A Mountain of Sands
Copyright © 2016 by Half-Lady Lisa
February 5, 2016
One night I had a dream. In my dream, I was at the pyramid site during the ancient time of the pyramid’s
construction process. The dim light in the dream implied me that it should be in the evening like around 6-7 p.m.
after day work. I saw a group of male workers were relaxing and talking together. I yelled a loud voice asking,
with no intention at any specific person that “can you tell me how you build your pyramid?” A man in the group
abruptly turned his face toward me—“A lot of sands, young girl”, he said.
After the night of the dream, I had spent a lot of time to think about how could possible be to build a pyramid by
using ‘a lot of sands’. For almost two years I had come up with many ideas but none of the techniques satisfied me.
Until one night when I went to bed, as I planed to give up my attempt to find a way to build the pyramid,
I contemplated in my mind kept complaining that ‘it’s almost two years; enough is enough. The ‘how to build
pyramid’ has wasted too much time, yet I still don’t know how much more times have to go to waste with this thing.
Now it’s time to stop thinking about it completely and move on to do other things else. The dream of ‘a lot of sands’
must be just a dream with no meaning anything.’ My mind kept saying until I felt sleep and that same night I had
another dream. In my dream I was at a beach. There were no other people at the beach, except a young little girl
sat on the beach. The dim light of the picture in the dream implied me that this second dream must be relevant to
the first dream. The young little girl wore a white dress, her front black hair cut bang. She didn’t look at me;
I didn’t know whether she knew I was looking at her in a distance. Only one thing she was concentrating on was her
hands scooped sand and piled up to build ‘a mountain of sand’. Her hands moved very slowly, up and down, repeatedly,
over and over, like she didn’t want her mountain to be finished quickly. Each time sand coated layer by layer that
the mountain appeared slowly bigger its size. Suddenly I woke up; my eyes opened and looked up the ceiling. The
little girl and her mountain still followed me out from the dream. While I was fully awake, I still saw the picture
of her and her mountain in the air. On top of her mountain, the picture wasn’t clear of what little creatures
(or something) were moving. At first in my mind I guessed that they might be ants. Suddenly, the picture slowly
zoomed in, her mountain became bigger and bigger in front of my eyes. Amazingly, they were not ants but small
humans—‘hundreds of them’ were walking everywhere on top of the little girl’s mountain of sands. Immediately,
the idea of how the pyramid was built slowly conceived in the same time the picture of the little girl was slowly
disappeared.
How to build a mountain
First, stone blocks are moved to the site to build the base of the pyramid. Base of the pyramid defines
the size and establishes the slope of the entire pyramid as shown on figure 2.
As the base of the pyramid contains numbers of stone courses, sand becomes the most important tool
in helping workers move stones up to build the upper course. Here how it works: at the completion of
each course, workers cover the edge of the stone course with sands so that new stone blocks are able
to travel across the edge of the finished lower courses to be built the next upper course as shown in figure 3.
Next, after the base is completed, large stones will be moved to the top of the base to establish the gallery’s
walls as shown in figure 4. During the construction, the space between each wall of the gallery will be filled
with sands to prevent the walls to collapse. Moreover, to fill sand into the space of the gallery allows the
workers to walk on top during construction and walk across from one side to another side without being worried
that they will misstep falling down to the ground. Like the gallery, during construction of the King & Queen’s
chambers, the inner space will be also filled with sands to prevent the walls to collapse until all the roofs
are in places, sands will be taken out of the inner spaces to allow the workers to work inside the pyramid.
Next, after the large stone walls of the gallery are set in places, to prevent the gallery walls to fall out,
stone blocks are moved up to build a slope in all side as shown in figure 5. At this point workers don’t
intend to build the right slope of the pyramid, but they intend to build the center part (gallery and chambers)
to finish first. Now the walls stand strong as sands filled in the gallery’s space protects the gallery walls
from being collapsed in and the slope of stone blocks supporting all sides of the walls prevent
them from falling out.
How steep of the slope depends on the height of the stone walls of gallery built at a time.
Another function of sands
As shown on figure 6, because the stone blocks of each course are laid overlap on top of each other,
they will create a half-block gap at course another course between the gallery’s walls and stone courses.
