Crash test mummies: Egypt's oldest pyramid saved from collapse by giant airbags

By Daily Mail Reporter
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Egypt's oldest pyramid has been saved from collapse by giant airbags which have been used to prop up the ceilings.

The 4,700-year-old building has been stabilised so engineers can carry out permanent repairs.

The giant structure was built as a burial place for Pharaoh Djoser, a warrior who reigned in the third dynasty for 19 years but has been damaged in an earthquake.

Top support: The Pyramid of Djoser in Memphis, north-west Egypt, was likely to collapse before giant airbags were used to support the ceiling

SAFE FROM COLLAPSE: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

The 4,700-year-old pyramid for Pharoah Djoser which is undergoing restoration work is a step pyramid. Originally it would have been covered by layers of limestone.

As one of the earliest ones created by the Egyptians, it was made from compacted mud brick layers with smaller layers built on top of each other. The square Djoser Pyramid is around 60 metres tall and has six steps.

Later came the bent pyramids which were built in much the same way but had their sides covered with smooth rock to give them angled rules. However, they did not go up at precisely the same angle all the way.

Finally came the true pyramids with the smooth walls rising at the same angle all the way to the top. They had their steps filled in with masonry.

The British team - who helped repair Windsor Castle after it was damaged by fire in 1993 - used technology first developed to aid in the safer disposal of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Engineering boss Peter James said: 'The entire structure could be destroyed at any point due to the damage caused by the earthquake.

'But we have stabilised the roof with these inflatable airbags and we will soon start repairing this magnificent building.'

The historic pyramid was feared to be so unstable that no-one has taken on the challenge of securing it in the last 19 years.

Peter James, a former Royal Navy lieutenant-commander who served in the Falklands War, has won a £1.8million contract to carry out the repairs.

His company Cintec adapted the airbags used by the British army to support the buidling.

The water filled bags work by surrounding an explosive with a bag which cushions the blast. But for the pyramid Mr James adapted his technology by substituting compressed air for water.

The British engineering firm that used airbags to support the structure are now going to carry out permanent repairs to the pyramid of Djoser now that these airbags are in place

The specialist structural engineers have previously worked on Buckingham Palace, Iron Bridge Gorge and The White House.

Mr James said:'It was very unstable when we got in there.

'The earthquake in 1992 had shifted everything sideways and it was a massive task trying to hold everything up without dislodging anything further.

'Until we got the scaffolding in place, we had no idea what was holding up the remaining 60m of stone.' 


'It was a lethal and massive game of Ker-Plunk - trying to hold everything up, without dislodging anything further.' 

He said: 'We had planned to use our water system but as soon as we got a good look at the chamber it was clear that inflating the bags with water wasn't going to work.

Pharoah dynamics: These airbags first used in Afghanistan to help with the disposal of roadside bombs have been used to support the 4,700-year-old pyramid

'The rocks in the ceiling were too jagged and there was a risk of deluging the pyramid which has been bone dry since it was built.' 

The team will now thread thermo-dynamic steel rods diagonally through the steps of the pyramid to stabilise the roof.

Mr James said: 'The really tricky parts are the visible bits of the pyramid.' 

'Underneath the surface we're able to use 21st Century technology to make it as strong as we know how to - but on the outside it needs to be per cent authentic.' 

'That's involved finding the strongest blend - by using components which would have been available to the ancient Egyptians.'

Egypt finds 17 lost pyramids

From: http://www.globalpost.com/

A satellite survey used infra-red images to detect underground buildings.

Egyptians ride their camels past the pyramid of Khafre in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, on November 30, 2010. (Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

A new satellite survey of Egypt reportedly found 17 lost pyramids along with more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements.

The survey used infra-red images to detect underground buildings, the BBC reports.

Satellites above the earth were equipped with cameras that could pin-point objects on the earth's surface less than three-feet wide. The infra-red imaging then highlighted different materials under the surface, it states.
The work was done by a NASA-sponsored laboratory in Birmingham, Alabama.

"To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archeologist," Sarah Parcak who led the project told BBC.
See some of the satellite images.

Meanwhile, Egypt opened the tombs of seven men, including some who served King Tutankhamen, to tourists earlier this week after restoration, the Associated Press reports.

Egypt hopes the tombs in the New Kingdom Cemetery in South Saqqara will draw more tourists to the area.
Egypt's tourism industry has been badly hit by the revolution that toppled the government in February and subsequent political uncertainty.

