Archive -> October 25, 2006

Stones of the pyramids

When light danced on the multifaceted surface of the stone, it defracted into seven different bands of colors, which diffused into the ray of light. This ray of light, as stated before, could cut mountains. The majority of the stones used in the pyramids was limestone, from the immediate vicinity. Certains parts, such as the lining for the passages and chambers, required a better quality of limestone from mines at Tura, which is a certain kind of limestone on the eastern bank of the Nile, a little south of modern Cairo. Expeditions also went to Aswan for granite, and also to other specially selected mines. Most of the stones were mined near Cairo and floated across the river on barges at the time of flooding, when the water extended to the edge of the desert. From that point, the blocks were dragged on rollers up the slope to the plateau. Meanwhile, the architects fixed the exact position of the pyramid, generally built with the sides facing the four cardinal points, as in a tetrahedron with a 19.5° angle.

Excerpted from Science Of The Pyramids by Dr. Malachi Z. York