The Egyptians didn’t use copper chisels for working stone - stone chisels worked better (effectively a stone version of modern ceramic (tungsten carbide) tipped tools), along with garnet covered copper and bone saws.
Theres different estimates, but I've read 1 million cubic meters of stone for Hadrians Wall, and 2.3 million cubic meters of stone for the Great Pyramid IIRC.
The difficult thing about building a pyramid is not so much to source a lot of stone, but to build it up to great height while at the same time maintaining geometrical precision. And that's before we start talking about designing and constructing all the interior chambers and passages. Building a wall is child's play in comparison.
@@Tom_QuixoteI would argue that building a +100km long aqueduct requires a lot more complex engineering. Would be interesting to see some numbers about those..
I have no need for an office chair, but I watched the entire sponsor pitch because the chapter name was "I talk about office chairs." Some channels try to pull the wool over your eyes with euphemistic chapter titles for ad spots, but the doc is delightfully honest.
Spending your entire life and thousands of workers building the largest structure on earth for one single person when they're not living anymore would be considered megalomaniacal for any responsible Roman
Tbf most of Rome's megaprojects were things that were useful to the public like aqueducts, roads and amphitheatres. They did have their fair share of obscenely ostentatious villas, but at least people get to enjoy those when they're alive lol.
This was a fun video. It's interesting that only the pharaohs of the largest two pyramids had poor reputations owing to their construction by the time of Greece and Rome. I'm sure there's a lot ancient Rome can teach us about ancient Egypt and the social order around monuments like the pyramids.
@@acjdz Saying the Romans can't shape or move rocks is silly. They have structures in various parts of their Empire using rocks that big. There pyramids are a large pile of stones, the only question thus would be if they could be bothered to expend the vast amount of treasure it would take to build one thus.
This is why the claims by some people in the media and online that the Egyptians didn't build the pyramids because the Old Kingdom Egyptians were too "primitive" to have built them make no sense. The Romans, Greeks, and later New Kingdom Egyptians were carving and moving stone blocks that were much bigger than the stones found in the Great Pyramids at Giza. Their structures were just as sophisticated if not more so than the Great Pyramids of Giza, and they had access to similar tools - cranes, levers, pulleys, chisels, hammers, etc. The Obelisks of the New Kingdom use stones that are 200-500+ tons, which are far bigger than the 1-5 ton blocks that make up most of the Great Pyramids (which has a few stone blocks reaching a max of 50-60 tons). The Greeks and Romans were also using 50-60 ton blocks to build the colloseum and acropolis, and the Romans were capable of carving and moving 500+ ton stone blocks. The New Kingdom Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. had the skills and technology to build the great pyramids but didn't have the reason or political will or (in the case of Greeks) resources to do so.
I love how the wide angle lens you use 0:10 makes you look gigantic in relation to the people and even the Great Pyramid in the background (the exaggeration of the foreground is a well-known effect of wide angle lenses), sort of like “Let’s look as monumental as possible in covering this topic.”
@@averysahara8852 Well, I’m sure that contributes to the effect-but I think the wide angle lens contributes to it as well. (I’m no lens expert, though.)
The Victorians actually came close to building one. There was a slightly unhinged plan to build the Metropolitan Sepulchre, a 90 storey granite pyramid in Primrose Hill, with space for 5 million bodies. There were a lot of bodies in Victorian london. In the end they built cemeteries around the city - and even a necropolis railway to serve one of them. I'm pretty sure a 90 storey granite pyramid full of deceased Victorians would've become one of the seven eyesores of the world, so probably for the best they gave up on the idea.
"Hmmm, Victorian London is already polluted, filthy, and everything stinks. There's an oppressive and grim atmosphere about everything. Now how can we make that _much, much worse?"_
At proposed 500m height, it would still be by far the tallest building in London, and unbeaten in the world until the 2004 Taipei 101. In reality I don't think it was technically possilbe to build it in concrete and/or stone.
I've never considered a Roman built pyramid, but I have wondered what a pyramid would be like inside if large arches had been used; a huge enclosed space would have been very impressive.
@@vonroretz3307 That's what condemned much of the "newer" pyramids. Middle kingdom piramids were quite large, but their internal was made of less solid material, to speed up construction, and they relied on the outer white casing to protect it. Once stripped, in middle age, they rapidly decayed.
@@pierren___ yeah, farther south by the Nile, they had some pretty elaborate underground tombs. Didnt quite cover the mountainsides with bling, but they did have some pretty neat tunnels
What's even more remarkable than the Pyramid of Giza behind Garrett is that no local Egyptian "guides" are hassling him to be paid to stand in front of their pyramid.
I've given this some though, and I'm pretty sure they'd start at the bottom and then pile stones up. I don't think going top-down would have been very easy.
“No Roman Emperor, however, was buried in a pyramid” - they were buried in enormous cones, however. The Mausoleums of Augustus, Hadrian, and Severus Alexander were all enormous conical structures that rivaled the average Egyptian pyramid in scale. The Mausoleum of Augustus had a diameter of 300 feet and a height of 140 feet. The Mausoleum of Hadrian (now the Castel Sant'Angelo) has a square base of 300 feet on a side. It has a stone core with a giant internal spiral ramp. The conical superstructure rose to a height of 165 feet. The Mausoleum of Severus Alexander (now called the Monte del Grano) was somewhat smaller but sill massive with a large stone and concrete rotunda at its center.
@@perceivedvelocity9914 - Large funerary monuments were very Roman, though. Every Roman city has a substantial necropolis. There are numerous other large funerary monuments along the Via Appia.
I like this video a lot, partly because I think it is a good answer to that question people who don’t think the Egyptians built the pyramids always have: ‘Why haven’t we built one since?’ Well, we could. It just wasn’t one of the aspects of any culture other than the Egyptian culture. And that’s what’s cool about the pyramids, they’re fascinating because they came from a unique moment in history.
@@intractablemaskvpmGy And now it's a bug-infested dump known among Vegas locals mostly as a place where people from all over come to unalive themselves.
