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Egyptian pyramid may have been built using a water-powered elevator

Did the Step Pyramid of Djoser include a hydraulic lift?

Peter Brown / Alamy

The construction of ancient Egypt’s oldest known pyramid may have benefited from a water elevator capable of lifting 50 to 100 tonnes of stones at a time.

The suggestion draws upon the fact that the Step Pyramid of Djoser – built 4500 years ago as the burial place for an Egyptian pharaoh as part of the Saqqara necropolis site – is near two dry channels, probably once active waterways. These could have supplied rainfall runoff and Nile river water to the pyramid construction site, where…


Source: Humans - newscientist.com

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