Instead of cutting a half of a stone block to fill the gap to even all courses, these half-block gaps will
be filled with sands. Egyptian workers use wet sands to fill the gaps as under compression wet sand’s
particles clod tight together. This can be the reason that’s why the young little girl implies me by sitting
on the beach while building her mountain of sands. Another possible way, in case if the wet sand isn’t their
choice, workers can pour water into dry sand filled in the gaps. However, this way will create a problem that
water will leak down to flood the basement. However, they would ignore the problem as they believe that water
can be dried off overtime.
Here is a little thing to be curious about: as the gaps are invisible behind the walls of gallery and chambers,
whether sand is used to fill only half of
a stone block to even all the courses, or the gaps between walls of gallery (and chambers) and stone courses
are designed to be wider than half of a block? If sand is used to fill only half a stone block at course another
course, the function of sand would be used to only even stone courses to create a smooth edge against the walls—there
would be no other function else beyond this. However, if the gaps between the walls of gallery (and chambers) and stone
courses are designed to be wider, it means that wet sand is also used to reduce the massive force of stone courses push
against the walls of gallery and chambers as sands give the flexibility for allowing stone courses slightly adjustable.
This is to prevent the walls to be forced to collapse after sands are taken out of the inner spaces.
A team of archaeologists used to test it by drilling a tiny hole through the wall of a chamber to see what
is behind the wall and the result is that ‘a lot of sands’ comes out—my suggestion can be fit the explanation.
Before moving on the next step, let talk about the angle of the gallery’s walls first. The gallery’s walls,
as shown on figure 6, create a small degree angle that the bottom part of the gallery is little wider than the top.
Or another word: the inner space of the gallery is designed to be slightly narrower to the top. If the walls on both
sides of the gallery are continued upward beyond its space, they will meet each other at the pyramid’s tip. It means
that the angle of the gallery’s walls is designed to ray out from the pyramid’s tip.
Next, at the completion of the lower level, it will be covered with sands. Large stones are continued
to be moved to the center to add the height of the gallery’s walls as shown on figure 7. And don’t forget
to fill sands into the gallery’s space.
From figure 8, workers repeat the same step as described on figure 5; they build another
slope in all sides to prevent the walls of gallery to fall out. The degree angle of
this slope is not necessary to be the same slope as shown on figure 5. The bottom part
of the slope intends to create a step.
As shown on figure 9, as the pyramid continues to grow taller, at the bottom part of each slopes built at a
time there will be more steps are created. Similar to the step pyramid, to build steps is for suspending sands
from draining down to the ground too quickly. Ancient Egyptians learn this technique from building the
‘step pyramid’. There will be more steps but the drawing on figure 9 is only a suggestion.
To build the ‘step pyramid’, ancient Egyptians also uses the same technique by using sand covering the edge of the
finished lower step so that sands provides a path way for new stone blocks are able to travel across the edge to be
built the upper step. While ignoring the beginning knowledge, how to build a completed figure of the Great Pyramids
are never answered.
However, as the steps of the ‘step pyramid’ are parts of the final design, each step is strictly designed
and built with the precise measurement and slope. Unlike the step pyramid, steps in my building technique
are not designed to appear on the final appearance as a part of the image. They will be covered up invisibly
upon the completion of the pyramid. Therefore, workers can be less serious strict to the measurement of each step.
Top engineer and designer can be on-site making their decisions in creating each slope upon the appropriation
of each step.
Believe that pyramid is built in two parts. First is the lower part as shown on Figure 10. The actual height
of the lower part of the pyramid is measured when all the roofs of the gallery and chambers are in places
(as I mention early that at this point the construction process aim to only finish the center part).
Workers now can take all the sands out and clean off the inner spaces then they are allowed to work inside.
However, the lower part isn’t finished yet. As shown on figure 10, the right slope and size of the lower part
of pyramid is indicated by the red line. Although, the pyramid at this point reaches the actually height, still
it looks too slim and far from being completed. The next is to build the right slope in all sides.