Egyptians built at least 118 pyramids. Some of the ones built during middle kingdom (when the old kingdom pyramids were already "ancient") rivaled in dimension with the old kingdom ones. They are mostly in ruin because the Egyptians learnt to speed-up construction. The internal of middle kingdom pyramids was made of less solid material, and they relied on the outer white casing to protect it. Once the white casing was stripped, in middle age, they rapidly decayed.
You don't need the same accuracy in comparison. Aqueducts mainly cosisted of underground tunneling (80-90%) which again were split up into 5 mile stretches, which were accurate enough only to connect to the next part of the aqueduct with tolerances (in height) of up to a meter.
@N.Eismann The Great Pyramid base inaccuracy projected over 5 miles would be approx 4 meters. What is really impressive tho is how you managed to make the 10-20km of each 100km aqueduct sound unimpressive.
@@itsnot_stupid_ifitworksI studied the methods employed by the Romans to built aqueducts in depth. Yes, it was ingenious, but other than that pretty straight forward. Put up three t shaped sticks into the ground and establish the slope by eyesight. Rinse and repeat. I find it fascinating though that you find the engineering challenges of a singular,super heavy structure (as much mass as the hoover dam) comparable to a series of medium sized building projects (making a tunnel of about 1,20m height out of bricks and a small concrete liner).
@@N.Eismann Ah yes. I see now. The great pyramid is impossibly precise precisionist precision crowd, doing extensive research, has arrived. soooo everything the Romans did we have to pretend was easy. Got it.
@@N.Eismann Ah yes. I see now. The great pyramid is impossibly precise precisionist precision crowd, doing extensive research, has arrived. soooo everything the Romans did we have to pretend was easy. Got it.
I love Rome but i think there is a civilization much more ancient that built the pyramids. Egyptians definitely seem like the likely builders but it's very odd that there is no hyroglyphic documentation of what one could call their greatest achievmant as a people.
Dude, now I’m imagining a Roman pyramid in ruins: with the marble taken for lime and others for building projects, you’d see a pyramid with crumbling vaults all over the place. Depending on how many earthquakes there are it could last a long time:)
There's no need to speculate, the Romans DID build a couple pyramids courtesy of the Egypt craze under Augustus and the people buried in them having wills specifying how they were to be buried on pain of losing the inheritance. And while one of the pyramids was demolished by a Pope because it was in the way of an urban road remodeling, the Pyramid of Cestius is still around in all its concrete glory, embedded in the walls and in front of the rapid transit station Piramide (meaning, of course, pyramid).
@Helperbot-2000 And THAT is why the Pope now rules only a hill. Well, it's more complicated than that, but the short version is that during Italian unification the Papacy was offered an important place in the new state (leaving Rome out was out of the question, you can't have Italy without Rome), Pope Pius IX refused every time and made repeated provocations because the French covered him, and the last one was swiftly followed by the French recalling their garrison to fight in the French-Prussian War and then removing the treaty entirely, leading to the Italian army taking Rome.
@Helperbot-2000 He did. And caused a lot of trouble for both Italy and his own successor until the Lateran Treaties established Vatican City and that Rome was lawfully part of Italy. It was big enough a headache that after the fall of Fascism they were incorporated in the Constitution, as for once Mussolini had solved an actual problem. But Pius IX's attitude is the same that got the other pyramid destroyed.
We know Romans were able to cut stone as precisely as the stones from the pyramid and had the tools to do so and we know they could move stones as heavy as almost 60 tons (top stone of the trajan's column, some say they also moved the over 1000 ton stones from Baalbek but I doubt that), there's no additional knowledge that's necessary to build a pyramid. There are certainly some unanswered questions left on how bronze age Egyptians did it, but Romans over 2000 years later with their tools and architectural abilities would've definitely been able to replicate that it they wanted to.
8:58 Man, it would be awesome to have a movie about Zenobi. That lady litersly took Egypt from the romans and was one of the most brilliant rulers of Ancient Middle East
You just know some bunch of legionaries on deployment to Egypt that took a look at the things and said, "Man, I wonder what would happen if Caesar told us to build one for him..." "Dudicus, do not even joke! I'm not spending the next twenty years as a bricklayer! I'd sooner be posted to the Scottish border!"
Was hoping for some specific projections on supply chain, labour involved and construction time/cost estimates, and got this jibberish instead. Also, son - not a single pharaoh was buried in a pyramid, just so you know.
Comparing the construction of a pyramid to building a wall is an unfair comparison. The real challenge in constructing a pyramid lies not in sourcing a large quantity of stone, but in raising it to great heights while maintaining precise geometric accuracy. And that's even before addressing the design and construction of all the interior chambers and passageways.
this message is for the content creator...have you ever thought about doing a video on Roman military construction? for example: when romans conducted a seige they built seige towers and ramps for troops to clear the city walls. other battles required miles of walls, even entire garrisons. i was always amazed by the speed and scale of battlefield construction projects. if memory serves, in one battle they built a 27 mile wall in a matter of a few weeks. i realize i cant wrap my mind around what could be accomplished with 30-40,000 men. but they were career soldiers, how did they know how to build complex structures? ive searched for this specific topic on this platform, and ive looked for books. i cant find any sources on this specific subject. i may need to pull the data bit by bit from books on their military and campaigns
As a self-proclaimed chair connoisseur, I must express my dismay at seeing you endorse such a gimmicky office chair. A man of your intellectual caliber deserves nothing less than the pinnacle of ergonomic luxury-a top-tier Herman Miller masterpiece for your esteemed posterior.
@@r3conwoo maybe for you, but most people (even in the west) don't make enough money to pay for such an overpriced chair, all for a negligible increase in comfort. Those chairs are ironically a symbol of decadence, considering the subject of this video. Face it, you in your overpriced reddit chair is the modern version of romans partying while their empire falls apart.
