Build the Pyramid

[Old Seer]

What would your proposal be to build a pyramid? IOW, how would you do it- What machinery/method(s) would you use. 

[Tank]

[billy rubin]

i would use a motor scraper and two bulldozers to level the site and build roads, then bring in building stone on flatbed trucks, build a ramp with the bulldozers and small dump trucks around the pyramid as it was built, and stack the stones using a four-wheel mobile crane.

fill for the interior could be brought in on the dump trucks.

the spiraling ramp is the technique used in american landfills to bring material to the top of a pyramidal cell as it grows.  ive been to the top of a number of them.

[Old Seer]

i would use a motor scraper and two bulldozers to level the site and build roads, then bring in building stone on flatbed trucks, build a ramp with the bulldozers and small dump trucks around the pyramid as it was built, and stack the stones using a four-wheel mobile crane.

fill for the interior could be brought in on the dump trucks.

the spiraling ramp is the technique used in american landfills to bring material to the top of a pyramidal cell as it grows.  ive been to the top of a number of them.

OK, But, what about having to build at the time the pyramids were built- using their materials, possible methods and engineering knowledge.

[billy rubin]

the hardest thing to do would be to get the stones from the bottom to the top. all you have to do to make that happen is build a ramp around the pyramid and drag things up from the bottom.

as the pyramid gets higher, the ramp becomes longer but takes less additional material to build as the pyramid has a smaller perimeter the higher you go. here's a huge landfill in israel that shows the technique.



^^^this whole complex is some 2000 acres, while th elargest pyramid at giza is some 14 acres at the base.

i don't see it as something hard to build. to me the hard part would be to construct a solid foundation to prevent the huge thing from settling. apparntly the overburden was removed and the pyramids were constructe directly on bedrock.

to build it all you need are quarries, a way to transport stone blocks, and a lot of people to pull on the ropes. i think th egyptians of that era had all that.

i dont know anything about chechen itza, though, it ould be interesting to compare the engineering of the two.

[No one]

I would get the other 15 people on earth and we would sacrifice a bull, then in the morning.. poof.... a pyramid.

[Randy]

I would get the other 15 people on earth and we would sacrifice a bull, then in the morning.. poof.... a pyramid.

I don't know if one would get a pyramid out of it but the bull could be cooked for a nice barbecue.

[No one]

You would then be smited!

[Magdalena]

I would get the other 15 people on earth and we would sacrifice a bull, then in the morning.. poof.... a pyramid.

I don't know if one would get a pyramid out of it but the bull could be cooked for a nice barbecue.

True. First things first. 

[Randy]

You would then be smited!

I think a good smiting is worth a good barbecue. So smiteth away!