Robot to explore mysterious tunnels in Great Pyramid

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/

For 4,500 years, no one has known what lies beyond two stone doors deep inside the monument

By Andrew Johnson

For 4,500 years, the Great Pyramid at Giza has enthralled, fascinated and ultimately frustrated everyone who has attempted to penetrate its secrets.

Now a robotics team from Leeds University, working with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, is preparing a machine which they hope will solve one of its enduring mysteries.

The pyramid, known as the Pyramid of Khufu after the king who built it around 2,560BC, is the only wonder of the ancient world still standing. At its heart are two rooms known as the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber. Two shafts rise from the King's Chamber at 45-degree angles and lead to the exterior of the monument. They are believed to be a passageway designed to fire the king's spirit into the firmament so that he can take his place among the stars.

In the Queen's Chamber, there are two further shafts, discovered in 1872. Unlike those in the King's Chamber, these do not lead to the outer face of the pyramid

No one knows what the shafts are for. In 1992, a camera sent up the shaft leading from the south wall of the Queen's Chamber discovered it was blocked after 60 metres by a limestone door with two copper handles. In 2002, a further expedition drilled through this door and revealed, 20 centimetres behind it, a second door.

"The second door is unlike the first. It looks as if it is screening or covering something," said Dr Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council who is in charge of the expedition. The north shaft bends by 45 degrees after 18 metres but, after 60 metres, is also blocked by a limestone door.

Now technicians at Leeds University are putting the finishing touches to a robot which, they hope, will follow the shaft to its end. Known as the Djedi project, after the magician whom Khufu consulted when planning the pyramid, the robot will be able to drill through the second set of doors to see what lies beyond.

afp/getty images

The Pyramid of Khufu is the only wonder of the ancient world still standing

Ancient Queen's burial chamber discovered at Saqqara

By Ann Wuyts

From http://www.independent.co.uk/

SCA

The Pyramid of Behenu at Saqqara

Ancient statue discovered at Giza Pyramids

A statue, almost life-size at 149cm (five feet) tall, was found by maintenance workers north of the smallest of Giza's three main pyramids, the tomb of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Mycerinus, who ruled in the 26th century BC. The ancient quartzite statue of a seated man was discovered buried close to the surface of the desert.

Picture: REUTERS

While most archaelogic discoveries to do with Egyptian pyramids were made over a century ago, new ones do still occur. A newly discovered statue made from quartzite stone was found buried 40cm deep in the sand in February 2009.

The man was wearing a shoulder-length wig and was seated in a simple chair, his right hand clenched on his knee and holding an object. His left hand was resting on his thigh.

The culture ministry said the statue had a number of cracks in a shoulder, its chest and base, and some facial features had been worn away. The head of the statue was only about 40 cm (16 inches) below ground level.

The statue bore no inscriptions, making it hard to identify, though the style suggested it might date to the early years of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, close to Mycerinus's time.

The Giza complex, containing the pyramids and the Sphinx, on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, is one of the country's most popular tourist sites, attracting millions of visitors every year.

Dr. Zahi Hawas, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that the 149 CM tall statue most likely dates back to the Egyptian old State era (2513-2649 B.C).


The pyramids of Giza lie on the outskirts of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only remaining monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Picture: picture-alliance / Bildagentur H

The Sphinx is located just east of the trio of pyramids.

Many of the pyramids were built in ancient Egypt to contain the mummified remains of pharaohs, other royalty and prominent figures of society.

Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room?

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
November 14, 2008 ON TV Unlocking the Great Pyramid airs Sunday, November 23, at 7 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Channel. Details >>

A sealed space in Egypt's Great Pyramid may help solve a centuries-old mystery: How did the ancient Egyptians move two million 2.5-ton blocks to build the ancient wonder?

The little-known cavity may support the theory that the 4,500-year-old monument to Pharaoh Khufu was constructed inside out, via a spiraling, inclined interior tunnel—an idea that contradicts the prevailing wisdom that the monuments were built using an external ramp.

The inside-out theory's key proponent, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, says for centuries Egyptologists have ignored evidence staring them in the face.

"The paradigm was wrong," Houdin said. "The idea that the pyramids were built from the outside was just wrong. How can you resolve a problem when the first element you introduce in your thinking is wrong?"

(Related: "Great Pyramid Built Inside Out, French Architect Says" [April 2, 2007].)

Theories Abound

Even the most widely held Great Pyramid construction theories have flaws, Egyptologist Bob Brier said.

