Archaeologists Refute New Claims About the Construction of the Great Pyramid
Between scientific facts and social media misinformation, the debate continues about the mystery of how the Pyramids of Giza were built, their secrets, and how they have endured for thousands of years without us being able to decode them.
The latest episode in this series consists of numerous social media posts recently flooding the internet in search of trends, claiming to have discovered the secret to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. They assert that the stones used to build it contain “air bubbles,” indicating that they are man-made rather than natural or quarried from mountains.
These posts claim that the stones of Khufu’s pyramid are different from those of the other two pyramids, Khafre and Menkaure.
“Fantasies and Lies”
Ashraf Mohie El-Din, an archaeology expert and general manager of the Pyramids archaeological area, denies the authenticity of these posts, describing them as “fantasies” and “lies” that have no scientific basis.
Mohie El-Din confirmed to “Agence France-Presse” that the Great Pyramid is built of local limestone, and was once entirely covered with a high-quality limestone casing, brought from the Tura quarries via boats to the pyramid.
He noted that this also applies to the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure.
Archaeologist and Egyptologist Ahmed Saleh agrees, pointing out that King Khufu built the pyramid as his tomb, and that the construction project took 20 years.
Saleh states that it is likely that King Khufu’s cousin, named Hemiunu, supervised the construction of this pyramid, which originally stood at 146.5 meters tall, but erosion and the disappearance of the pyramidion reduced its height to 138.8 meters today.
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He points out that the Pyramid of Khufu contains more than two million limestone blocks, as well as about 8,000 tons of granite, brought from Aswan in Upper Egypt and used in the burial chamber of King Khufu.
Saleh highlights that many theories have attempted to explain how the pyramids were built, including theories suggesting that there were spiral ramps inside the pyramid used to lift the stones to the upper parts.