‘The little girl in my dream uses her hands scoop sand up to the top very slowly layer by layer to pile up her
mountain implies how the Egyptian workers pile up their pyramid to get the right slope.’
As shown on figure 11: start from the bottom course up, the stone Z is placed
in the position then workers cover the edge
with sand. The stone Y is moved on the sand to be placed at the position Y,
then workers cover the edge with sand.
The stone X will be moved up on the sand to be placed in course X,
then workers cover the edge with sand. The stone
W will be moved up on the sand to be placed in course W
then workers cover the edge with sand. They continue repeating
the same step to the very top course. As they reach the very top course, the entire lower part of pyramid will be
covered with sands from top to bottom. Next, they will start from top course down to the ground. The stone A will be
moved up on the sand and waited for workers to clean off the sand at position A for the stone A
to be placed in its
position. At a lower course, the stone B will be moved to the top, the workers clean off the sand
at the position B
for the stone B to be placed in its place. The stone C and D
will be repeated the same step as A and B. Until all
the stones are placed from the top to bottom course, the mountain of sands will be disappeared. Next, workers will
start all over again from the bottom up to the top then from the top to the bottom, piling up their pyramid layer by
layer. The lower part of pyramid will be slowly bigger in size until it gets the right slope—that is the completion of
the lower part of pyramid.
Hint: a complicated technique would not be used in thousands of years ago.
In ancient time, with lagging of the modern working management system, how
engineers and designers communicate with ‘thousands of construction workers’
in every single step on a complicated technique would add more tasks to the
construction process. Moreover, in case if their top engineer and designer pass away,
it would be difficult to find a new high-skilled worker to carry on the project. My technique
is simple. By doing the same thing repeatedly over and over, every worker can understand easily
what they have to do everyday, especially using sand as a key—the natural resource which can be
found everywhere in the area, bring ancient Egyptians to succeed.
In this type of work—high spirits, beyond human scale and crafted for divine, all workers put all
their enthusiasm into their works. They work with heart and passion. While working, they also create
fun games such as competing at each other by rolling and sliding down on the sand hill to the ground,
like kids’ play, to win a small prize amongst friends such as receiving small extra food that the loser
admit to eat less portion of a meal or the loser provides good hands for massage for the winner.
The amusement relieves the workers’ exhaustion. Moreover, like skiing down from a mountain, soft
snow saves a skier from serious injury as well as the soft sand does in my building technique.
Working in the tough job like this, human’s exhaustion, sickness and injury are the most consideration
needed to be seriously put into account.
What can we learn from bent pyramid?
If the construction of the bent pyramid intends to complete the
entire building at the same time, the top and bottom part would be ended at the same slope.
Therefore, when the top part isn’t completed, it should also show signs of unfinished structures
in some areas at the bottom part.
However, the bottom part of the bent pyramid already finishes with the
right slope in all sides while the top part is left unfinished. This suggests
that the ancient Egyptians must build their pyramids in two parts: the bottom part
must be completed before the top part’s construction process is started.
After the bottom part of pyramid is completed, the entire bottom part is covered with sands, as shown on
figure 13. Next, the top part begins the construction process in the same way as the bottom part does:
creating slopes at layer by layer for the height slowly grows to reach the actual height.
There will be more steps but the drawing on figure 13 is only a suggestion. Like the lower
part’s construction process, the construction at this point don’t intend to build the right
slope but aim to reach the actual height for the pyramid’s tip to be constructed first. So,
the shape of the top part at this point, appeared to be slim.
Next, before the top part is piled up its size to get the right slope, the pyramid’s tip will be put
in place first. The top part is easier to build than the bottom part because there is no gallery and
chambers to be worried as they all are completed in the lower part of pyramid.
Why does the pyramid have to be built in two parts?
For every worker to walk from the ground up to the pyramid’s tip it doesn’t benefit anything but
slower down the construction process. And therefore the long distance is divided in half. All workers,
too, are divided into two main groups: one group carries sands up to the very top course of the lower
part while the second group of workers takes sands from the top of the lower part to continue building
the top part of pyramid.
