2024-07-26 21:45:02
This assumption is based on the fact that the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built 4,500 years ago as a burial place for an Egyptian pharaoh in the Saqqara necropolis, is located near two now-dry canals, probably once active waterways. They may have allowed rainfall runoff and Nile River water to enter the pyramid construction site, and the central vertical shaft may have been repeatedly flooded and then drained to raise and lower a floating wooden lift.
“We believe that the stones were brought to the pyramid by a hydraulic lift – after they were raised in a shaft,” says Xavier Landreau of the private archaeological research institute Paleotechnic in France.
Landreau and his colleagues, who analyzed the hydrological and geological features of the area, proved that during the 20-30 years of construction of the pyramid, it could have accumulated from 4 million. up to 54 million cubic meters of water. The results are published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The water could flow through a nearby rectangular enclosure called the Gisr el-Mudir – to filter out the sand – before entering the Deep Trench, a huge 410m long canal near the site of the Step Pyramid. This canal may have been a “giant underground cistern” with several compartments, including one that overlapped with the pyramid’s central shaft, says one of the study’s authors, Guillaume Piton of Grenoble-Alpes University in France.
According to Judith Bunbury, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, the idea that there was more water at the ancient site of the Step Pyramid is supported by some previous research. However, she cautions that there is a lack of evidence for potential hydraulic lift technology.
“If their interpretation is correct, it is surprising that this system has not continued to be used elsewhere, and that there are no known drawings of such a system, when so many other engineering solutions and processes are so vividly recorded in wall paintings and reliefs,” says the researcher.
The study also omits that the Step Pyramid was an experimental structure whose height and area only gradually increased during construction, says David Jeffreys, formerly of University College London. “Much more satisfying is the generally accepted explanation that earthworks – such as ramps – were used to move stones that had been quarried on site or nearby and then removed,” he says.
Still, researchers say it’s worth investigating similar hypotheses about how structures other than the Step Pyramid were built. “Exploring the shafts hidden inside these pyramids could be a promising line of research,” says A. Piton.
Parengta pagal „New Scientist“.
2024-07-26 21:45:02