World’s oldest pyramid was built using hydraulic lift, suggests study

Researchers have suggested that the 4,600-year-old pyramid in Egypt was built using a type of hydraulic lift.

The landscape, waterways, and interior architecture of the Step Pyramid of Djoser all point to the hydraulic system, according to the researchers.

The prevailing theory, according to Heritage Daily, proposes that they employed rollers and ramps to move and place the impossibly heavy stones. After examining the first Egyptian pyramid, the Djoser in Saqqara, researchers found evidence that they might have used the hydraulic system, a much more sophisticated idea that has opened up a new area of research.

Mastery of hydraulics through canals for irrigation

“The Egyptians were famous for their pioneering and mastery of hydraulics through canals for irrigation purposes and barges to transport huge stones already,” according to study authors.

With that in mind, the funerary complex of King Djoser, about 37 acres, began to come to new life because how did they even “master” it to begin with?

French researchers investigated the watersheds in the area and might have figured out that the massive unidentified structure known as the Gisr el-Mudir was a check dam used to trap sediment and water.

This extremely advanced water management system as per LBV features a series of rock-carved compartments connected by a channel including a settling basin, a retention basin, and a purification system as per the study. This dam could have even created a manmade lake according to Popular Mechanics .

Some kind of hydraulic organization might have been present, which supports the knowledge of their skills in this area of engineering but no one knew that it existed this early.

After analyzing the Djoser’s internal structure from this vantage point, including its tunnels, they concluded that it supported their theory that a hydraulic elevation mechanism that functioned more like a volcano directed sediment-free water up an internal shaft to move the stones, which has never been reported before.

Furthermore, as per LGV , the water resources in the area at that time matched up with their estimates as to how much water power would have been necessary to build the pyramid.

The Egyptians might have been even more advanced than we thought

Egyptologists have suggested that everything from “ramps, cranes, winches, toggle lifts, hoists, pivots, or a combination of them” as per the study, but researchers have yet to prove the existence of any of them. However, some scholars call ancient Egypt an “early hydraulic civilization.” But very little cross-disciplinary research has been performed in archeology , so the role of water in the construction of pyramids has remained under-surveyed.

A potentially groundbreaking key has been turned, which might illuminate what the organization of the pyramid might have meant. The ancient Egyptians might have been even more advanced than we initially thought, which opens up new questions as to how early this kind of technology had been developed as well as new avenue for future research dedicated to investigating the use of hydraulics in their construction, according to Heritage Daily.

Where we thought archaically, that they built rollers and ramps, they might have been way ahead of the game. Transport the stones and lift them with water. Ingenious.