Pyramids and mummies on National Geographic Channel
Image by Abe WORLD!!!! via Flickr
“Unlocking the Great Pyramid” (8 p.m. Sunday). So the Egyptians just used a giant ramp to cart those 2-ton stones up to the top, right? Actually, there’s no way that happened, despite what you saw in the movies.
In this program Nat Geo contributor Bob Brier teams up with French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, who in early 2007 announced he had figured out how the Egyptians got their rocky mountains so high. Using sophisticated software, he could show how workers carted those stones to a height of nearly 500 feet above ground.
Brier — who has been Houdin’s biggest champion in the English-speaking world — is an eager co-conspirator and an enthusiastic guide. He’s able to turn this seemingly dry scientific story into one of those whodunits where the detective is personally invested in solving the case.
Other ancient mysteries airing later in “Expedition Week” are the mummy caper “Mystery of the Screaming Man” (8 p.m. Friday) and “Herod’s Lost Tomb” (8 p.m. Nov. 23; yes, the “Week” is actually eight days).
Great Pyramid was on the verge of collapse during construction
Bob Brier, also known as Doctor Mummy, along with an architect and a team of software specialists, has determined that huge support beams inside the Great Pyramid at Giza cracked as final construction was under way 4,500 years ago.
The team used 3-D modeling software that measures stresses in buildings, cars and airliners and found that the pyramid cracked up when three things happened: One wall of King Khufu’s burial chamber settled, stone rafters in a room above the chamber slipped, and the height of the pyramid reached 392 feet.
The team found that the pyramid’s architect, Hemienu, cut a tunnel into a sealed space above the burial chamber to assess the damage and filled the cracks with plaster that would indicate if the cracks were widening. The ancient fix-it job worked, the beams held and the pyramid was complete.
Brier will present his findings at the Microsoft Innovation Management Forum in Redmond, Wash., on Tuesday.
