individual block at the peak quite clearly. Also, the metal frame which marks the pyramid's original apex has been removed so as not to distract the eye. There is a single block at the summit which appears quite dark, but I'm fairly confident this is not because the stone is a different composition. Other pictures suggest it is simply stained, perhaps by fire or some other man-made cause. I've never read any account of a rogue granite block on top of the Great Pyramid, but if anyone has details about this, please leave a comment below. Let's pull back a bit and get all of the summit blocks into frame. From here, we can inspect the entire top level, and it is from this view that I want to give you an opportunity to make the discovery for yourself. There is a secret embedded in these stones which reveals much about how the top of the pyramid was constructed, and perhaps even the entire monument. Don't cheat yourself out of the chance to figure it out on your own. Pause the video here, make it full frame, and give it some thought. If you're still with me and not yet convinced you can do it on your own, I'll give you a clue. Pay close attention to the direction every stone is facing. Are they simply a jumble of roughly squared blocks, or is there a pattern to how they are laid out, relative to one another? See anything yet? I'll give one final hint before I reveal the answer, and that is to notice if there's anything different between the outermost stones and the ones in the middle. Okay, now it's time for the reveal. Here, at the flattened summit of the Great Pyramid, you will notice that the perimeter stones are all perfectly aligned to the superstructure, with their faces closely matching the cardinal directions laid out by the monument. But all of the inner stones are not quite so perfectly aligned. They all share a common clockwise turn by 5 to 10 degrees. It's very easy to see here with the stones highlighted in different shades, and their joints emphasized by the lines in yellow. Did you see the pattern before the reveal? Leave a comment below and tell me if you got it right, or what else might have drawn your eye. So, what does this alignment pattern tell us about the Great Pyramid? What reason could there be for having all of the inner stones turned slightly clockwise? Well, it suggests that when laying down the center, the perimeter blocks were obscured by a spiraling ramp, and that these middle stones were instead aligned to the ramp, rather than the faces of the pyramid. Notice how each of the perfectly straight perimeter stones get deeper as they approach a corner, all in the same clockwise direction. The easiest way to line up roughly squared blocks is from an edge, and the inner stones are straight relative to the edge of a spiraling ramp, not the outer pyramid faces. This is very strong evidence that a spiral ramp structure was used at the top of the Great Pyramid, and any theory about the construction should reflect the masonry design we see here. There have been many pyramid construction ideas put forth, but few of them align with evidence we can see in this photo. It cannot yet be determined how many courses of the pyramid were made in this way, but once a building technique is observed, the likelihood of seeing it elsewhere is dramatically higher. Here is a famous microgravimetry study of the Great Pyramid, made in 1986, which suggests that there is a terraced-like density that is fairly symmetrical leading to the summit. Professor of mechanics H.D. Bui wrote an in-depth analysis of the density data in his 2011 book, Imaging the Cheops Pyramid. His conclusion was that there wasn't enough data to be certain if the density suggested an internal ramp, such as the one proposed by Jean-Pierre Houdin, or an external ramp system that many theorists propose with various iterations. I'm particularly intrigued by the idea that all the pyramids of the fourth dynasty were constructed in distinct stages, similar to the consensus about how the first true pyramid in Maidum was built. The idea is that a core-stepped pyramid is built first, and then afterwards a true angular pyramid is finished over the top. You can see evidence for this method of construction in the Menkaure Pyramid, which is the last large pyramid built at Giza. With an enormous excavated trench in the center of its northern side, you can get a clear look at the inner structure of the monument. Within this great breach, there are finely squared blocks behind the outer core that are only slightly offset from a vertical alignment. This precision work behind a rough fill layer is indicative of multiple stages of construction. Many queen's pyramids at Giza have a visibly stepped structure, but it remains unresolved if two of Menkaure's minor pyramids were clad in white Tura limestone to form true pyramids. No evidence of casing stones for them has ever been found. The usual explanation of unfinished work is given for this absence of And this convenient excuse is provided for just about every anomaly in Menkaure's pyramid complex. Amusingly, some historical authors writing about the Great Pyramid also assumed it was unfinished due to the missing top 8 meters of stone at the summit. I doubt many researchers today would agree with that analysis. It's a great reminder that those who follow in your footsteps may find clues that for you were entirely elusive. In closing, my key takeaway from examining the summit blocks of the Great Pyramid is that if a construction theory doesn't account for the change in alignment between the inner core blocks and the outer core backing stones, well, it probably shouldn't be taken seriously. There is still much to learn about the construction of the Great Pyramid, and this piece of evidence is an essential clue to unravel the mystery. 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 granted.