Why is it impossible to build pyramids?

It's a question which has long baffled historians. The Great Pyramid of Giza contains 2.3 million individual blocks of stone, meaning one block would have to be laid every five minutes of every hour, 24 hours a day, for the entire 20 years. The problem? Each block weighs at least 2 tons.



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Even with cranes, helicopters, tractors and trucks at our disposal, it would be tough to construct the Great Pyramid of Giza today. Its construction 4,500 years ago is so astounding in some people's eyes that they invoke mystical or even alien involvement.

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With modern-day tools and know-how, scientists have not determined a way to recreate the pyramids, even on smaller scales, with the same precisions as those that built the originals. The technology to do so, in that era, simply didn't exist according to historical teachings.

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Recently, the pyramids of Cheops (Khufu), Chephren (Khafre) and Mykerinos (Menkaure) on the Giza plateau have been threatened by a rising groundwater table resulting from water leakage from the suburbs irrigation canals, and mass urbanization surrounding the Giza pyramids.

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Many people have said that the pyramids would last 1 million years or even until the world ended, but I'd say around 10,000 to 100,000 years based on current observations.

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Legend has it that the structure was erected in just 20 years' time, meaning that a block had to have been moved into place about every 5 minutes of each day and night. That pace would have required the (slave) labor of thousands.

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But what the Egyptians lacked in tools, they made up for with science and engineering precision. Smith explains that they developed and used the cubit rod to measure and lay out the dimensions of the pyramid; a square level to level horizontal surfaces, and a 3:4:5 framing square to create precision 90-degree angles.

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The square base of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, for instance, is just 3.4 arcminutes off of true north. That's a precision of about 1 millimeter per meter. Some of the later pyramids, however, deviate more, as if their architects' method for aligning them became less accurate over time.

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The interiors of all three pyramids of Giza are open to visitors, but each requires the purchase of a separate ticket. Although tourists were once able to freely climb the pyramids, that is now illegal. Offenders face up to three years in prison as penalty.

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In terms of function, most pyramids served a religious or spiritual purpose, often as tombs for rulers or as temples for gods.

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And the corners of the Great Pyramid of Giza also align well with the cardinal directions — north, south, east, and west. Researchers have spent years trying to understand how the builders were able to align the pyramid so precisely, and most accept that the ancient engineers used the motion of the Sun.

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The pyramids at Giza might have been aligned to two northerly stars. By looking at the stars, an Egyptologist claims to have found a new way to date the pyramids of Giza and other ancient sites.

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But until recently, nobody really knew how. The answer, it seems, is simply water. Evidence suggests that the blocks were first levered onto wooden sleds and then hauled up ramps made of sand. However, dry sand piles up in front of a moving sled, increasing friction until the sled is nearly impossible to pull.

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There's no evidence of any earthquake damaging the pyramids, which are about as solid a piece of architecture as you can have.

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The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement fought on 21 July 1798, during the French Invasion of Egypt.

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Today's cost of the 2,300,000 limestone blocks used to build Pharaoh Khufu's Great Pyramid amounts to $495 per block. Each block is estimated at 2.5 ton and the cost per ton is just under $200, making the total cost for the pyramid itself, $1.14 billion.

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In addition, they used stone like granite: a material so hard that it wouldn't act like a sponge – the water didn't penetrate it. So, the stone would shed the water and the building would last longer.

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