Steve Clayton Wrote:

>  
> These are not the kind of ramps I was bitching
> about. For all I know, they could have been
> disability ramps, leading into those structures. A
> promenade entrance? OK, they also served to help
> build the structures. There is evidence of ramps.
> Just not for G1 and G2. There was a downhill
> ramp/path reaching the backside of Kufu's Pyramid.
> They took block from what is known as the
> chocolate quarry, next to Kafreys Pyramid.
>
> Other than that, I have seen no evidence ramps
> were used in a spiral or switchback fashion.

Steve, there is no evidence for a spiral ramp either exterior or interior, I completely agree. However, there is evidence for a ramp which led out of the Khufu quarry towards the west side of the growing pyramid. That ramp could have supported construction of the first few stone courses. The evidence for this ramp is indisputable, Steve. I think your model is very promising for what happened after this initial ramp's ability was exhausted. In fact, I think that the builders themselves came up against this very same decision. They had to decide whether to continue run a full-size ramp around to haul stones, or to run a ledge around wide enough to support another infra-structure and method along the lines of what you propose. They understood, as you have, that the human and material cost of the latter option meant the difference between success and failure to finish this monument in time for....(fill in your favorite reason).

There is a good template for this from the First Dynasty published by Rinus Ormeling. Ormeling looked at the niched mastabas at Saqqara before the one from the reign of Horus-Den, when a stair-case to the burial chamber was first conceived. Why? Because the architect realized that your could save time by working simultaneously on the tumulus above and the apartments of the occupant below. What drove this innovation? Time pressure and the royal occupants' ever increasing desire to build ever more lavish mansions for the afterlife. This is the same general driver of what you have also picked up on here at Giza. This is a riddle of efficiency. My hunch is that course #35 is a major plot point in this story.




Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08-Mar-20 17:31 by Manu.