Life in the Fast Lane

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The commonly accepted theory that the pyramids of Egypt were crafted of carved-out giant limestone blocks that workers carried up ramps had not only not been embraced by modern man, but just as importantly, the theory had quite a number of holes.

Professor Michel Barsoum stands before one of the Egyptian pyramids for which he has found evidence suggesting some of the stone blocks were cast, not quarried. Photo credit — Michel Barsoum, Drexel University.

It had been widely acknowledged that Joseph Davidovits, Director of the Geopolymer Institute in St. Quentin, Francehad, solved this mystery more than two decades ago. Davidovits claimed that the stones of the pyramids were actually made of a very early form of concrete created using a mixture of limestone, clay, lime, and water.

It turned out that nobody had completely proven the theory … yet.

Michel Barsoum, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, undertook a five-year odyssey to prove or dispel Davidovits’ theory, joined by one of his graduate students, Adrish Ganguly, and a colleague in France, Gilles Hug.

“If the pyramids were indeed cast,� said Michel Barsoum, “someone should have proven it beyond a doubt by now, in this day and age, with just a few hours of electron microscopy.�

LiveScience reports that 1 1/2 years later, after extensive scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations and other testing, Barsoum and his research group began to draw some conclusions about the pyramids. They found that the tiniest structures within the inner and outer casing stones were indeed consistent with a reconstituted limestone. The cement binding the limestone aggregate was either silicon dioxide (the building block of quartz) or a calcium and magnesium-rich silicate mineral.

An egg-shaped cavity marked by the arrow spans two massive blocks on the north side of Senefru’s Bent Pyramid must have been formed when the blocks were cast around a small rock or debris that was present. Photo cedit — Michel Barsoum, Drexel University.

The stones also had a high water content — unusual for the normally dry, natural limestone found on the Giza plateau. The cementing phases, in both the inner and outer casing stones, were amorphous, in other words, their atoms were not arranged in a regular and periodic array. Sedimentary rocks such as limestone are seldom, if ever, amorphous.

The sample chemistries the researchers found do not exist anywhere in nature. “Therefore,” says Barsoum, “it’s very improbable that the outer and inner casing stones that we examined were chiseled from a natural limestone block.”

More startlingly, Barsoum and his graduate student Aaron Sakulich recently discovered the presence of silicon dioxide nanoscale spheres (with diameters only billionths of a meter across) in one of the samples. This discovery further confirms that these blocks are not natural limestone.

The researchers reflect that it is “ironic, sublime and truly humbling” that this 4,500-year-old limestone is so true to the original that it has misled generations of Egyptologists and geologists and, “because the ancient Egyptians were the original — albeit unknowing — anotechnologists.”

As if the scientific evidence isn’t enough, Barsoum has pointed out a number of common sense reasons why the pyramids were not likely constructed entirely of chiseled limestone blocks.

Egyptologists are consistently confronted by unanswered questions: How is it possible that some of the blocks are so perfectly matched that not even a human hair can be inserted between them? Why, despite the existence of millions of tons of stone, carved presumably with copper chisels, has not one copper chisel ever been found on the Giza Plateau?

Although Barsoum’s research has not answered all of these questions, his work provides insight into some of the key questions. For example, it is now more likely than not that the tops of the pyramids are cast, as it would have been increasingly difficult to drag the stones to the summit.

The top of the Khafra pyramid shows an intact outer casing near the apex and a band of regular stone just below. Photo credit — Michel Barsoum, Drexel University.

Also, casting would explain why some of the stones fit so closely together. Still, not every aspect of the pyramids can be explained. How the Egyptians hoisted 70-ton granite slabs halfway up the great pyramid remains as mysterious as ever.

Why do the results of Barsoum’s research matter most today? Two words — earth cements.

“How energy intensive and / or complicated can a 4,500 year old technology really be? The answer to both questions is not very,” Barsoum explains. “The basic raw materials used for this early form of concrete-limestone, lime, and diatomaceous earth can be found virtually anywhere in the world,” he adds. “Replicating this method of construction would be cost effective, long lasting, and much more environmentally friendly than the current building material of choice — Portland cement that alone pumps roughly 6 billion tons of CO2 annually into the atmosphere when it’s manufactured.”

“Ironically,” says Barsoum, “this study of 4,500 year old rocks is not about the past, but about the future.”

How the Pyramids Were Built in Egypt

Further information:
Michel Barsoum’s pyramid website
Department of Materials Science and Engineering website
A presentation on the pyramid discoveries by Michel Barsoum

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