For example, a single, straight external ramp would have been impractical, said Brier, of Long Island University in New York.

To deliver blocks to the 481-foot (147-meter) peak at a reasonable grade, the ramp would have had to have been a mile (1.6 kilometers) long and made of stone. And over the decades of the pyramid's construction, workers would have had to continually increase the ramp's height and length as the pyramid rose.

Video Clip From Unlocking the Great Pyramid Documentary




"That's like building two pyramids. And we've never found the remains of such a ramp," Brier said.

Another theory suggests a stone ramp wound around the outside of the Great Pyramid. But an outside ramp would have obscured the pyramid's surface—making it impossible for surveyors to use the corners and edges for necessary calculations during constructions, Brier said.

Greek historian Herodotus, writing around 450 B.C., theorized the use of small, wooden, cranes or levers to lift the blocks.

But, Brier said, "you'd have to have thousands, and they didn't have enough wood in all of Egypt for that," Brier said.

Obsession

For Houdin, the Paris architect, the puzzle of the pyramid is a family affair. His father, a civil engineer, came up with the idea of an internal construction ramp a decade ago.

Houdin was soon hooked, as suggested by his recent book, co-written by Brier—The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery.

Houdin eventually left his architecture firm to pursue the inside-out theory full-time.

For what they thought would be a matter of weeks, he and his wife moved into a 236-square-foot (22-square-meter) studio apartment. They ended up staying for four years, as Houdin toiled away at his self-financed project.

Outside Ramp, Then Internal Tunnel

Houdin's theory suggests the Great Pyramid was built in two stages.

First, blocks were hauled up a straight external ramp to build the pyramid's bottom third, which contains most of the monument's mass, Houdin believes.

Houdin says the limestone blocks used in the outside ramp were recycled for the pyramid's upper levels, which might explain why no trace of an original ramp has been found.

Egyptian-archaeology specialist Josef Wegner sees merit in the recycling idea.

"The notion of using the already quarried smaller blocks to build the lower ramp and then dismantling that for use in upper sections would be a very logical approach to speed up the overall construction process," said Wegner of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

After the foundation had been finished, workers began building an inclined, internal, corkscrew tunnel, which would continue its path up and around as the pyramid rose, Houdin said.

Because the tunnel is inside the pyramid, Brier said, "when they finished getting blocks all the way up to the top this ramp disappeared [from view]."

New Clue: The Hidden Room

New evidence uncovered about two-thirds of the way up the Great Pyramid supports the inside-out theory, said Houdin, the architect.

At about the 300-foot (90-meter) mark on the northeastern edge lies an open notch.

On a recent expedition with a National Geographic film crew, Brier—aided by a videographer with mountain-climbing experience—scaled perilous crumbling rocks to reach the notch. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Ducking inside the notch, Brier entered a small L-shaped room.

He wasn't the first to visit the space, but until now Egyptologists had taken little notice of it.

Houdin, the architect, said the feature figures perfectly with his theory.

Open Corners for Turning Blocks?

For the interior tunnel to work, it would have required open areas at the Great Pyramid's four corners, Houdin says. Otherwise the blocks wouldn't have been able to clear the 90-degree turns.

Like railroad roundhouses, these open corners would have given workers room to pivot the blocks—perhaps using wooden cranes—so the stones could be pushed into the next tunnel.

The notch and room are remnants of one such opening, Houdin claims. They are located at one of the spots where Houdin's 3-D computer models suggest they should be.

Inside the corner space, which was apparently walled in as the pyramid was completed, there should be two tunnel entrances at right angles to one another—each leading to a section of the internal ramp, Houdin believes.

Perhaps all that stands between him and the solution to the mystery are massive blocks that thousands of years ago sealed the tunnel, Houdin said.

If this previously known space truly is the missing link in the puzzle of the Great Pyramid's construction, the question remains why no one would have surmised this by now.

Brier said, "If you weren't thinking about internal ramps and notches and you climbed right by this thing, it wouldn't mean anything to you."

The Other Key Clue

Prior to the room brainstorm, Houdin's most important piece of evidence was the product of good luck.

In 1986 a French team in an ultimately fruitless search for hidden chambers in the Great Pyramid had done a survey of the monument's density using a technique called microgravimetry, which measures the strength of local gravitational fields.

Nearly 15 years later, Houdin was presenting his ramp theory at a conference and was approached by a member of the 1986 team.

