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LESSON 5 · Mysteries of the Nile

The Great Pyramid's Numbers

The question of how the pyramids were built remains genuinely open. The Great Pyramid contains roughly 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons. Some granite blocks weigh over eighty tons and were transported from quarries about 800 kilometers away.

No surviving records explain the construction method. Modern guesses range from ramps to counterweights to water-filled channels — and none has been confirmed.