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History-How was the pyramid of Djoser built in Egypt?

2024-08-10 19:14:00, Blog Chiara Guzzonato

To transport the stone blocks needed to build Djoser's pyramid, the Egyptians developed a complex hydraulic system. This is the new hypothesis of engineers and hydrologists.

It's a question that has plagued archaeologists and researchers for years, and has been attempted several times recently: how were the pyramids built?

It seems unlikely that the giant stones were transported using only ramps, ropes and levers. Now a study published in Plos One hypothesizes that Djoser's pyramid was built using a hydraulic lifting system that allowed the stone blocks to be moved effortlessly.

The researchers decided to focus on the funerary complex, including the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built by the eponymous Third Dynasty pharaoh (2700-2620 BC) about a hundred years before that of Giza, because they wanted to understand how the techniques of building the era had evolved.

What was Gisr al-Mudir?

Combining data from satellite images and a hundred years of archaeological research, experts have made the first discovery about Gisr el-Mudir, a rectangular stone enclosure to the west of the complex whose function was previously unknown.

Satellite images show how the fence intersects perfectly with the dry river bed of what was then a seasonal stream, the Abusir, which flowed from the mountains at Saqqara, entering the Nile.

The researchers' hypothesis is that Gisr el-Mudir was a dam (or greenhouse), a type of dam, stream, used to control the flow of water and catch heavy sediments such as pieces of trees or rocks that could damage buildings in the stream the bottom.

Abusir waters purified in this way probably flowed into a pit 27 meters deep and 410 meters long, which then divided into at least three underground "compartments" and acted as a water purification system, eliminating sediments from the waters of the stream.

Hydraulic lift.

One of these compartments would have been connected to a seven-kilometer network of pipes that branched beneath the complex: one pipe led directly to a 28-meter-deep vertical well that emerged in the center of Djoser's pyramid. At the bottom of the well, archaeologists found a granite chest, with a hole and a large stone blocking the opening.

It would be a kind of hydraulic elevator, the water filled the well, allowing the raising of a floating platform (probably made of wood and therefore decomposed over millennia) which could hold up to a hundred tons of material at a time; to lower the platform, it was enough to empty the well. Since it is a seasonal stream, it is likely that the elevator has operated "in fits and starts" during the twenty years devoted to the construction of the pyramid.

The research team's next goal is to understand whether water was also used to help build later pyramids, particularly that of Cheops, or whether increasingly arid climate conditions make this method impractical./ Adapted by CNA