Design3 min(s) read
For decades, experts have struggled to explain how ancient workers lifted and positioned millions of heavy stone blocks, some weighing as much as 15 tons, without access to modern machinery.
The lack of written records detailing the construction techniques of the ancient Egyptians left researchers guessing about the logistics behind such a massive engineering project.
Now, a new study offers a fresh perspective that could answer long-standing questions about the monument. Computer scientist Vicente Luis Rosell Roig suggests that a hidden internal spiral ramp may have been built into the Great Pyramid of Giza during its construction.
By utilizing an edge ramp along the outer perimeter, laborers could have created a sloped pathway that moved upward as each new tier of stone was added to the structure.
This proposed method eliminated the need for huge external ramps that would have required vast amounts of extra material to construct and dismantle. Instead, workers could steadily transport individual stone blocks layer by layer.
Considering the structure stands 481 feet tall, stretches 755 feet on each base side, and contains roughly 2.3 million stone blocks, an internal pathway offers a practical solution to a legendary architectural puzzle.
Computer simulations based on this internal ramp design indicate that laborers could have placed stone blocks remarkably fast. Under ideal conditions, workers might have set a new block into position every four to six minutes.
At that consistent speed, the core structure of the pyramid could theoretically take between 14 and 21 years to construct.
However, real-world construction involves far more than just stacking blocks. Scientists must factor in extra labor components such as quarrying the limestone, moving materials across distances, and giving workers essential rest breaks.
When adding these logistical realities to the digital models, the total estimated construction time shifts to roughly 20 to 27 years, a timeframe that aligns closely with traditional historical estimates.
The internal ramp theory also offers a plausible explanation for mysterious voids and empty spaces discovered inside the structure during recent scans.
These hidden chambers could represent remaining sections of the ramp network that were never filled in after the project reached completion.
"Old Kingdom technology precluded iron tools, wheeled heavy transport, and compound pulleys, but allowed copper chisels, water-lubricated sledges, ropes, levers, earthen works, and Nile barges,' Rosell Roig said in a study in NPJ Heritage Science, published in March 2026.
"Accordingly, we bound ramp slope, lane width/clearance, and friction, and evaluate the dispatch headway (time between placing successive blocks) required to satisfy the 20–27-year window, encoding these constraints as model parameters."
Even with these findings, researchers acknowledge that significant questions remain.
Scientists are still working to understand how ancient builders maintained exceptional engineering precision while coordinating massive labor forces under strict resource constraints.
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