If you take any diamond cutting tool for stone/ceramic/glass in your hands, you will suddenly discover that cutting surface made from copper/brass/bronze with diamonds in it. Not from steel.
You don't need steel to cut the stone. Moreover, steel is not used to cut the stone at all. But even a thin cotton rope with abrasive glued to it will work.
I’ve seen demonstrations. Imagine something like a wet saw, just in very slow motion. I think they found they could do like 2 inches a day, and that was the modern archeologists starting from scratch in their attempt. These masons didn’t know what they didn’t know yet, but they did have all the knowledge that came before them, showing how something like that was possible, along with the other infrastructure and tools needed to make it happen on a grand scale.
Easiest and simpliest thing that could cut rocks is a rope, glue, sand and water. Today this technology is still used to cut the stones and slice retired concrete structures in the form of "diamond wire saw".
If you will use some tech like pulleys and crankshafts, prefectly known for ancient Egyptians, you could even make a decent human powered stone cutting rig that will cut stones not worse than modern wet saw without limits on the size. If you have thousands of slaves there will be no any problem to cut thousands of rocks of any size in reasonable time.
Of course cutting huge granite cube will take some time (and ancient people had plenty), but limestone is pretty easy thing for processing.
Also, since the rope saw is fundamentally self-aligning, you will get pretty precision cuts regardless of size.
Another tech that was perfectly available for ancient Egyptians is a abrasive-filled bronze. I'm shure, occasional sand in bronze was pretty regular thing for the ancient metallurgists. Knife from such defective cast was not very useful for cutting leather or food, but could be useful to work on stones.
Explain the core drill holes found in granite or the star shaped holes cut in granite found in Maine.
Again, stone is cutted by abrasive, not some sophisticated steel. There are tons of abrasive around since the beginning of human race. You could make a drill hole in granite even with wooden stick. If you have a bronze, things become much simplier - you could cut only circumference, then remove inside with hammer.
Star shaped holes are not a rocket science too. Cut a circular hole at center, then use rope saw.
You've never shaped stone yourself. That much is clear.
Using the same level of reasoning, it is pretty clear that you never eat cucumbers or date a girl.
Cutting and shaping stones is pretty easy if you know how things work. And no, you don't need steel to do that. All you need, really is abrasive, water and patience.
It would take an entire lifetime for one man to create one of the casing blocks at the great pyramid in Egypt.
No, it would take only around few days maximum. Limestone is soft.
I am a manufacturing engineer and know machined parts when I see them. You are delusional.
Humans use machines since somebody figured out how to combine few tools and parts to do things faster and easier. F.e. potter's wheel is a machine, suddenly.
You think a piece of string and some diamond dust was used to make these pyramids?
No. I think that stone saw made from rope, sand and water was perfectly available for ancient Egyptians. You don't need diamonds to cut limestone and even granite. Sand (SiO2) is harder than granite, suddenly.
Moreover, you could cut stone with abrasive of same hardeness. Diamond powder is used to cut diamonds.
Really, I don't get that obsession with pyramids. People dispute that stuff for few centuries without any practically useful result at all. OK, Egyptians spent a lot of time and efforts and build their pyramids. So what? Yes, it is fascinating, but that's all. We just have pyramids on Earth. In distant future people will look with same attitude at the remnants of roads humans build everywhere. Wow, it is huge! It is 100 millions of kilometers!
Every time when such thing pop up, I look at it as engineer. If it is unknown advanced technology, then, there should be a lot of supplemental technologies, tools, industries that necessary for that unknown technology. If there are no such things, then there are no any advanced technology.
Technology does not exists in vacuum. You can't build huge structures with it and leave no any trace of any supplemental things.
If something was supposedly done with magic wand, then there should be industry for making magic wands. There should be industry for making magic wand blanks, there should be industry for making magic wands from blanks and all other things necessary to make magic wand. There should be literature and art showing magic wand as wide used technology. If there are no any such things found, then, theory about something done with magic wand is unsuitable, and you have to switch to another theory that better fit with the facts.
Professor Michel Barsoum and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete, debunking an age old myth that they were built using only cut limestone blocks.
Hawass has connections to the Edgar Casey Institute, and now his opinion is mysteriously the exact opposite of EC. This is the only time I believe controlled opposition. It could also be bribes.
If you take any diamond cutting tool for stone/ceramic/glass in your hands, you will suddenly discover that cutting surface made from copper/brass/bronze with diamonds in it. Not from steel.
