The little pyramid that we built in 1991, with the Great Pyramid of Giza in the background.

The Great Pyramid is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. At 480 feet high, people have long wondered: how did they do it?

All they had to work with were standard masonry practices. These practices are the same today as they were 6,000 years ago.

With a team from NOVA, a science program on PBS, we set out to build a pyramid using only the tools and techniques that were available at that time. The result is shown to the left.

Click here to read the transcript of NOVA #1915M: This Old Pyramid

The PBS program NOVA has been closely following our work in understanding how the pyramids of Egypt were built. In a third attempt to raise a giant obelisk using my interpretation of ancient methods will take place in Massachusetts. See www.pbs.org./wgbh/nova/
egypt/dispatches/990827.html

NOVA Online covered the activities of the team in Egypt during March at: http://www.pbs.org./wgbh/nova/egypt/
They showed the project live online with interviews, photos, audio and video clips!

Here are some photos from along the way....

Pillars in the Great Hypostyle Hall at the Temple of Karnak.

A model of the extensive Karnak temple at Luxor, Egypt.

Obelisks at the Karnak Temple

Read about our modern attempts to duplicate these...

http://www.pbs.org./wgbh/nova/egypt/dispatches/990314.html

This Unfinished Obelisk is the big attraction here in Aswan...it would have been an 1100-ton solid granite needle, had it been completed.

The Egyptian people went to great expense of labor to carve out the surrounding channels using only rounded stone balls to pound the stone away.

In Ancient Egypt, obelisks--four-sided tapered shafts--were used to mark places of importance. Some of these monoliths weighed 450 tons, and were single-carved stones. How were they carved, moved, and raised?

Click here to find out about the Secrets of Lost Empires series.

Click here to read the transcript of NOVA #2405: Secrets of Lost Empires: Obelisks

The Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan from which we learned of the procedures used by the Ancient Egyptians.