The man showed Houdin an image from their survey that they'd dismissed as unexplainable.

But to Houdin, and later Brier, the explanation was clear.

The image shows what looks like a spiraling feature inside the structure's outer walls.

"If I hadn't seen that diagram, I'd probably be thinking this is just another theory," Brier said.

Next Step: Confirmation

The 1986 image, the notch room, and other evidence may make Houdin's theory plausible, but the case is far from closed.

"As with all archaeological theories, the proof is in the pudding, and many logical and compelling theories have fallen by the wayside under the weight of hard evidence," said the University of Pennsylvania's Wegner.

But "verification of the proposed internal spiral ramp would be a remarkable and groundbreaking discovery," Wegner added.

Houdin believes that verification might soon be possible.

He suggests that an infrared camera—positioned about 150 feet (46 meters) from the pyramid—could potentially record subtle differences in interior materials and temperatures. Those variations could reveal clear-cut "phantoms" of the internal ramp.

"What we need is the authorization, by the Egyptian authorities, to stay around for 18 hours, close to the pyramid, with a cooled infrared camera based on an SUV and to take images of three [pyramid] faces every hour during this period," Houdin said.

"A green light from Cairo and the Great Pyramid mystery is over."

---

© 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

The Mysterious Coral Castle

Image: Amanda Haddox

In the city of Homestead, Florida sits a strange stone structure created by eccentric Edward Leedskalnin. No one really knows why it was built or how, but considering each of the megalithic coral stones weigh more than most men could move alone, the emergence of the Coral Castle remains an impressive mystery.

Edward never allowed anyone to witness the building of Coral Castle. A suspicious and private man, he worked at night by lantern, behind large walls he constructed. Reports from neighbors claim he levitated the blocks, some weighing 30 tons, twice the weight of the largest blocks in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Image: Christina Rutz

Teenagers living in the area claimed they saw him one night, “singing to the massive stone, and it moved like it was a hydrogen balloon, easily settling into place.” By his own account, Edward claimed, “I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids, and have found out how the Egyptians and the ancient builders of Peru, Yucatan, and Asia, with only primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many tons.”

Image: DCVision2006

Coral Castle was moved to Homestead, Florida in 1936 by Edward, again on his own. According to one theory, Edward moved the castle because he had made a mathematical error in the position and wasn’t able to harness enough magnetic energy in the original site to complete the structure. These theorists believe he was successful in decoding the Earth’s magnetic energies, and thus was able to magnetize the stone making it possible for a lone person to lift and move tons of weight with only a tripod and pulleys.

Edward believed, “all matter consists of individual magnets, and it is the movement of these magnets within material and through space that produce measurable phenomena, magnetism, and electricity, and these concepts involve the relationship of the Earth to celestial alignments.” He claimed to see beads of light which he believed to be the physical presence of nature’s magnetism and life force, what we today term as ‘chi’. Tourists to the area report, “energy sensitive people walking through the archway of the 9-ton gate are stricken with headaches,” thought to be built directly over a vortex.

Image via Anti Gravity Technology

Armed with only a fourth grade education, Edward Leedskalnin possessed a unique understanding of the laws of weight and leverage, and with that built a castle of immense proportions, singlehandedly. For twenty-eight years he quarried, cut, shaped, transported, and constructed the entire structure, with only primitive tools he fashioned from junk yard auto parts and cast away lumber. This feat would have been amazing by today’s standards with a crew and modern equipment, but by the hand of a 5 ft, 100lb man, it defies explanation.

Image: errrrrrrrrika

According to the website Coral Castle Code, its creator Jon Depew, believes Edward Leedskalnin unlocked the code that is the base to all atomic structure, and that he left behind a blueprint for nature and a secret knowledge of the ancients. “What Ed’s code is leaving us with, is that this ancient science sacred geometry is really representing an advanced knowledge of two magnetic currents and the neutral particles of matter, they orbit as a common core,” says Depew.

Magnetic Currents

Image: John Depew

Which theory is true remains a question for all who see Coral Castle, whom upon entering must draw their own conclusions. However, the importance of such a feat is nonetheless awe-inspiring. Whether he was an intuitive possessing mystical power, a genius before his time, or had actually unlocked the mystery to creation and life itself, we must be forever grateful for this new wonder of the world.

Special Thanks to Jon Depew of Coral Castle Code for images and information.

Other Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

This post was written by:

Luann Dawkins - who has written 2 posts on Environmental Graffiti.