If you watch all the different online platforms you can find second hand ones very cheap. When I was in college my roommate got their top of the line chair for some very small fraction of the retail price and it was essentially brand new. There’s always some office getting remodeled and replacing the chairs from their nearly never used conference rooms. I don’t think it took him even a week to find one that cheap, but I remember there were tons available at less than 50% retail, which is still outrageous, but much better than full price
The Antikythera mechanism was already a portable version. A bigger, fixed, equivalent had been built by Archimedes of Syracuse two centuries before,and described by Roman sources.
@@Faustobellissimo Yeah. The Antikythera mechanism is a curious case. As long as Roman sources, like Cicero, DESCRIBED those mechanisms, none found it strange. As soon as the actual mechanism described had been found, it was all a sequel of "IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE!"
It's true that we don't know the exact method that the Egyptians used (like internal ramp, external ramp, spiral ramp etc.) and how they in the bronze age were able to build it with their available tools in a relatively short amount of time but that doesn't mean that Romans wouldn't have been able to replicate it. They were able to cut stones as precisely as the ones in the pyramid and we have definitive evidence they could move stones that are about 60 tons, probably more too, and they built way more complex monuments than that so in theory they would've definitely been able to built a pyramid.
Could they have? Probably? Would they have? Absolutely not. At least not to that scale for just a largely ceremonial monument. It wouldn't be practical on a logistical level nor in a financial sense.
@@N.Eismann We have all the tools and technology to build more of them with a larger size. And how many are we building at the moment? 0, because it makes no sense.
This is why the claims by some people in the media and online that the Egyptians didn't build the pyramids because the Old Kingdom Egyptians were too "primitive" to have built them make no sense. The Romans, Greeks, and later New Kingdom Egyptians were carving and moving stone blocks that were much bigger than the stones found in the Great Pyramids at Giza. Their structures were just as sophisticated if not more so than the Great Pyramids of Giza, and they had access to similar tools - cranes, levers, pulleys, chisels, hammers, etc. The Obelisks of the New Kingdom use stones that are 200-500+ tons, which are far bigger than the 1-5 ton blocks that make up most of the Great Pyramids (which has a few stone blocks reaching a max of 50-60 tons). The Greeks and Romans were also using 50-60 ton blocks to build the colloseum and acropolis, and the Romans were capable of carving and moving 500+ ton stone blocks. The New Kingdom Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. had the skills and technology to build the great pyramids but didn't have the reason or political will or (in the case of Greeks) resources to do so.
While the bigger stones being used at all at any time is surely impressive I think you glossed over the fact of specifically where in the great pyramid the heaviest stones are. Above the kings chamber. So not only were these gigantic stones being used, they were also at least 160ft off the ground
There are a lot of examples were hunter gatherer tribes 1000's of years before the great pyramids moved and stacked up to 40-50 ton blocks. Only the heaviest stones are hard to explain since the physical capabilities of wood and copper aren't good enough for such tasks
@@85ddrummer The heaviest stones in the pyramids were 50-60 tons being placed above the king's chambers is impressive, but the actual height of the king's chamber is around 40 feet tall. This means it is really only ~40 feet above a base/floor level in the lower-middle of the pyramid. And even if we take into account the king's chamber stones' ~140 feet overall elevation in comparison to the surrounding land, these feats are not more impressive than what the later Egyptian, Roman, etc. civilizations achieved.
@@85ddrummer For example, the Roman Pantheon's ceiling is a giant dome composed of 4,500-5,000 tons of stone and unreinforced concrete. The height of the Pantheon's ceiling from the floor to the Oculus opening is ~140 feet. The New Kingdom Egyptians built giant barges to transport 200-500+ ton obelisks hundreds of miles, and the Romans also built giant barges to steal Egyptian obelisks and transport them to Rome (eg. the 400+ ton Lateran Obelisk transported to Rome that was originally around 120 feet tall).
@@Intranetusa I just think if we go by the accepted timeline of construction for both its leaps and bounds more impressive with the granite blocks in the kings chamber. Especially without the use of adhesive mortar like concrete. Don’t get me wrong the Pantheon is impressive too
Romans and the Greeks were far more practical than the ancient Egyptians - they wouldn't have even tried - all their buildings (Romans) were largely for utilitarian use and not for mere show and grandiosity that the pyramids seem to have been. Then there were geographic and logistical limitations like the Egyptians having the Nile and not only was it extremely life giving but provided a super highway with which all the stone could be transported. The rhythms of the year in Egypt allowed for labor to be used during off seasons. Even China was far more utilitarian than Egypt - the Great Wall being a far greater undertaking than the pyramids but its aim was protection and functionality. Egyptian culture is quite unique because of the geography!
Uhh, what practical purpose do the many statues across Rome (esp ones like the Colossos of Nero), or the victory arches, or their massive temples, or palaces, serve?
@@leonardo.1024 Much smaller dimensions, much more limited scope - the statue of Nero was diminutive compared to the massive statues like the ones of Ramses II at Abu Simbel carved out of the rock -remember the ones that had to be shifted because of the Nasser dam?? Arguably the biggest Roman construction was the Colosseum that had a strictly functional purpose - Roman temples, even the biggest, were small fry compared to the massive temple at Karnak (Luxor) one of the largest religious buildings ever. The most impressive Roman achievements were roads, Hadrian's wall in England, the aqueducts like the Pont du Gard and Segovia aqueduct, the bridges like the ones built across the Danube and other great streams. All completely functional enterprises.
If they did, then you would have heard about it in their records. Not only that, but the same architecture would be seen wherever Rome conquered. For example, London still has ruminants of Roman architecture. No doubt a great conquering nation built the pyramids, because there were many throughout the world; but each of them are all designed differently. It almost looks like the particular architect of these pyramids is a different person then the rest.
The Romans were too advanced to make pyramids. A pyramid is the easiest possible construction to make therefor a lot of primitive civilisations around the world build them. Give a 6month old kid 5 blocks and he will build a pyramid because stacking 3 blocks on top of each other is too hard.
