Description

Much has already been written on this subject, but a thorough study of that literature has shown the speaker that none of those publications treat the correlation of the various activities, such as the construction of the pyramid, the construction and demolition of the slipway, other transport, stone carving and transport by ship, in a systematic way, resulting in demonstrably incorrect results.
The largest pyramid is that of Cheops, who reigned from 2551 to 2528. An important aspect is the surprisingly large (but not constant) construction rate, namely 2.6 million m3 of limestone in about 20 years, i.e. on average about 50 m3 per hour or about 1 block of 1 m3 per minute. This means, that the production of building material and also other work had to be carefully coordinated accordingly to avoid delays. Moreover, to keep the total number of workers within limits, a flexible allocation of workers to the various activities was needed. Opinions among archaeologists still differ about the construction method used. However, drawings and reliefs do show that the Egyptians had levers and ropes at their disposal and that they used drag slopes for other constructions.
It turned out to be possible to incorporate all these aspects into a mathematical model in a physically sound way. Thereby, three different construction methods are compared, viz. methods using a straight slope, a spiral slope and levers, respectively. Starting from a limited number of basic data, this model can, among other things, determine the most obvious construction method and estimate the total number of workers required. All in all, one becomes impressed not only by the scale of the project, but equally by the organisational ability that was required to do so.
A simplified version, describing only the lever method, can be found on the internet: www.palarch.nl/category/egypt. In his talk, by the way, Prof De Haan will avoid the mathematical details as much as possible and add some things about the geographical and historical background

10.30 a.m. Reception with coffee
11.00 a.m. Lecture by prof. H.J. de Haan
11.45 Pause
12.15 Continuation of lecture with concluding discussion
12.45 End of meeting

Directions:
From motorway A13 Rotterdam or The Hague, exit Delft. Leave IKEA behind you. Go straight ahead at first traffic light, turn left at second (T-junction). Keep right and turn right at the next traffic lights (Mijnbouwstraat). After approx. 100 m, you will see the former mining engineering building on your right. There is some parking next to the building, and also on the service road of the Julianalaan opposite. Public transport via NS Delft Centraal, then bus 62, 80 or 81 (stop Michiel de Ruyterweg) or walk (approx. 20 min).

Speaker(s)

Speakers' background in brief
Education: physical engineer. Employment: Shell International Petroleum Company, followed after retirement by a part-time professorship of Petroleum extraction at TU Delft. His interest in the Egyptian pyramids was piqued during a visit to Egypt

Location

Science Centre, Mijnbouwstraat 120, Delft

Organiser

History of Technology

Histechnica

Name and contact details for information

Further information from L.A. Hissink at the e-mail address below.

hissinkla@planet.nl