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I figured the pyramids were just piles of rock until I compared Giza to the Step Pyramid at Saqqara
For about 20 years I brushed off the whole pyramid thing as nothing special, just big stacks of stone built by people with too much time. Two weeks ago I pulled up side by side photos of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and the Great Pyramid at Giza, and the jump in how they were built hit me hard. The Step Pyramid is layered tiers, basically stacked boxes, while Giza has those huge smooth casing stones cut and fit with a level of planning that does not look like a first try at anything. Now I keep wondering if there is an older site out there that shows the middle step between those two, because the gap seems awful big to me. Has anyone run into a dig report that actually tries to explain that leap?
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jakewhite1d ago
Check out the casing stones still left at the top of the Khufu pyramid and then look at how the Step Pyramid's outer layer was built, because that is where the real jump hides. The Step Pyramid got a skin of fine limestone added later to make it look smooth, but it was still sitting on a core of small stacked blocks. Giza was planned from day one as a true pyramid with big blocks locked together the whole way through, not a stack that got dressed up after. That tells me the change was not just about size, it was about building the thing as one solid piece from the start. Dig reports keep arguing about which site came first, but the real question is who figured out you could design the whole shape up front instead of adding to it. Look at Meidum too, that one sits right in the messy middle and nobody wants to touch it because it fell apart.
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