Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branch of the Nile

Re:Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branc... by ch4s3 on Thursday May 16, 2024 @01:45PM (#40381132)

"People" didn't lost the ability to build giant megalithic structures and indeed pyramid construction flourished in the Americas until about 600 years ago. The Egyptians stopped building pyramids because it took decades, was insanely expensive, and gave grave robbers an obvious target. From an engineering perspective, ancient people built more complicated things than the pyramids, just not as tall. Why should height be the sole measure of engineering prowess? Consider the coffered dome of the Roman Pantheon.

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Re:Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branc... by DiggyJohnson on Thursday May 16, 2024 @03:02PM (#40381880)

For what it’s worth, it’s the height and volume of the pyramids that impresses me. A skinny skyscraper twice as tall but 1/64th the surface area

Obviously we could build bigger if we wanted. I literally work in one of the biggest buildings in the US by volume and it is impressive on a daily basis. But just because I know we are capable of more doesn’t mean the accomplishment of actually doing the world and constructing the pyramids isn’t amazing. Besides the pantheon, what other ancient or modern projects measure up?

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Re:Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branc... by AlotOfReading on Thursday May 16, 2024 @08:28PM (#40385057)

Feel free to look at the outline comparison on Wikipedia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Comparis...

The pyramid of Cholula (larger by volume), the Luxor hotel (smaller, but substantially more useful), and Ryugyong hotel (hobbled by the country building it) are all plausibly comparable projects.

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Re:Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branc... by masklinn on Friday May 17, 2024 @12:24AM (#40386372)

> For what it’s worth, it’s the height and volume of the pyramids that impresses me. A skinny skyscraper twice as tall but 1/64th the surface area

Why are you impressed by unusable volume? Do spoil tips awe you?

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Re:Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branc... by probably_wrong on Friday May 17, 2024 @06:44AM (#40388438)

There's something inherently impressive about large things.

If you set a 12,600 tonnes concrete cylinder in the middle of a city, eventually someone will give up trying to remove it and turn it into a historical monument instead: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerbelastungsk%C3%B6rper

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Re:Egypt's Pyramids May Have Been Built on a Long-Lost Branc... by DiggyJohnson on Friday May 17, 2024 @08:44AM (#40389279)

Sorry I didn’t finish that sentence somehow. But yes to your first question.

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