Also workers, who respond pulling stones up to build the top part of pyramid, are divided into many
small groups. The long distance of the entire lower part is divided into different levels. Between
each level, it can be a short distance. Each group of workers will stand at each level. They don’t
need to walk on the sands but stand on their level and help each other pull each stone up to their
level. Then the workers at a lower level pass the rope to the upper level to continue the job to
the final destination.
The estimation of time on the wrong construction techniques has created a controversy for generations
that it seems to be a magic or with alien’s aid that impossible humans can pull each heavy
stone up all alone to the top within minutes. This is because people think that all of the stones
are forced to move in line one by one through a long narrow ramp. In my technique, tens of stones
can be moved from all sides at the same time. Therefore, workers are alternately even allowed having holidays.
Keep in mind again that in the ancient time of lagging of modern technology, especially working in the tough
job like this, human’s exhaustion, sickness and injury really
needs to be included in the construction technique.
What else can we learn from the bent pyramid?
There are many speculations about the uncompleted construction of the top part of the
‘bent pyramid’. A popular reason is that the slope is designed too steep that the ancient
Egyptians are feared of the height.
Hint—if the ancient Egyptians get cold feet of the height, they would not choose to
build their pyramid in that grand scale. The fear of the height should be a wrong
reason based upon the misunderstanding of their natures—the height should be actually
what they try to achieve. If they could build it up higher to reach the heaven,
they would not be afraid to complete it. That is the reason why the bottom part of
the pyramid is overdone their design in establishing the too-greedy slope for the top part.
Another reason: as the ancient Egyptians are very good in mathematic calculation, they
must have planed and known how high of the bent pyramid in full scale before its
construction begun. To build the monument in this gigantic scale, cost as gold, they
would plan carefully and be confident to complete it. Any mistake happens, especially
in this scale of mistake: to leave the project unfinished would mean the high responsibility
from the top engineers and designers can be executed.
However, in case if it’s true that they just realize that the slope is too steep,
I still believe that they would want to go further as close to the original plan as possible.
By doing so, it can be softer the angle of the hip of the bent pyramid to almost invisible. However, the question
is: why does the construction seem to be cut off at the point far away from its completed figure?
My suggestion is that possibly at the time the bent pyramid is built the ancient
Egyptians don’t have enough experience in the level of confidence that the roof of
the King’s chamber is strong enough to carry the huge weight from numerous stone
courses above it. If the roof collapses, King will be buried under stone blocks and
so he is unable to reincarnation. During the construction of the bent pyramid, workers
may hear cracking sound from stones or they may receive a report from workers who work
inside the bent pyramid that they see signs of stones’ cracks. And that the reason why
the bent pyramid is abandoned.
Figure 15 shows the structure of the King’s chamber found in the completed pyramid.
Above the King’s chamber, workers build layers of roofs, yet a
gable roof is added to the top. The gable roof divides force to the sides.
There are void spaces between each layer of roofs to avoid force penetrate the middle
of the King chamber’s roof. Massive force from numerous stone courses above the chamber
will be transferred through the chamber’s walls. Look, my point is that—when the ancient
Egyptians are overdone their design by creating many layers of roofs to give
over protection to the roof of the King’s chamber, should it mean that
the roof of the King’s chamber is what they are psychologically feared of being
collapsed while the fear of the steepness of the bent pyramid still has no
evidence to support the claim. And therefore, this can be the main reason
that the top part of the bent pyramid’s construction is ended shortly.
How the ancient Egyptians solve the problems that occur from bent pyramid?
As seen from the full figure of the pyramid such as the Great Pyramid, first, larger
stone blocks are used to build in some course on the top part of the pyramid
to extend the height. Second, as the ancient Egyptians are worried about the weight
of the top part of the pyramid, they must find some ways to reduce the weight. As the
top part of the pyramid has no important function, many stone blocks can be replaced
by other lighter-in-weight materials such as wet sands or rubbles as shown on figure 16
in the blue areas. It may not be every block of stones in the blue areas but many of
them can be replaced.
