Captain Matthew Flinders navigated and mapped Australia’s coastline. His grandson became Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie who excavated ancient Egyptian artifacts. In 1895 as an employee of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) of London he was excavating artifacts at Deir el-Bahari and found a cache of ancient building equipment buried for preservation in a hewn out rock pit during Pharaonic times.

One of the wooden items is stated as being of “unidentified use” and has been named the “Petrie rocker” by Egyptologists.

Petrie considered the “rocker” was used to raise Pyramid blocks with a “rocking” motion and in 2006 he has been proven partly correct on the matter of raising Pyramid blocks using “rockers”.

The “rocker” is a component of an ancient Egyptian pulley which operates with a mechanical advantage of 2.8 and with CLASS 2 lever principle as a wheelbarrow does. (CLASS 2 lever: Pivot – Load – Effort).

The technical term for the “Petrie rocker” is “pinion-pulley lobe quadrant”. Four of these surround a Pyramid block and then the pulley is hoisted causing rotation and positive engagements of pulley lobes with Pyramid steps.

Consider the Pyramid as four RACKS of stone teeth on to which the PINION pulley lobes engage and here is the earliest form of RACK & PINION mechanics that we know of.

This is the ancient method of Pyramid construction as used on at least four large Pyramids: Sneferu’s RED Pyramid and those at Giza of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.

This ancient method of construction DOES NOT REQUIRE RAMPS and uses the Pyramid under construction (using all four sides simultaneously) to complete the Pyramid, thus using a Pyramid to build a Pyramid.

Petrie died in Jerusalem in 1942 unknowing that “Petrie rockers” are components of an ancient pulley, unlike any pulley in the modern world, and his most important excavation.

However the generally accepted chronology of events has been narrowed down (particularly the early New Kingdom), and the 4th Dynasty dates are for the most part accurate to a matter of around 50 years(!).

It may seem odd (it did to me at first), however Egyptian artwork does show sledges being lubricated with liquid in front when being used to haul heavy statues, so obviously they were onto something. Bear in mind this may also have the benefit not only of helping make a good slide but also may help the integrity of the sledge itself, swelling joints in the woodwork and bindings (bearing in mind the load on it) and also help keep down the dust while it’s hauled. In modern Egypt you will often find water being thrown on the street by shopkeepers and the householders to keep down the dust, and sometimes indoors as well.

Vincent.

The road the Herodotus mentions most likely refers to the causeway. Pyramids were merely the centrepieces of the funerary monument to the deceased Pharaoh. The complete complex consisted of the pyramid itself, a pyramid temple, located next to the pyramid itself, and a long causeway (a covered, raised road, more like an above ground tunnel) leading from these to the valley temple, located further away, nearer to the river.

These causeways were indeed finished to a very high quality as there not intended for use in the construction. The enclosed nature would preclude it, and the construction ramp for the pyramid itself would have needed it’s own approach at a different angle, given the length of the ramp and it’s changing nature as the height of the structure increased. As you mention, the causeway was indeed built to dazzle, though it did service a practical purposes for use in the ceremonies – for taking the coffin, tomb goods and provisions from the barge to the pyramid complex, as well as for the use of the mortuary cult of the Pharaoh that would continue, in theory, forever.

Although the causeway and both pyramid and valley temples of Khufu’s pyramid are now destroyed, the causeway of Khafra’s pyramid survives to some degree, and at Saqqara you can get a real idea of what they were like by looking at the causeway of Unas’ pyramid, which even has a small section of the roof remaining, with it’s “starry sky” decoration, though this was a much smaller complex that Khufu’s.

Most of the material used in Khfu’s complex was Tura limestone, which was obtained from quarries located roughly 10 miles from the construction site, on the east bank of the Nile. It could be transported across the river on barges, then hauled on sledges, whose skies – and the ground in front – were lubricated (probably with water) to enable them to be moved more easily, and although not the hundreds of miles envisioned, the logistics involved are still breathtaking. There were other quarries also located nearby.

Hope this is of interest.

Krys