So true, emporers would never be so frivolous as to build a pyramid. They just burned city blocks to build their pleasure palaces and created monumental artificial lakes so that they had somewhere to float their 2 mega barges. 😂
being considered megalomaniacal did not stop Nero from building the Domus Aureus. and he would be my first pick to have built a rival to the great pyramid, had he decided not to have his secretary do him in.
I don’t understand the initial concept, why would an emperor build it in Egypt next to the originals instead of in Rome? And they would probably dedicate it to Jupiter or Rome personified instead of the emperor, so it would be less likely to be seen as tyrannical.
@derrickstorm6976 Today on How They Do It : Plumbuses. Everyone has a plumbus in their home. First they take the dingle bop and they smooth it out with a bunch of schleem. The schleem is then...repurposed for later batches. They take the dingle bop and they push it through the grumbo, where the fleeb is rubbed against it. It's important that the fleeb is rubbed, becasue the fleeb has all the fleeb juice. Then, a schlami shows up, and he rubs it...and spits on it. They cut the fleeb. There's several hizzards in the way. The blamfs rub against the chumbles, and the...plubis, and grumbo are shaved away. That leaves you with...a regular old plumbus. "I always wondered how uh...plumbuses got made."
Without watching the video, i agree with the central premise. Record keeping back then was sketchy st best, with no optical discs. The original structures may have been dismantled and rebuilt by the romans, a strong empire.
Because you can build entire cities across entire countries, for the amount of of resources and time required to build such a thing… and it would offer almost nothing to the Roman in his life-time, while it was being constructed.
this seems like a no brainer, like why would anyone move millions of pounds of stone for a giant triangle with the interior space of an apartment in New York?
Use the code C730 to get $30 off the C7 Max ergonomic chair: bit.ly/4ijH5wv
Face reveal?
@@mrcat5508 already had it
The Egyptians didn’t use copper chisels for working stone - stone chisels worked better (effectively a stone version of modern ceramic (tungsten carbide) tipped tools), along with garnet covered copper and bone saws.
That chair isn’t good
@@jjtt248 Why would you? This channel is great
It's wild that those Romans were closer to us in time than they were to the building of the pyramids
They too thought they were ancient, it’s mind boggling
Yeah that comes from the saying that cleopatra was closer to modern days than anicent egpyt which is crazy
Here's one interesting comparison:
The volume of Hadrians wall is about half the volume of the greatbpyramid.
please show the data.
@@shriekingbushpigshriekingIt’s 5th class math
Theres different estimates, but I've read 1 million cubic meters of stone for Hadrians Wall, and 2.3 million cubic meters of stone for the Great Pyramid IIRC.
The difficult thing about building a pyramid is not so much to source a lot of stone, but to build it up to great height while at the same time maintaining geometrical precision. And that's before we start talking about designing and constructing all the interior chambers and passages. Building a wall is child's play in comparison.
@@Tom_QuixoteI would argue that building a +100km long aqueduct requires a lot more complex engineering.
Would be interesting to see some numbers about those..
I have no need for an office chair, but I watched the entire sponsor pitch because the chapter name was "I talk about office chairs." Some channels try to pull the wool over your eyes with euphemistic chapter titles for ad spots, but the doc is delightfully honest.
I cracked up when I heard a Roman describe absolutely anything as "megalomaniacal"
Since most Romans weren't megalomaniacs..
Generalizing is fun. Inaccurate, but fun.
Spending your entire life and thousands of workers building the largest structure on earth for one single person when they're not living anymore would be considered megalomaniacal for any responsible Roman
...says an American... 😂
Tbf most of Rome's megaprojects were things that were useful to the public like aqueducts, roads and amphitheatres. They did have their fair share of obscenely ostentatious villas, but at least people get to enjoy those when they're alive lol.
This was a fun video. It's interesting that only the pharaohs of the largest two pyramids had poor reputations owing to their construction by the time of Greece and Rome. I'm sure there's a lot ancient Rome can teach us about ancient Egypt and the social order around monuments like the pyramids.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks again for your suggestions on the script.
The Roman’s couldn’t build the pyramids the Ancient Egyptians were on another level of advanced
Unsung legendary collaboration right here
@@acjdz Saying the Romans can't shape or move rocks is silly. They have structures in various parts of their Empire using rocks that big.
There pyramids are a large pile of stones, the only question thus would be if they could be bothered to expend the vast amount of treasure it would take to build one thus.
This is why the claims by some people in the media and online that the Egyptians didn't build the pyramids because the Old Kingdom Egyptians were too "primitive" to have built them make no sense. The Romans, Greeks, and later New Kingdom Egyptians were carving and moving stone blocks that were much bigger than the stones found in the Great Pyramids at Giza. Their structures were just as sophisticated if not more so than the Great Pyramids of Giza, and they had access to similar tools - cranes, levers, pulleys, chisels, hammers, etc. The Obelisks of the New Kingdom use stones that are 200-500+ tons, which are far bigger than the 1-5 ton blocks that make up most of the Great Pyramids (which has a few stone blocks reaching a max of 50-60 tons). The Greeks and Romans were also using 50-60 ton blocks to build the colloseum and acropolis, and the Romans were capable of carving and moving 500+ ton stone blocks. The New Kingdom Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. had the skills and technology to build the great pyramids but didn't have the reason or political will or (in the case of Greeks) resources to do so.
I love how the wide angle lens you use 0:10 makes you look gigantic in relation to the people and even the Great Pyramid in the background (the exaggeration of the foreground is a well-known effect of wide angle lenses), sort of like “Let’s look as monumental as possible in covering this topic.”
That’s just the well known effect of forced perspective, IE something close to the viewer looks larger.
@@averysahara8852 Well, I’m sure that contributes to the effect-but I think the wide angle lens contributes to it as well. (I’m no lens expert, though.)
I was more focused on the chick in the background.
@ well I am a lens expert and I’ll tell you it is the wide angle that contributes to the forced perspective not the other way around
It is monumental. I suggest visiting it if you can afford it.
