Did Djoser’s Step Pyramid have hydraulic lifts?
Peter Brown / Alamy
The construction of Ancient Egypt’s oldest pyramids may have involved water elevators capable of lifting 50 to 100 tonnes of stone at a time.
The theory is based on the fact that the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built 4,500 years ago as part of the Saqqara Necropolis as a burial site for Egyptian pharaohs, is located near two dry channels that were probably once waterways and may have provided rainwater and water from the Nile to the pyramid construction site.
