FRANCE: The secrets of Egypt's great pyramid have been unlocked by a French architect who claims the ancient wonder was built inside out

Record ID: 644646

  • Title: FRANCE: The secrets of Egypt's great pyramid have been unlocked by a French architect who claims the ancient wonder was built inside out
  • Date: 6th April 2007
  • Summary: TECHNICIAN LOOKING AT ANIMATION ON GIANT SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVAMT4QHCO8X7Y8QWWYSXOT49YO
  • Story Text: A French architect claimed on Friday (March 30) to have cracked a 4,500 year old mystery surrounding Egypt's Great Pyramid, saying it was built from the inside out.
    Previous theories have suggested Pharaoh Khufu's tomb, the last surviving example of the seven great wonders of antiquity, was built using either a vast frontal ramp or a ramp in a corkscrew shape around the exterior to haul up the stonework.
    But flouting previous wisdom, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin said advanced 3D technology had shown the main ramp which was used to haul the massive stones to the apex was contained 10-15 metres beneath the outer skin, tracing a pyramid within a pyramid.
    "We have not discovered, we are promoting a new idea, an innovative idea, that the Khufu pyramid was built thanks to an internal wall rising spirally inside, in the core of the pyramid close to the face. This ramp will not do all the job but will permit us to get, to go up to the apex of the pyramid, to build the full pyramid," Houdin said after unveiling his hypothesis in a lavish ceremony using 3D computer simulation.
    To prove his case, Houdin teamed up with a French company that builds 3D models for auto and airplane design, Dassault Systemes, which put 14 engineers for 2 years on the project.
    Now, an international team is being assembled to probe the pyramid using radars and heat detecting cameras supplied by a French defence firm, as long as Egyptian authorities agree.
    "It's better than the other theories because it's the only one which works and with Dassault Systems, in two years we have made full simulations, validations with our software and we know now that with this theory, we can build the pyramid, the same pyramid as in Khufu in Ghiza with the same materials, the same tools, the same techniques, in the same time."
    Houdin began working full-time on the riddle eight years ago after a flash of intuition passed to him by his engineer father, and five years before actually visiting the site.
    He found that a frontal mile-long ramp would have used up as much stone as the pyramid, while being too steep near the top. He believes an external ramp was used only to supply the base.
    An external corkscrew ramp would have blocked the sight lines needed to build an accurate pyramid and been difficult to fix to the surface, while leaving little room to work.
    Houdin also claimed to have shed light on a second enigma surrounding the purpose of a Grand Gallery inside the pyramid.
    The Frenchman believes its tall, narrow shape suggests it accommodated a giant counter-weight to help haul five 60-tonne granite beams to their position above the King's Chamber. He thinks that no more than 4,000 people could have built the pyramid using these techniques rather than the 100,000 or so assigned by past historians to the task of burying the pharaoh.
    A quirky story.
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