The Victorians actually came close to building one. There was a slightly unhinged plan to build the Metropolitan Sepulchre, a 90 storey granite pyramid in Primrose Hill, with space for 5 million bodies. There were a lot of bodies in Victorian london. In the end they built cemeteries around the city - and even a necropolis railway to serve one of them. I'm pretty sure a 90 storey granite pyramid full of deceased Victorians would've become one of the seven eyesores of the world, so probably for the best they gave up on the idea.
You seem to believe the "Victorians" were some kind of hivelike monomind, like ants or bees.
And then there would be the smell
And then there would be the ooze that comes out when it rains
"Hmmm, Victorian London is already polluted, filthy, and everything stinks. There's an oppressive and grim atmosphere about everything. Now how can we make that _much, much worse?"_
At proposed 500m height, it would still be by far the tallest building in London, and unbeaten in the world until the 2004 Taipei 101.
In reality I don't think it was technically possilbe to build it in concrete and/or stone.
The Romans thought about taking on the pyramids, but it would have been a pointless endeavor.
Nice one!!! 😂😂😂 Technically one obvious point, the top one.
Pozdrav za Njegosa!
Why pointless?
@@SF-eo6xf the capstone was already gone so there's just no point. No actual point at all.
I've never considered a Roman built pyramid, but I have wondered what a pyramid would be like inside if large arches had been used; a huge enclosed space would have been very impressive.
I'm surprised the Romans didn't just carve "S.P.Q.R" on the Great Pyramid when they conquered Egypt.
they didn't usually desecrate monuments or artifacts, they took plenty of em but why desecrate what would then be theirs
They could of, as the outer white casing was only stripped off after the Arabs arrived Post 7th century A.D.
@@vonroretz3307 That's what condemned much of the "newer" pyramids. Middle kingdom piramids were quite large, but their internal was made of less solid material, to speed up construction, and they relied on the outer white casing to protect it. Once stripped, in middle age, they rapidly decayed.
Unlike Islam which burned every book they found😮
No, there is graffiti.
Step 1 : carve a mountain
2 : dig a tunnel and a room
3 : cover the mount with sculpted rocks
4 : enjoy
That's a great plan until you realise there are no mountains in your kingdom.
@@Tom_QuixoteThis is quite similar to how the Egyptian did things when the pyramids weren't in vogue
@@Sabrowsky really ? Lmao
@@pierren___ yeah, farther south by the Nile, they had some pretty elaborate underground tombs. Didnt quite cover the mountainsides with bling, but they did have some pretty neat tunnels
@Sabrowsky you mean those nubian pyramids ?? I didnt know
HFG brought me here. Fantastic video. I can’t wait to binge
What's even more remarkable than the Pyramid of Giza behind Garrett is that no local Egyptian "guides" are hassling him to be paid to stand in front of their pyramid.
I've given this some though, and I'm pretty sure they'd start at the bottom and then pile stones up. I don't think going top-down would have been very easy.
It would be possible if you started from a pyramid shaped natural mountain...
Toldinstone x history for GRANITE when?
OH YES PLEASE!❤👍
We Love your work! We've been watching for a very long time. Thank you for adding a bright and thoughtful addition to our lives with your videos.
“No Roman Emperor, however, was buried in a pyramid” - they were buried in enormous cones, however.
The Mausoleums of Augustus, Hadrian, and Severus Alexander were all enormous conical structures that rivaled the average Egyptian pyramid in scale.
The Mausoleum of Augustus had a diameter of 300 feet and a height of 140 feet. The Mausoleum of Hadrian (now the Castel Sant'Angelo) has a square base of 300 feet on a side. It has a stone core with a giant internal spiral ramp. The conical superstructure rose to a height of 165 feet.
The Mausoleum of Severus Alexander (now called the Monte del Grano) was somewhat smaller but sill massive with a large stone and concrete rotunda at its center.
That's all true but a pyramid isn't Roman and being Roman is the most important thing. Culture is a powerful force.
I think there are some tower constructions as well.
@@crakkbone - The trophies of Augustus and Trajan also come to mind.
@@perceivedvelocity9914Nicely put, and most importantly, accurate. Thank you.
@@perceivedvelocity9914 - Large funerary monuments were very Roman, though. Every Roman city has a substantial necropolis. There are numerous other large funerary monuments along the Via Appia.
An interesting hypothetical. Very enjoyable, Dr. Ryan.
You my favorite TH-camr...Always enjoyable videos. Thank you !
As always, this was fascinating and unique. Thank you!
Last sentence hit hard somehow. Great video!
I was thinking about History For Granite through the whole video and then boom name drop at the end, fantastic.
Forget the chair. Can we talk about Garrett's houseplant collection? Superb
Congratulations. Good video.
You mentioned History for Granite. So I subscribed to your channel .😊
I like this video a lot, partly because I think it is a good answer to that question people who don’t think the Egyptians built the pyramids always have: ‘Why haven’t we built one since?’
Well, we could. It just wasn’t one of the aspects of any culture other than the Egyptian culture. And that’s what’s cool about the pyramids, they’re fascinating because they came from a unique moment in history.
Ah. The Luxor in Las Vegas. Very Impressive. Except we did it our way
@@intractablemaskvpmGy And now it's a bug-infested dump known among Vegas locals mostly as a place where people from all over come to unalive themselves.
So one _has_ been built recently. Question dismissed.
Egyptians built at least 118 pyramids. Some of the ones built during middle kingdom (when the old kingdom pyramids were already "ancient") rivaled in dimension with the old kingdom ones.
They are mostly in ruin because the Egyptians learnt to speed-up construction. The internal of middle kingdom pyramids was made of less solid material, and they relied on the outer white casing to protect it. Once the white casing was stripped, in middle age, they rapidly decayed.
There are pyramids across the planet.
I really dig those hypothetical situation. A possible future video: How could the Romans reach industrialization?
