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Ancient Architects #History and Archaeology

The Great Pyramid Basalt Pavement

This year I was lucky enough to visit the Giza Plateau and explore the pyramids and their associated structures and stonework, and on the eastern side of the Great Pyramid, you can’t help but take note of the magnificent basalt pavement.

These paving stones are in fact all that remains of Khufu’s mortuary temple, which was likely destroyed at the same time the pyramid’s casing stones were removed, if not long before.


This basalt pavement is a favourite talking point for those that believe in a lost ancient high technology in Ancient Egypt. It’s a hard igneous rock and we can see specific cut marks on some of the rock faces. So how were they made? How was this rock cut and shaped? Was it possible with Ancient Egyptian materials and technology? Is this basalt pavement still hiding ancient secrets? Just how difficult was it to work?


In this video, I take a close look at the geology of the basalt and offer some suggestion on just how this ancient igneous rock could have been cut. What was the ancient technology used?

Matt Sibson
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