Next, from figure 16, the center of the blue areas is the core pyramid. The core pyramid’s area
is measured by the area of the very top course under the pyramid’s tip. This core center is very
important to keep the top part of the pyramid stand strong because many stone blocks around the
core are replaced with lighter-in-weight materials which make the top part of the pyramid
become weaken so it can be easily collapse overtime. Therefore, the core pyramid must act
as a column which can not be replaced with any kind of materials, except solid stone blocks.
And that is the reason that the position of the King’s chamber is shifted slightly away from
the core center which is the heaviest area of the top part of the pyramid.
Moreover, IF the top part of the ‘bent pyramid’ was built completely, it will be tall
and slim because of the steepness of the slope. When many of the stone blocks of the
top part are replaced with the lighter-in-weight materials, the top part of the bent
pyramid may not be able to stand strong for long. And that should be the reason that
the ancient Egyptians change the slope. To be less steep means wider and thicker area
of the top part of pyramid. Even though, many of the stone blocks are replaced with
lighter-in-weight materials, the top part of the pyramid still stands strong for many generations.
The French team’s diagram
From figure 17, the diagram on the left comes from the French team’s survey of
the Great Pyramid which is a very important piece of evidence. The small red square
on the center of the diagram which is labeled as #1 should be the core pyramid,
the same as shown on the elevation view on figure 16. It appears in red because
the core pyramid has high level of the density of stones. The large blue square
surrounding the core pyramid shown on the French team’s diagram will be the same
blue areas on the figure 16. It appears in blue because in this area has low
density of stones, as in my suggestion that on the top part of the pyramid many
stone blocks are replaced with lighter-in-weight material such as wet sands and rubbles.
It may not be the entire area but because the blue square area on the small diagram
contains many courses overlap each other, the entire area shown on the top view appears
in a thick blue line. If in this blue square area stones are replaced with wet sands,
it can be that the stone blocks built as the skin of the pyramid have protected the wet
sands from the sun so the moisture of the sands is still kept inside. If the rubbles are
used, the blue should indicate the low density of the area.
Like the blue square area appeared on the top part of the pyramid,
the blue lines appeared on the lower part of the pyramid as well must
indicate the replacement of the solid stone blocks to the lighter-in-weight
materials. As the top engineer and designer want the job done faster and
finished on time, they create a technique to cheat on their jobs by replacing
stone blocks with the lighter-in-weight materials such as rubbles which are
easier in carrying to the site. They may not just throw the rubbles in but
organize them. Or they can just leave a long, narrow, empty space. When you
look on the top view, each long narrow empty space from different courses
overlapping each other forms a thick line.
When paying attention to only the French team’s diagram, it’s easy to be deceived that
all the blue lines appeared on the top view looms a spiral ramp. However, as notice,
an unusual character of all the blue lines on the French team’s diagram has something
in common. The blue lines seem to be torn apart (or be cut off) around the center of
each side of the pyramid. Some lines are reconnected each other by overlapping each
other at the center of each side of pyramid. Detail #2 on figure 17 is one example
that the blue line is torn apart and reconnected by overlapping at the center of
one side of the pyramid.
The elevation view as shown on my diagram in the middle of the
figure 17, isn’t convinced the spiral ramp. The blue lines from different
corners overlap each other on the different courses at the center of one
side of the pyramid. Each of the blue line contains ‘many’ stone courses
and the connecting point of the blue lines at the center does not suggest
any inclination of a ramp.
I disagree with the ramp technique. First, to build a ramp is complicated: all
stones are needed to be strictly set in a specific declined angle. Yet, to cover
the ramp when the pyramid is completed is also another complication. Moreover,
is there enough area to build the spiral ramp up to the pyramid’s tip? What’s
about: hundreds of workers who are done placing the stones in places have to
walk down sharing the same ramp, should the two ways traffic on one lane
become chaotic and jammed? Or, if the ramp is designed to be wider to serve
the two lanes traffic, the vibration from crashing stone blocks along the floor
of the spiral ramp can shift the structure of the ramp which is resulted to the
tunnel’s roof can be easily collapsed. If the tunnel’s roof collapses, to clean
off the mess would take as much time as building a new pyramid because when taking
one stone out of the tunnel, hundreds of stones on the above keep collapsing. Yet,
pulling stone blocks crashing along the stone ramp (hundreds of thousands of times)
creates high friction and vibration which would result in great damage to stone blocks.
