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The Source of the Stones
Are you saying that the Ancient Egyptians manufactured hard stones from mineral ores ? Yes . Their Knowledge in manufacturing stones was also utilized in manufacture the stones for the sonry pyramids .
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| Ancient Egyptian Pyramids |
What is your evidence to support the idea of man made stone blocks ? There are references to making stones on a stale , commonly know as the “Famine Stele” located on the island of Sahel , near Elephantine , south of Aswan . The Stele is dated to about 200 B.C. It is a copy of and old Kingdom text , which dates to the region of Zoser , 2500 years earlier , The three main characters on the stele , are Khnum (who represents the Divine Principle of Molding) ,King Zoser and Imhotep. This stele should have been named Khnum’s Alchemical Stele , for it holds the Key the method of manufacturing man-mad stone . Approximately one-third of this stele’s content pertains to rocks and mineral ore , and their processing Columns 18 and 19 of this Steele quote the Divine Molder , Khnum , speaking to king Zoser .
I am Khnum , your creator , I give toy are ore after rare ore …. Never before has anyone processed the, (to make stone) in order to build the temples ….”
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| Khnum – Ancient Egyptian God |
Very interesting. Tell me more.
Lets up review how ancient Egypt and even some modern Egyptians make bricks , They push wet Nile mud m ,mixed with straw and sand , into a wooden moled . then the soft bricks are set out to dry in the hot sun . Imhotep used the same small . wooden molds to pour the more drubbed limestone concrete materials , rather than mud
It must have been technological breakthrough.
Not at all . They had the knowledge in Chemical and metallurgical sciences . they had been manufacturing stones for a long time as evidenced in all the tens of thousands of discovered artifacts .
I never thought about it this way.
they limited natural stones . Their skill in complicated processes enabled them to imitate the rich brilliancy of precious stones . some mock pearls have been so well counterfeited , that even now it is difficult to differentiate , that even pearls , even with a strong lens .
Pliny the Elder (AD23 – 79) the Roman naturalist ,stated in The Encyclopedia of Natural History , Book 31 , that Egyptians made Real rocks from a multitude of minerals .He also stated that Egyptians made vases from their man-made stone .
So , making stones to build the Pyramids should not have been a major achievement for them .
Of course not . they had been manufacturing many many other stones for along time , So making stones for the Pyramids was just a new application of their knowledge at that time .
But are you saying that these stones could Not have been quarried , as we were told?
Let us review the common theory . The ‘common’ story is that the blocks , for the pyramids , were quarried from local sources , and that the casing blocks came from Tura , across the River Nile.The common story claims that the ancient Egyptians used the following to cut and shape the stone blocks : 1 – copper chisels and possibly iron tools . 2 – flint , quartz and diorite bounders . 3 – large wooden crow bars . The common story also claims that to transports the stones blocks , they used wooden sledges and rollers .
What is wrong with this theory ?
Firstly , Because the common theory only a guess and there is no historical evidence to support it . Secondly , stone and copper tools would not have been able to produce these huge numbers of blocks ,with such a Hugh quality , in the allocated tie period , here or in the other pyramids .
Could it have been that they used a different method to quarry stones ?
To quarry stones , some suggested that the Egyptians may have heated the surface of the stone to a very high temperature with fir , then sprayed on water to make it split . This suggestion is invalid , because :
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| Ancient Egyptian Pyramids |
Firstly , this method results in providing irregular surfaces and not in making regular -shaped blocks .This method can only be used to reduce large pieces of sandstone ,granite , or basalt into small aggregates .
Secondly , heating with fire transfers limestone into lime at 704 ْ(1,300 ْ) .As such , producing pyramid blocks by heating limestone is impossible .
So how did they do it ?
I believe that these blocks were high quality man-made limestone concrete and not quarried natural stone .It is a known fact that the ancient Egyptian silicosis-illuminate cement mortar is far superior to present day hydrated calcium sulfate mortar, By mixing the ancient high quality cement , with fossil-shell limestone concrete . The synthetic blocks consist basically of about 90-95% limestone rubble ,and 5-10% cement .
All the required ingredient to make synthetic concrete stone , with no appreciable shrinkage , are plentiful in Egypt.
1 – The alumina , used fir low temperature mineral synthesis , is contained in the mud from the Nile River . 2 – Natron salt (sodium carbonate) is very plentiful in the Egyptian deserts and slat lakes . 3 – Lime , which is the most basic ingredient for cement production , was easily obtained by calcining limestone in simple hearths . 4 – The Sinai mines contained arsenic minerals , needed to produce rapid hydraulic setting , for large concert blocks . Natron (as type of flux) reacts with lime and water to produce caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) , which is the main ingredient for chemically making stone .
Records of mining activities during Zoser’s reign are indicated in a stele at the mines if Wadi Maghara in Sinai . Similar mining activities , during the subsequent pharaohs’ regions of the Third and Forth Dynasties m are also records at Sinai .