I think he already did that
What an interesting and engaging video. Thank you for sharing!
that chair actually looks pretty nice
Multiple Roman aquaducts are around 100 km long and a couple 270km so ya they could've made one if they felt like it
You don't need the same accuracy in comparison. Aqueducts mainly cosisted of underground tunneling (80-90%) which again were split up into 5 mile stretches, which were accurate enough only to connect to the next part of the aqueduct with tolerances (in height) of up to a meter.
@N.Eismann The Great Pyramid base inaccuracy projected over 5 miles would be approx 4 meters.
What is really impressive tho is how you managed to make the 10-20km of each 100km aqueduct sound unimpressive.
@@itsnot_stupid_ifitworksI studied the methods employed by the Romans to built aqueducts in depth. Yes, it was ingenious, but other than that pretty straight forward. Put up three t shaped sticks into the ground and establish the slope by eyesight. Rinse and repeat. I find it fascinating though that you find the engineering challenges of a singular,super heavy structure (as much mass as the hoover dam) comparable to a series of medium sized building projects (making a tunnel of about 1,20m height out of bricks and a small concrete liner).
@@N.Eismann Ah yes. I see now. The great pyramid is impossibly precise precisionist precision crowd, doing extensive research, has arrived. soooo everything the Romans did we have to pretend was easy. Got it.
@@N.Eismann Ah yes. I see now. The great pyramid is impossibly precise precisionist precision crowd, doing extensive research, has arrived. soooo everything the Romans did we have to pretend was easy. Got it.
As somebody raised on a farm I find it incredible they had any free time.
The flooding of the Nile prevented any crops being farmed so the laborers would have spare time for a short period.
Great channel.
I love Rome but i think there is a civilization much more ancient that built the pyramids. Egyptians definitely seem like the likely builders but it's very odd that there is no hyroglyphic documentation of what one could call their greatest achievmant as a people.
We have dated the pyramids and found plenty of evidence supporting this. thousands and thousands of bits of evidence. Stop watching BS YT videos.
Interesting hypothesis!
This video should be called, “William Shatner does a chair commercial”.
How would Romans have built a gaming chair?
Interesting idea, thank you!
9:58 yay history for granite
Absolutely great channel.
Dude, now I’m imagining a Roman pyramid in ruins: with the marble taken for lime and others for building projects, you’d see a pyramid with crumbling vaults all over the place. Depending on how many earthquakes there are it could last a long time:)
There's no need to speculate, the Romans DID build a couple pyramids courtesy of the Egypt craze under Augustus and the people buried in them having wills specifying how they were to be buried on pain of losing the inheritance.
And while one of the pyramids was demolished by a Pope because it was in the way of an urban road remodeling, the Pyramid of Cestius is still around in all its concrete glory, embedded in the walls and in front of the rapid transit station Piramide (meaning, of course, pyramid).
"And while one of the pyramids was demolished by a Pope because it was in the way of an urban road remodeling" that line came at me like a jumpscare!!
@Helperbot-2000 And THAT is why the Pope now rules only a hill. Well, it's more complicated than that, but the short version is that during Italian unification the Papacy was offered an important place in the new state (leaving Rome out was out of the question, you can't have Italy without Rome), Pope Pius IX refused every time and made repeated provocations because the French covered him, and the last one was swiftly followed by the French recalling their garrison to fight in the French-Prussian War and then removing the treaty entirely, leading to the Italian army taking Rome.
@@lordMartiya didnt the pope also pretend italy didnt exist or something?
@Helperbot-2000 He did. And caused a lot of trouble for both Italy and his own successor until the Lateran Treaties established Vatican City and that Rome was lawfully part of Italy. It was big enough a headache that after the fall of Fascism they were incorporated in the Constitution, as for once Mussolini had solved an actual problem.
But Pius IX's attitude is the same that got the other pyramid destroyed.
@@lordMartiya thats fascinating!!
I've never watch any in videos sponsor, but somehow he managed to convince me to watch it
Because they didn’t know how the Knowledge was lost
We know Romans were able to cut stone as precisely as the stones from the pyramid and had the tools to do so and we know they could move stones as heavy as almost 60 tons (top stone of the trajan's column, some say they also moved the over 1000 ton stones from Baalbek but I doubt that), there's no additional knowledge that's necessary to build a pyramid.
There are certainly some unanswered questions left on how bronze age Egyptians did it, but Romans over 2000 years later with their tools and architectural abilities would've definitely been able to replicate that it they wanted to.
finally, some good questions
8:58
Man, it would be awesome to have a movie about Zenobi. That lady litersly took Egypt from the romans and was one of the most brilliant rulers of Ancient Middle East
Great video! It would be interesting to discus Roman fascination with Egypt with respect to religion and how Egyptian art was incorporated into Roman
My CK3/Imperator Rome timelines be like:
Exactly lol
Hurrah for HistoryforGranite, nice vid
Now I need a houseplant showcase!
PLEASE don't use the auto-dubbing.
Cool topic for a video! I never considered that Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony might have moved the capital to Alexandria
First time I've ever backed up to re-listen to an ad read 😂
The relationship between Rome and Egypt is so interesting.
Thought the title was clickbait until I saw whose channel it was!
You just know some bunch of legionaries on deployment to Egypt that took a look at the things and said, "Man, I wonder what would happen if Caesar told us to build one for him..."
"Dudicus, do not even joke! I'm not spending the next twenty years as a bricklayer! I'd sooner be posted to the Scottish border!"
I'm sure this video has nothing to do with the new Indiana Jones game coming out tomorrow that takes place in Egypt, but timing is miraculous.
Fascinating hypothetical.
I’ll watch in little while when I get home. But the short answer is, maybe, but not likely.
I'm subscribed with notifications on and I had to hear about this from the Ancient Architects community post. Do better TH-cam!
History for Granite is an investigative genius.
Was hoping for some specific projections on supply chain, labour involved and construction time/cost estimates, and got this jibberish instead.
Also, son - not a single pharaoh was buried in a pyramid, just so you know.
