It's no secret that the ancient Egyptians were quite technologically advanced for their time, but new research suggests that at least one pyramid was built using a surprisingly sophisticated technology: hydraulic lifts.
As detailed in a new study published in the journal PLOS One, researchers say they have found evidence that the builders of the Pyramid of Djoser, also known as the Step Pyramid, used a system of trenches, tunnels and a dam to divert water. to a construction site where they used it to raise and lower a floating platform that could carry heavy rocks.
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"Many theories about the construction of the pyramids suggest that pure human power was used, possibly aided by basic mechanical devices such as levers and ramps," said lead study author Xavier Landreau, executive director of the Paris-based research institute Paleotechnic. "Our analysis led us to use water as a means of lifting the stones. We are skeptical that the largest pyramids were built using only the ramp and lever method."
Considered to be the oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Step Pyramid was built around 2680 BCE, about a century before the Great Pyramid of Giza. Historians believe it was designed by the legendary architect Imhotep, whom Pharaoh Djoser commissioned for his alleged burial site.
After years of studying the ancient climate and archaeological data, researchers discovered evidence that more water was available in the pyramid region than previously thought. It revealed a number of structures in and around the complex, including a vertical shaft step in the center of the pyramid where researchers now believe hydraulic elevators would have been located.
The shaft may have once received water from a connecting tunnel under the pyramid, more than 200 m long, connected to a network of other tunnels and possibly a huge trench that still surrounds the pyramid complex.
This theory could also explain the origin of a nearby stone structure known as the Gisra el-Mudir enclosure, the purpose of which has long been a mystery. The researchers speculate that it would have served as a "check dam", storing water during large floods and filtering it for sediment that would prevent the tunnels from clogging.
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The results have proved controversial among experts in the field, with detractors arguing that there would not have been enough steady rainfall to fill the tunnels with adequate water.
"These rains, even filling the canals (a dry valley, except during the rainy season) with water, would not have been able to fill the dry ditch even to a small extent," says Fabian Welk of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Poland. Director of the Archaeological Institute. "These waters would have been immediately driven by gravity deep into the rock mass, of which there is no doubt (unless they were the biblical flood)."
Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former minister of state for antiquities, more or less called the study nonsense.
"I have been excavating at Gisra El-Mudir for the past 12 years," Hawass said. "There is no evidence that I saw in my excavations to prove [that it was a dam]."
There is much that contradicts the theory, and the authors of the study admit that more research is needed to prove what they claim, but all credit to them for at least the idea.