Stone working technology

Apart from the incredible architecture of the three main pyramids, and the awsome megaliths of the Valley Temple, there are many interesting examples of the high technology used in machining stone thousands of years ago. The plateau itself is littered with rocks and cut stones of all shapes and sizes, and looking at some of these, it is difficult to imagine exactly how they were cut and shaped with mere "primative tools", as Egyptologists would have us believe. Yes, unbelievably this is their claim, that granite was shaped with copper tools!

Such assertions are of course complete nonsense, as we can see from two such stones shown below. We were actually looking for the first; it had been described by Chris Dunn in an article I had read 6 months previously, and I was keen to see it for myself. It is clear from the very first sight, that this stone has been machined by advanced tools - the contour of the main curved area blends with the vertical side and back in two other curved contours. The precision of the curves is uniform throughout and, as pointed out in the article, this piece must have been cut with a machine simultaneously using three axes of movement.

The second piece caught my eye because of the regularity of its shape, and the interesting sectioned grooves in its sides. As far as I can tell, this has been fashioned from a single piece of granite, which raises as many questions about the intricacy of its machining, as its original functionality or purpose.

It is worth pointing out that there are so many amazing features on and around the Giza plateau itself, and the preceding section has only been my attempt to condense what I have learned and seen of them in a limited space - there is more to the Necropolis than this. The final three pictures below are views of other features on the plateau which I haven't been able to include in any of the categorised sections so far.