Giza pyramids

[Minimalist]

I'd say it boils down to the ability to organize that manpower. When that camp was at full staff during the flood periods it would have been one of the largest urban centers in the world. Throwing the logistics of that together must have been another triumph.

[Anomalocaris]

Agreed, I would accept from dawn to dusk but you still lose on average half the day that way. And it still complicates the math of placing the blocks in the 20 year time frame.

It all boils down to manpower. The pyramids were the Apollo moon shot of their day,and I have no doubt that people came from far and wide to work on them.

I did a back of the envelope estimate once, and concluded something on the order of magnitude of ten thousand men directly working daylight shifts year round can quarry, transport, and erect the great pyramid in 20 years, or it takes less than a million man-years to build the pyramid.

It would be interesting to establish Egyptian population during old kingdom, and estimate the surplus productivity available from its agriculture, to estimate just how much surplus man years of labor the kingdom can marshal for this sort of projects.

[Minimalist]

Such population estimates are unlikely, Chuck,

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/peop....html#rem2


It seems that numbers of people were not terribly important to the Ancient Egyptians.

[Justtristo]

Agreed, I would accept from dawn to dusk but you still lose on average half the day that way. And it still complicates the math of placing the blocks in the 20 year time frame.

It all boils down to manpower. The pyramids were the Apollo moon shot of their day,and I have no doubt that people came from far and wide to work on them.

I did a back of the envelope estimate once, and concluded something on the order of magnitude of ten thousand men directly working daylight shifts year round can quarry, transport, and erect the great pyramid in 20 years, or it takes less than a million man-years to build the pyramid.

It would be interesting to establish Egyptian population during old kingdom, and estimate the surplus productivity available from its agriculture, to estimate just how much surplus man years of labor the kingdom can marshal for this sort of projects.

There was plenty of Labor in Egypt during the flood season, when the agricultural workforce was idle. So at least for half the year, a labor force of that size could be recruited.

Old Kingdom Egypt had a population of 2 million if I remember right.

[Mal Kiever]

They should try to build them now, in exactly the way that has been described. That way we'll know if it was really done that way or if there's more to know.

[frankiej]

They should try to build them now, in exactly the way that has been described. That way we'll know if it was really done that way or if there's more to know.

Waste


of


money...


nuff said.

[Mal Kiever]

It would be worth it.

[frankiej]

There are more important things that the money can be spent on.

The world is a mess right now... We don't need some pyramids.

[Minimalist]

Old Kingdom Egypt had a population of 2 million if I remember right.

That's probably a ball park figure, half of them would be women, too.

Still, the same Egyptologists who tell us that the pyramids were built in 20 years by men with copper tools, ropes, sleds, and muscle power also claim that the primary workforce was 8,000 skilled craftsmen who worked all year round and another 20,000 seasonal workers who were brought in to move the stones. These numbers are based on the size of what they think the camp sites are for those workers according to Zahi Hawass and Marc Lehner.

I would suspect that travel in Egypt at flood season was rather dicey. Sailing upriver would be damn near impossible because of the current and sailing with the current would be "exhilarating" at least. Even walking to the job site would have been doubtful because the settled area was what flooded. Actually getting people to the job site would have most likely meant that the work force was drawn from a limited area near Giza and then of course you have to get them back to their farms so they can plant while the time is right.

Aside from the engineering, it is a logistical puzzle of the highest order.

---

It would be worth it.

Egypt can't afford it.

[Mal Kiever]

Egypt wouldn't have to pay for it.