Re: Pyramid stone?
- From: "Franz Gnaedinger" <frgn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 9 Jul 2005 01:26:53 -0700
H. E. Taylor wrote:
> Greetings,
> Does anyone here happen to know what kind of stone the outer
> 'capping' layers of the Old Kingdom pyramids is?
> Articles, URLs, gratefully accepted.
> <regards>
> -het
You got insufficient answers to your question, so let me give you
a good one.
An Old Kingdom pyramid consisted of three layers: a) a natural
hill at the base, b) a limestone core, and c) a mantel of the
very fine Tura limestone, which, when freshly quarried, was
snow white, so a finished pyramid must have been a true marvel.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Stadelmann, former first director of the German
Archaeological Institute Cairo, then responsible for the pyramids,
estimated that the hill at the base of the Great Pyramid, a natural
limestone outcrop still visible at a corner of the pyramid, made
out up to one third of the pyramid's volume. A team of Geneva
university is examining the Abu Rawah site. The pyramid there
has been used for a quarry, so this site allows to study pyramid
building. The natural hill of the Abu Rawah pyramid even accounted
to 44 (fourty-four) per cent of the pyramids volume! So you can
imagine that a lot of work was saved by placing a pyramid on a hill.
And a block at the base of the former Abu Rawash pyramid dates
to the first year of the king involved, so a pyramid was just
began when a king, who was an emanation of the king per se, of
ever the same eternal king, who again was an emanation of god
in his double appearance as Re and Osiris - well, a pyramid
was just began when a king began his reign.
On top of the natural hill were placed many layers of local
limestone, quarried to the side of the hill.
The core of the pyramid was covered by means of the fine
and freshly broken snow white (German has the better word:
bluetenweiss) Tura limestone from a quarry east of the Nile.
Doug Weller recommends the pyramid book by Mark Lehner.
That book shows great illustrations that really let you
understand the structure of those buildings. However, Lehner
is more than sloppy when it comes to numbers and measurements,
and what he compiles for methods of measuring and building
pyramids can't but be called but kooky. They would never
work. If you are interestd in how to alin a pyramid, how to
measure out the base, and how to build a pyramid, look up
the chapters Egypt 2 and Egypt 3 on top of my website
www.seshat.ch In my opinion, the Tura limestone for the
mantel was placed together with the blocks for the core,
and served for ramps, not such impossibly steep ramps
as shown by Lehner, but very very slowly ascending ramps,
beginning at less than 1.5 (one point five) degrees, four
ramps spiraling around the growing monument, three for going
up, one for going down, the sleds pulled by oxen (six oxen
pulling a large block on a sled are seen on a freso in
the Tura quarry). When the top of the pyramid was reached,
the ramps were removed, and the mantle was polished, from
the top, not from below. The Tura limestone required for
the mantle and the ramps would have made out one seventh
of the pyramid's volume. The ramps were, I believe, ten royal
cubits wide. The material that was no longer used for the
pyramid (as the ramps were removed from the top) was then
used for the buildings at the base of the pyramid: the
large temple in the center of the eastern face, the
wall of the temenos running around the pyramid, the
pyramids of the queens, mastabas, and so on.
Regards Franz Gnaedinger
.
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