Comparing the construction of a pyramid to building a wall is an unfair comparison. The real challenge in constructing a pyramid lies not in sourcing a large quantity of stone, but in raising it to great heights while maintaining precise geometric accuracy. And that's even before addressing the design and construction of all the interior chambers and passageways.
Ancient Egyptians were in a special time when the value of man power was never lower of an advanced society
English, please
"History for Granite" sent me 👍
this message is for the content creator...have you ever thought about doing a video on Roman military construction?
for example: when romans conducted a seige they built seige towers and ramps for troops to clear the city walls. other battles required miles of walls, even entire garrisons. i was always amazed by the speed and scale of battlefield construction projects. if memory serves, in one battle they built a 27 mile wall in a matter of a few weeks. i realize i cant wrap my mind around what could be accomplished with 30-40,000 men. but they were career soldiers, how did they know how to build complex structures? ive searched for this specific topic on this platform, and ive looked for books. i cant find any sources on this specific subject. i may need to pull the data bit by bit from books on their military and campaigns
That chair looks like a Roman reinterpretation of an actual chair
You'd also need a Roman Emperor to last 20 years in power... not impossible, but not trivially easy.
Augustus could have.
Careful. Don’t want the internet idiots calling you racist
There is already one a few comments down. What a turd.
Has anyone ever told you that you sound like Baymax from Big Hero 6?
This title will get Joe Rogan way too excited.
Alternate timeline John Darnielle.
As a self-proclaimed chair connoisseur, I must express my dismay at seeing you endorse such a gimmicky office chair. A man of your intellectual caliber deserves nothing less than the pinnacle of ergonomic luxury-a top-tier Herman Miller masterpiece for your esteemed posterior.
If you can convince the Herman Miller marketing people to send me one, my esteemed posterior would appreciate it!
"Wow why don't you just buy the most expensive office chair you're so silly"
@@derrickstorm6976 it's worth every penny
@@r3conwoo maybe for you, but most people (even in the west) don't make enough money to pay for such an overpriced chair, all for a negligible increase in comfort. Those chairs are ironically a symbol of decadence, considering the subject of this video.
Face it, you in your overpriced reddit chair is the modern version of romans partying while their empire falls apart.
If you watch all the different online platforms you can find second hand ones very cheap. When I was in college my roommate got their top of the line chair for some very small fraction of the retail price and it was essentially brand new. There’s always some office getting remodeled and replacing the chairs from their nearly never used conference rooms. I don’t think it took him even a week to find one that cheap, but I remember there were tons available at less than 50% retail, which is still outrageous, but much better than full price
The pyramid tomb of Cestius seems to take its form from the Nubian pyramids further south though.
They both copied the Egyptian ones, but if you dont build that high you need less width.
A whole lot more Roman concrete is how they'd build them.
Rule of thumb, if the title asks a question, the answer is no.
The Romans invented something much more ingenious: the Antikythera orrery and Hipparchus' astrolabe, the first computers ever.
The Antikythera mechanism was already a portable version.
A bigger, fixed, equivalent had been built by Archimedes of Syracuse two centuries before,and described by Roman sources.
@@neutronalchemist3241 Undoubtedly all this technological advancement began when Macedonia kickstarted hellenistic culture.
@@Faustobellissimo Yeah.
The Antikythera mechanism is a curious case. As long as Roman sources, like Cicero, DESCRIBED those mechanisms, none found it strange. As soon as the actual mechanism described had been found, it was all a sequel of "IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE!"
@@neutronalchemist3241 Yeah, but I suppose that's because Cicero was mainly a matter for literature scholars.
They hadn't invented beer cans yet, obviously.
Aren't there small pyramids in Greece which we don't have a certain date for its construction? I wonder who built the first stone pyramid of any size.
Because they couldn't. To this day no one knows how they were built.
It's true that we don't know the exact method that the Egyptians used (like internal ramp, external ramp, spiral ramp etc.) and how they in the bronze age were able to build it with their available tools in a relatively short amount of time but that doesn't mean that Romans wouldn't have been able to replicate it. They were able to cut stones as precisely as the ones in the pyramid and we have definitive evidence they could move stones that are about 60 tons, probably more too, and they built way more complex monuments than that so in theory they would've definitely been able to built a pyramid.
Romans could have easily built a structure like this.
Could they have? Probably?
Would they have? Absolutely not. At least not to that scale for just a largely ceremonial monument. It wouldn't be practical on a logistical level nor in a financial sense.
So how could Old Kingdom Egypt finance this if their weren't as powerful as the Roman Empire to begin with?
@@N.Eismann We have all the tools and technology to build more of them with a larger size. And how many are we building at the moment? 0, because it makes no sense.
Not sure if the shift from sober architectural investigation to speculative fantasy is such a good idea.
Memphis TN also has a pyramid. i thought it was a joke at first lol
kinda like how..
we could build the Bearing-strait tunnel.
we have the technology.
This is why the claims by some people in the media and online that the Egyptians didn't build the pyramids because the Old Kingdom Egyptians were too "primitive" to have built them make no sense. The Romans, Greeks, and later New Kingdom Egyptians were carving and moving stone blocks that were much bigger than the stones found in the Great Pyramids at Giza. Their structures were just as sophisticated if not more so than the Great Pyramids of Giza, and they had access to similar tools - cranes, levers, pulleys, chisels, hammers, etc. The Obelisks of the New Kingdom use stones that are 200-500+ tons, which are far bigger than the 1-5 ton blocks that make up most of the Great Pyramids (which has a few stone blocks reaching a max of 50-60 tons). The Greeks and Romans were also using 50-60 ton blocks to build the colloseum and acropolis, and the Romans were capable of carving and moving 500+ ton stone blocks. The New Kingdom Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. had the skills and technology to build the great pyramids but didn't have the reason or political will or (in the case of Greeks) resources to do so.