You don't need steel to cut the stone. Moreover, steel is not used to cut the stone at all. But even a thin cotton rope with abrasive glued to it will work.
I’ve seen demonstrations. Imagine something like a wet saw, just in very slow motion. I think they found they could do like 2 inches a day, and that was the modern archeologists starting from scratch in their attempt. These masons didn’t know what they didn’t know yet, but they did have all the knowledge that came before them, showing how something like that was possible, along with the other infrastructure and tools needed to make it happen on a grand scale.
Easiest and simpliest thing that could cut rocks is a rope, glue, sand and water. Today this technology is still used to cut the stones and slice retired concrete structures in the form of "diamond wire saw".
If you will use some tech like pulleys and crankshafts, prefectly known for ancient Egyptians, you could even make a decent human powered stone cutting rig that will cut stones not worse than modern wet saw without limits on the size. If you have thousands of slaves there will be no any problem to cut thousands of rocks of any size in reasonable time.
Of course cutting huge granite cube will take some time (and ancient people had plenty), but limestone is pretty easy thing for processing.
Also, since the rope saw is fundamentally self-aligning, you will get pretty precision cuts regardless of size.
Another tech that was perfectly available for ancient Egyptians is a abrasive-filled bronze. I'm shure, occasional sand in bronze was pretty regular thing for the ancient metallurgists. Knife from such defective cast was not very useful for cutting leather or food, but could be useful to work on stones.
Again, stone is cutted by abrasive, not some sophisticated steel. There are tons of abrasive around since the beginning of human race. You could make a drill hole in granite even with wooden stick. If you have a bronze, things become much simplier - you could cut only circumference, then remove inside with hammer.
Star shaped holes are not a rocket science too. Cut a circular hole at center, then use rope saw.
You've never shaped stone yourself. That much is clear.
Using the same level of reasoning, it is pretty clear that you never eat cucumbers or date a girl.
Cutting and shaping stones is pretty easy if you know how things work. And no, you don't need steel to do that. All you need, really is abrasive, water and patience.
No, it would take only around few days maximum. Limestone is soft.
Humans use machines since somebody figured out how to combine few tools and parts to do things faster and easier. F.e. potter's wheel is a machine, suddenly.
No. I think that stone saw made from rope, sand and water was perfectly available for ancient Egyptians. You don't need diamonds to cut limestone and even granite. Sand (SiO2) is harder than granite, suddenly.
Moreover, you could cut stone with abrasive of same hardeness. Diamond powder is used to cut diamonds.
Really, I don't get that obsession with pyramids. People dispute that stuff for few centuries without any practically useful result at all. OK, Egyptians spent a lot of time and efforts and build their pyramids. So what? Yes, it is fascinating, but that's all. We just have pyramids on Earth. In distant future people will look with same attitude at the remnants of roads humans build everywhere. Wow, it is huge! It is 100 millions of kilometers!
Every time when such thing pop up, I look at it as engineer. If it is unknown advanced technology, then, there should be a lot of supplemental technologies, tools, industries that necessary for that unknown technology. If there are no such things, then there are no any advanced technology.
Technology does not exists in vacuum. You can't build huge structures with it and leave no any trace of any supplemental things.
If something was supposedly done with magic wand, then there should be industry for making magic wands. There should be industry for making magic wand blanks, there should be industry for making magic wands from blanks and all other things necessary to make magic wand. There should be literature and art showing magic wand as wide used technology. If there are no any such things found, then, theory about something done with magic wand is unsuitable, and you have to switch to another theory that better fit with the facts.
You cut stone with abrasives, not metal.
Love to see some proof that only metal (and only types they didn't have access to) would be required to hold abrasives.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-technology/cut-stone-lost-technology-ancient-021545
Aside from that:
Professor Michel Barsoum and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete, debunking an age old myth that they were built using only cut limestone blocks.
https://drexel.edu/engineering/academics/departments/materials-science-engineering/about/special-projects/engineering-the-pyramids/
Limestone is nature's concrete. I can see an issue distinguishing between the two hundred of years later.
Quarried or brickmaking?
https://oldworldstoneworks.com/about-our-company/our-man-made-limestone/
Anyhow, I'm way more impressed by the igneous and metamorphic obelisks because you can't fake it with mud, water, and fire.
Hawass has connections to the Edgar Casey Institute, and now his opinion is mysteriously the exact opposite of EC. This is the only time I believe controlled opposition. It could also be bribes.