For thousands of years, people have wondered how these monuments in Egypt were made.
The giant pyramids in Egypt are confusing. How could people build giant stone structures without modern equipment? Theories from massive slave armies to aliens have abounded over the years. But scientists may finally have solved the mystery with one word:
Ramps.
Oh I'm sorry, were you expecting something more exciting? Well, I was. Alas, the simplest explanations are often the best. Roland Enmarch, an Egyptologist at the University of Liverpool, went on an expedition to document some ancient Egyptian inscriptions. You can imagined how surprised he and his collegeues were to uncover a 4,500-year-old ramp dating back to the Great Pyramid days.
"We think this could significantly change the theories about how the workers who built the monument were able to transport such large blocks of stone to great heights," wrote Enmarch. "It could even provide evidence that pulleys were invented hundreds of years earlier than previously documented."
Two sets of stairs lining the ramp and a bunch of wooding posts cut into holes in the wall would have helped two teams of workers haul alabastor blocks up the pyramid, no aliens necesary. (Though I'm not ruling out slave armies quite yet. Pretty sure nobody hauls alabaster rocks for fun.)
Although really, this explanation is more impressive than aliens. Human ingenuity apparently knows no bounds. People figured out how to make an impossible structure without the energy sources modern people consider so necessary. Imagine what we could do if we still focused on inventing technologies that didn't require electricity.
For thousands of years, people have wondered how these monuments in Egypt were made.