In my technique, sand acts like a soft mattress; to pull stone blocks to the top
doesn’t crash the stone courses underneath. Moreover, a big disadvantage to the spiral
ramp is that pulling a stone weight 2-3 tons in circles, workers may have to walk
in the distance of a marathon just to place one stone; this should be a wasted of
time. In my technique, stones can be pulled from all sides in a shortcut directly
to their positions. The ramp technique doesn’t answer all these questions yet.
There is still a question which has never been answered on the
spiral ramp technique that why all the blue lines seem to be torn
apart and placed overlap at the center of each side of the pyramid.
However, my technique can explain that as the blue lines shown on
the French team’s diagram happen by replacing stone blocks with
rubbles (or a long narrow empty space) so the rubbles (or the empty space)
create the weakness of the area appeared on the lines. Therefore,
it isn’t a good idea to fill rubbles continuously within the same course
in all corners. This will create a weak area circle around the pyramid.
Imagine, that is like having a big knife to slice off the pyramid as
shown on the figure 17 the picture on the right. That’s why the ancient
Egyptians avoid placing the rubbles in the same course at each corner
but shift the lines of rubbles from each corner to different levels.
Moreover, as notice, the two diagonal corners, label as #3 on the
French team’s diagram shown on the figure 17, have more blue lines
appear on the lower part of the pyramid than the other two corners.
The blue lines appear to be like steps which can be the steps that are
created during the construction of the gallery and chambers. It
can be possible that some steps are chosen to be filled with
rubbles to help the job done faster. However, if all four corners
are filled ‘too much’ with rubbles or at the same quantity of
rubbles, the lower part of pyramid would be weaken and unstable
which results to be easily collapsed overtime. Therefore, only two
diagonal corners appear to be filled with rubbles more than the
other two, to still maintain the stability of the lower part of pyramid.
The technique is wide spread
I believe that Stonehenge and Pyramid share the same construction
technique in raising stones but who first comes up this technique,
I don’t know. As shown on figure 18, after the stone columns are
lifted upright, they are covered entirely with a mountain of soil.
Next, stone beams are pulled up on the mountain to be placed on top
of the columns; the inner ring should be done first. After each
beam is placed completely, it will be covered with soil so that
it will not impede the workers’ paces. After the inner ring is
finished, workers will repeat the same step on the outer ring.
If the design of the Stonehenge is required to have a roof,
workers are allowed to walk on top of the mountain to build the
roof by cleaning off the soil covering on the top of the columns
to reveal their positions. Until the entire Stonehenge is built
completely, workers help each other take the soils out of the
inner space.
Eventually, the mountain is disappeared. Only the great monument
is left for young generations to have doubts how it’s built.
As Stonehenge and Pyramid share the same technique in raising large
stones through the mountain of soils and sands, except both designs
are completely different, the question is: what’s about other parts
of the construction process such as how to transfer stones from far
away to the sites and how the Stonehenge’s workers raise the stone
columns upright should it also be the same technique as the ancient
Egyptians’ obelisks? And what’s about their lifestyles, the rituals
of the religious belief should also be created based upon the same
inspiration? If you look at the art works and architectures of our
ancients from other cultures as well, like Stonehenge and Pyramid
there are things in common: move heavy stones from far away, craft
them and raise them upright, yet they do to serve God. These
questions are left for archaeologists to search for the connections
of how the ideas can be wide spread throughout the world.
If there is a sign of physical tools left on sites, we would
not have a hard time to figure out how the tools work to understand
how the Pyramid and Stonehenge are built. In this case the tools are
sands and soils which are left everywhere at the sites for generations.
We have seen them, stepped on them and walked past by many times but
being unaware that the sands and soils can be the tools. The ancient
Egyptians may sympathize that young generations take time longer than
they build a pyramid in order to discovery their technique so they
come to tell it through my dream of ‘a lot of sands’. Therefore,
I would like to give a credit to the ancient Egyptians
and the young little girl for this article.
“ Actually, they use sands—as much as a ‘mountain’. ”
