(Image
credit: historyshistories.com/egypt)
Methods
of Construction: Levers and Machines
Another prominent theory in how the construction of the pyramid may of occurred involves various types of machines, including levers. A lever functions by reducing the magnitude of the force needed to move an object by manipulating the distance between the fulcrum (or center point of the lever) and the mass which is being lifted.
There are several different useful roles levers could have played in the construction of the pyramid. As shown above, they would have been used frequently in adjusting the positioning of blocks once they had reached their final destination. In addition, there is speculation that a type of machine which used the seesawing motion of levers may have been used to transport the blocks themselves up the pyramid. This machine is known for the ancient Greek historian Herodotus who first wrote of it.
The Herodotus Machine:
The Herodotus machine is an example of one of the only accounts we have from written history of how the Great Pyramid was supposedly to have been built. In a quote from the historian's book, he says:
"The
pyramid was built in steps, battlement-wise, as
it is called, or according to others,
altar-wise. After laying the stones for the
base, they raised the remaining stones to their
places by means of machines formed of short
wooden planks. The first machine raised them
from the ground to the top of the first step. On
this there was another machine, which received
the stone upon its arrival and conveyed it to
the second step, whence a third machine advanced
still higher... " -Herodotus from Histories
6
The machine, as
pictured above, is speculated to have worked by
placing a block upon a central pivot point, then
with ropes or a lever the block would be rocked back
and forth so that a space would be opened up under
it for a slab of wood to be inserted. Each time a
slab of wood was inserted the block would be raised
a small distance. In this way the block could be
lifted incrementally between levels of the pyramid.
This building process has been proposed as one way in which the pyramid may have been built. It is important to note that Herodotus lived long after the construction of the pyramid and thus was not an eyewitness himself. However, it is still feasible that the machine that he describes may have been used either by itself or in conjunction with ramps and other methods.