pryamids

[potterfan3]

how do you think the pryamids were built

[Oneeyedvic]

With the blood of around a million slaves

[ian.miller]

many conventional theories but check out Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock - some good alternative history ideas there.

[simms]

It's quite clear the designers worked out the technology and design as they went along, from the Step Pyramid of Djoser throught to the Great Pyramid. No one is clear about who did the work and how they were paid and / or coerced. They were created over a long time span and must have involved thousands of people. It is possible that the ratios of slaves and paid labourers varied in time and place. One pyramid-builders' town was excavated by Flinders Petrie (Kahun) and showed itself to be a complex and fairly well-off place - by no means slaves grovelling for scraps. But this is only one example. For my part, I only believe the tangible and demonstrable - no fairies, flying saucers and definitely no graham hancock, but this is only my opinion. The ancient egyptian word for these structures was 'mir' apparently meaning 'means of ascension', which possibly tells us what they think they were about. There is a good summary by Joann Fletcher in the Lonely planet guide to Egypt. 'Pyramid' comes from a Greek word used commonly for a type of cake - pyramus. Sort of like a macaroon without the coconut.

[Mattk]

it is a misconception that slaves were used.this work was done willingly by approx 10,000 men.

i would love to think that there is some deeper meaning here and i do believe that their positioning was based on a constellation in space

[Philtaz]

How do I think the Pyramids were built? S-l-o-w-l-y and with great precision!

Seriously, most historians believe that a ramp was built at right angles to the pyramid side, and this increased in height as the pyramid grew. Imagine it as a door wedge that grew in height and degrees with the pyramid as it was built..  Once completed, the ramp was removed.

Mattk is quite correct, the pyramids(the others in different locations in Egypt, as well as the Great Pyramid), along with the Nile reflect the constellation of Orion's belt, with the Nile representing the Milky Way.  Historians at first thought that the positioning of the pyramids on Earth was slightly out however they took into account the fact that the Earth 'wobbles' ever so slightly on its axis and by calculating the stars position at the time the pyramids were built  they discovered that they were in fact positioned in perfect representation.

[QmunkE]

Theories like those set out in "Fingerprints of the Gods" are fairly open to contradictory evidence - i.e. they only take into account the facts which seem to correspond to their own theory. I would like to believe that some sort of highly advanced placement system was used, but I'm more convinced that it was a coincidence.