How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
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How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
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Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#2This is very cool to see. The main takeaways for me were:
1. It's easy to underestimate what is possible when you limit thinking to a short timescale. I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them.
Or conversely, it's easy to overestimate the difficulty of something if you are too constrained by thinking in terms of finishing it relatively quickly.
2. Building things does make it easier to build things - and conversely, not building things makes it harder. There is a lot of architectural stuff in our world today, particularly fine masonry and woodwork, that is still common because so much of it was made up through the 1930's or so, but which is actually quite difficult to produce today because most of the skilled labor and the industry that supported it is gone.
This also reminded me of an article about scientific glasswork, which is similarly dying out[1], and of course more familiar to the HN crowd we know about old technology that was once common and now is difficult to replicate or maintain.
Lots to think about.
1: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassb...
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#3This is very cool to see. The main takeaways for me were: 1. It's easy to underestimate what is possible when you limit thinking to a short timescale. I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. Or conversely, it's easy to overestimate the difficulty of someth…
> I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them.
That's mind-boggling. Why would building a cathedral/mosque/temple take longer than a lifetime (or half)?
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#4This is very cool to see. The main takeaways for me were: 1. It's easy to underestimate what is possible when you limit thinking to a short timescale. I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. Or conversely, it's easy to overestimate the difficulty of someth…
> I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. That's mind-boggling. Why would building a cathedral/mosque/temple take longer than a lifetime (or half)?
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#5This is very cool to see. The main takeaways for me were: 1. It's easy to underestimate what is possible when you limit thinking to a short timescale. I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. Or conversely, it's easy to overestimate the difficulty of someth…
> I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. That's mind-boggling. Why would building a cathedral/mosque/temple take longer than a lifetime (or half)?
Not an answer to your question, but the Sagrada Famila [1] began construction in 1882, and is projected to be completed around 2030. It's an immense (and beautiful) structure. Just want to point out that it's not just a matter of the buildings being built a long time ago; this kind of long-term construction is still happening today.
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. That's mind-boggling. Why would building a cathedral/mosque/temple take longer than a lifetime (or half)?
Not an answer to your question, but the Sagrada Famila [1] began construction in 1882, and is projected to be completed around 2030. It's an immense (and beautiful) structure. Just want to point out that it's not just a matter of the buildings being built a long time ago; this kind of long-term construction is still happening today.
I... just can't wrap my head around this. Is it that they actually take that long with enough people, or they have too few people working on them?
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#7This is great! Begs the next question - how efficiently did the Egyptian government organize labor?
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. That's mind-boggling. Why would building a cathedral/mosque/temple take longer than a lifetime (or half)?
https://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/notre-dam...
Ah, thanks for the pointer! I just Googled and got this explanation: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-it-take-nearly-200-years-to-bu...
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#9This is very cool to see. The main takeaways for me were: 1. It's easy to underestimate what is possible when you limit thinking to a short timescale. I think of the cathedrals, temples, mosques, etc. that have been built all over the world, where the people who started the work knew they wouldn't live to see it finished, but that didn't dissuade them. Or conversely, it's easy to overestimate the difficulty of someth…
There is a star trek episode where they encounter a civilization which has built a benevolent AI a long time ago and has since lost capabilities to do much more than give commands to the AI.
Our society has managed to write down some things like math for example so our knowledge as species won't be lost if mathematicians suddenly died. But it's harder to find permanent storage for the more skills based human activities like the woodworking you mention.
To give another example, the Saturn V rockets were built by a generation of metalworkers who had honed their skills in the manufacturing plants of world war 2. The plans for the rocket engines are still preserved but back then a plan was just a rough guideline. In the details, each single engine was hand-tailored to the individual rocket. Nowadays, stuff is far more automated and plans are highly precise. Thus Nasa couldn't just get the plans out of the cabinet and build new Saturn V rockets or even just put their engines into new rockets.
I wonder if we are better in preserving our heritage than we used to be. Which information about the manufacturing process of one of today's cars will be usable in 100 years? Will they be able to build computer chips like we did?
Re: How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid?
#10I'd be interested in seeing whether some of the new dating methods could be used to scientifically date the Pyramids. Because there's more than one reason to think it might be -a lot- older than 4,600 years ... an anecdotal number.
For one easy reason, you don't just build one from scratch without a lot of experience. A lot of artifacts of that period are -way- too impressive for the same reason. Where's the evidence for prior art of that calibre?
And when will the chemistry of the blocks be analyzed? Were they cut (how) or manufactured (how)? I haven't seen the book delineating these studies; if it doesn't exist, how long should the present fairy tales?