The Egyptian pyramids are one of the most iconic structures in human history. Their construction is often shrouded in mystery and wonder, which adds to the grandeur of these magnificent creations. However, in the age of social media, misinformation about the pyramids has become increasingly prevalent. From conspiracy theories to fake news, the internet is rife with false claims about the pyramids and their construction. One recent example is an image circulating on several social media platforms, claiming to show a massive stone used in building the Egyptian pyramids.
Social Media Claims
In the past week, a Facebook user posted a picture of a large stone cube in the Facebook group called “Weird, Fantastic, and Odd Things.” The user claimed that:
“This is one of the 2 million and 300 thousand stones (each weighing about 2.5 to 15 tons, or sometimes more) that were cut, dragged, and lifted to build the Great Pyramid almost 5,000 years ago.”
The post gained a lot of momentum, with over 1.8K shares and nearly a thousand comments.
Apart from this post, we found that this claim has been circulating for several years, and below is one such instance from 2022.
However, we discovered that this image does not show a stone from the Great Pyramid, as claimed.
Fact-Checking
We started our investigation by using the Reverse Image Search feature to trace the origin of the viral photo. Then we discovered that the image was from the ancient city of Baalbek, located in modern-day Lebanon, according to this article published on Smithsonian Magazine’s website in 2014.
The article reports on discovering a massive stone block at a quarry in Baalbek, Lebanon. Weighing an estimated 1,650 tons, the block is believed to be the largest man-made stone ever quarried. The discovery sheds new light on the technology and capabilities of ancient societies. It offers insights into how they created such massive structures as the nearby ruins of Baalbek. Moreover, we also found articles about this largest man-made stone here and here.
However, this Baalbek monolith is not related to the Egyptian pyramids, which were constructed thousands of years earlier in ancient Egypt. The Egyptian pyramids were built using large blocks of limestone and granite quarried from nearby sources and transported to the pyramid construction sites. Additionally, we found that the viral image was altered to erase the text on the monolith, suggesting that the photo may have been purposely changed to deceive the public.
Egyptian Pyramids also used significantly large and heavy blocks
However, the ancient pyramids in Egypt were also created with significantly large and heavy limestone blocks, and transporting them to the construction site and aligning them was no mere task, which needed a lot of coordination. There are even several theories about how this could have been performed; more on it is here.
It is estimated that Khufu’s pyramid, perhaps the grandest Egyptian pyramid, contains around 2.3 million blocks of stone. As evident by the pyramid design as well, the stone blocks of Khufu’s pyramid were very large in the lower layers (1.0 m × 2.5 m base dimensions and 1.0–1.5 m high, 6.5–10 tons). The top layers were easier to transport with smaller blocks (1.0 m × 1.0 m × 0.5 m, appx 1.3 tons). For calculations, most Egyptologists use 2.5 tons as the weight of an average pyramid stone block. More on this here, here & here
Below is an image of a modern Egyptian standing on pyramid building blocks, which gives a glimpse of the size of the massive building blocks used for these pyramids as well.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the claim that the image circulating on social media shows one of the stones used in building the Egyptian pyramids is false. The photo actually depicts a monolith from Baalbek, and the image has been modified to remove the writing from the monolith, which is misleading.
Title:Debunking the Viral Image of the Massive “Egyptian Pyramid” Stone
Fact Check By: Kalana KrishanthaResult: Misleading
