Did the Step Pyramid of Djoser include a hydraulic lift?
Peter Brown / Alamy
The construction of ancient Egypt’s oldest known pyramid may have benefited from a water elevator capable of lifting 50 to 100 tonnes of stones at a time.
The suggestion draws upon the fact that the Step Pyramid of Djoser – built 4500 years ago as the burial place for an Egyptian pharaoh as part of the Saqqara necropolis site – is near two dry channels, probably once active waterways. These could have supplied rainfall runoff and Nile river water to the pyramid construction site, where…