While the bigger stones being used at all at any time is surely impressive I think you glossed over the fact of specifically where in the great pyramid the heaviest stones are. Above the kings chamber. So not only were these gigantic stones being used, they were also at least 160ft off the ground
There are a lot of examples were hunter gatherer tribes 1000's of years before the great pyramids moved and stacked up to 40-50 ton blocks. Only the heaviest stones are hard to explain since the physical capabilities of wood and copper aren't good enough for such tasks
@@85ddrummer The heaviest stones in the pyramids were 50-60 tons being placed above the king's chambers is impressive, but the actual height of the king's chamber is around 40 feet tall. This means it is really only ~40 feet above a base/floor level in the lower-middle of the pyramid. And even if we take into account the king's chamber stones' ~140 feet overall elevation in comparison to the surrounding land, these feats are not more impressive than what the later Egyptian, Roman, etc. civilizations achieved.
@@85ddrummer For example, the Roman Pantheon's ceiling is a giant dome composed of 4,500-5,000 tons of stone and unreinforced concrete. The height of the Pantheon's ceiling from the floor to the Oculus opening is ~140 feet. The New Kingdom Egyptians built giant barges to transport 200-500+ ton obelisks hundreds of miles, and the Romans also built giant barges to steal Egyptian obelisks and transport them to Rome (eg. the 400+ ton Lateran Obelisk transported to Rome that was originally around 120 feet tall).
@@Intranetusa I just think if we go by the accepted timeline of construction for both its leaps and bounds more impressive with the granite blocks in the kings chamber. Especially without the use of adhesive mortar like concrete. Don’t get me wrong the Pantheon is impressive too
Romans and the Greeks were far more practical than the ancient Egyptians - they wouldn't have even tried - all their buildings (Romans) were largely for utilitarian use and not for mere show and grandiosity that the pyramids seem to have been. Then there were geographic and logistical limitations like the Egyptians having the Nile and not only was it extremely life giving but provided a super highway with which all the stone could be transported. The rhythms of the year in Egypt allowed for labor to be used during off seasons. Even China was far more utilitarian than Egypt - the Great Wall being a far greater undertaking than the pyramids but its aim was protection and functionality. Egyptian culture is quite unique because of the geography!
Uhh, what practical purpose do the many statues across Rome (esp ones like the Colossos of Nero), or the victory arches, or their massive temples, or palaces, serve?
@@leonardo.1024 Much smaller dimensions, much more limited scope - the statue of Nero was diminutive compared to the massive
statues like the ones of Ramses II at Abu Simbel carved out of the rock -remember the ones that had to be shifted because of the Nasser dam?? Arguably the biggest Roman construction was the Colosseum that had a strictly functional purpose - Roman temples, even the biggest, were small fry compared to the massive temple at Karnak (Luxor) one of the largest religious buildings ever. The most impressive Roman achievements were roads, Hadrian's wall in England, the aqueducts like the Pont du Gard and Segovia aqueduct, the bridges like the ones built across the Danube and other great streams. All completely functional enterprises.
If they did, then you would have heard about it in their records. Not only that, but the same architecture would be seen wherever Rome conquered. For example, London still has ruminants of Roman architecture. No doubt a great conquering nation built the pyramids, because there were many throughout the world; but each of them are all designed differently. It almost looks like the particular architect of these pyramids is a different person then the rest.
Why don’t you watch the video Einstein.
The Romans were too advanced to make pyramids. A pyramid is the easiest possible construction to make therefor a lot of primitive civilisations around the world build them.
Give a 6month old kid 5 blocks and he will build a pyramid because stacking 3 blocks on top of each other is too hard.
So true, emporers would never be so frivolous as to build a pyramid. They just burned city blocks to build their pleasure palaces and created monumental artificial lakes so that they had somewhere to float their 2 mega barges. 😂
This like and subscribe was brought to you by history for granite
being considered megalomaniacal did not stop Nero from building the Domus Aureus.
and he would be my first pick to have built a rival to the great pyramid,
had he decided not to have his secretary do him in.
I don’t understand the initial concept, why would an emperor build it in Egypt next to the originals instead of in Rome? And they would probably dedicate it to Jupiter or Rome personified instead of the emperor, so it would be less likely to be seen as tyrannical.
The Romans were too practical minded and focused on function to build pyramids.
They were ignorant of the function.
@@AverageBrethren and what was the function of a pyramid?
@@derrickstorm6976broo they were portals bro u gotta believe me they were sources of infinite energy
@derrickstorm6976 Today on How They Do It : Plumbuses.
Everyone has a plumbus in their home. First they take the dingle bop and they smooth it out with a bunch of schleem. The schleem is then...repurposed for later batches.
They take the dingle bop and they push it through the grumbo, where the fleeb is rubbed against it. It's important that the fleeb is rubbed, becasue the fleeb has all the fleeb juice.
Then, a schlami shows up, and he rubs it...and spits on it.
They cut the fleeb. There's several hizzards in the way.
The blamfs rub against the chumbles, and the...plubis, and grumbo are shaved away.
That leaves you with...a regular old plumbus.
"I always wondered how uh...plumbuses got made."
Those who have the answer keep censoring my response.
Julius Caesar was as far removed in time from the building of the Great Pyramid as _we_ today are removed from the time of Julius Caesar.
Not exactly. 500 years difference
Listening to you try to explain how to simplify a pyramid is going to be rich
With rock, mostly. And concrete. And garum.
Without watching the video, i agree with the central premise. Record keeping back then was sketchy st best, with no optical discs. The original structures may have been dismantled and rebuilt by the romans, a strong empire.
Because you can build entire cities across entire countries, for the amount of of resources and time required to build such a thing… and it would offer almost nothing to the Roman in his life-time, while it was being constructed.
Can you imagine a pyramid built by multiple archs?
Vertical arches cut on a bias to form parabolic outlines.
He's insane.
I love it.😂
this seems like a no brainer, like why would anyone move millions of pounds of stone for a giant triangle with the interior space of an apartment in New York?
I heard they dismantled the great pyramid and rebuilt it 8 feet to the left
They easily could’ve built a pyramid and used it as a one stop shop for all things hunting and fishing