3D Technology Solves the Mystery of the Great Pyramid

3D Technology Solves the Mystery of the Great Pyramid
www.3ds.com/khufu

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Press Contacts \
/ Press Contacts
Dassault Systèmes EMEA
Ketchum for Dassault Systèmes France
Virginie BLINDENBERG
Céline ROUHEN
Arnaud MALHERBE
Nawel YOUNSI
Phone /
\ Phone
+ 33 (0) 1 55 49 84 21
+ 33 (0) 1 53 32 56 82
+ 33 (0) 1 55 49 87 73
+ 33 (0) 1 53 32 56 21
e-mail /
e-mail /
virginie_blindenberg@ds-fr.com
celine.rouhen@ketchum.fr
arnaud_malherbe@ds-fr.com
nawel.younsi@ketchum.fr
\ Content
01_ Editorial: Understanding and
Communicating in 3D
02_ Khufu - a Giant in the Desert

03_ The Mystery of the Great Pyramid
04_ The Birth of a Theory : One Man’s Intuition
05_ Jean-Pierre Houdin and Dassault Systèmes :
How They Joined Forces
06_ 3D Simulation at the Service of Theory
07_ The 21st Century Medium: 3D
08_ The 3D Revolution

09_ Appendix 1: Biographies
10_ Appendix 2: The Theory in Images
11_ Appendix 3: Glossary

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01_ Editorial
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Understand and Communicate
in 3 Dimensions!
This is the story of an encounter. An encounter of the
Dassault Systèmes’ 3D tools are used to design and vi-
past and the future. Of history and high technology.
sualise the finest industrial projects of our age. Many of
Above all, an encounter of men not expecting to em-
these projects were unachievable yesterday, and even
bark on such an adventure. One of them was seeking
today they defy reason and breach traditional boun-
to solve an age-old enigma; the others, glued to their
daries. By enabling giant aircrafts, futuristic buildings
computer screens, were striving to link the future with
or even just automobiles, for example, to be designed
the present. For their paths to cross there had to be a
in record time, industrial 3D tools allow us to think
crossroads. And not just one crossroads in fact but two:
differently and thus innovate. But does the notion of
the Pyramid of Khufu and 3D technology.
innovation necessarily have to be linked to the future?
Couldn’t it also help us revisit the past in the light of
It all began 4,500 years ago, when a civilisation that
new ideas? Won over by Jean-Pierre Houdin’s passion
knew nothing of iron tools, the wheel or pulleys built
and stimulated by the challenge, Dassault Systèmes
one of the most mysterious monuments in the entire
have for the past two years been using advanced scien-
history of humankind: the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt.
tific 3D tools to examine every detail of his theory.
How did they do it? Nobody alive today knows with any
certainty. But it was exactly this unresolved riddle that
Because we also think that 3D will be one of the pre-
led several teams at Dassault Systèmes, the world lea-
mier mediums of the 21st century, we wanted to share
der in real-time 3D technology, to provide backing for
this extraordinary human adventure with the widest
an architect and author of a revolutionary theory about
possible audience. Thus was born the first virtual
the Great Pyramid, Jean-Pierre Houdin.
reality installation that will allow spectators to travel
back in time and visit the amazing construction site of
History has often shown us that scientific theories stem
the Pyramid of Khufu in real-time. On the giant screen
initially from intuition. Jean-Pierre Houdin’s hunch
of the Géode or on a computer screen connected to
changed the course of his life. For the last eight years,
the World Wide Web, we welcome you on board for this
he has devoted himself to developing the first scientific
fabulous voyage through time - connecting the future to
theory capable of fully explaining the construction of
the past.
the Pyramid of Khufu.
Mehdi Tayoubi
Dassault Systèmes

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02_ Khufu - a Giant in the Desert
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The Last of the
Seven Wonders
of the World
By definition a pyramid is a solid figure on a rectangular
The Great Pyramid is said to be the last of the Seven
base, having four triangular faces meeting at an apex.
Wonders of the World still standing, the only one to
For historians, it is a royal tomb from ancient Egypt. For
have resisted the madness of men and the fury of the
the whole of humankind, the three pyramids standing
elements through time. It was known as the tallest
on the Giza plateau at the gates of Cairo, Egypt, Khufu,
structure in History with a height of 146 metres, until
Chephren and Mykerinos, represent both a treasure
the Eiffel Tower was built. And yet we know neither how
and mystery.
it was built nor how long it took to build, by men who
had no knowledge of iron tools, wheels or pulleys. We
What we know about these pyramids is that they were
have no idea what astonishing finds still lie concealed
built nearly three thousand years before Christ to
behind its stone walls.
contain the remains of three pharaohs. Although the
most impressive of these stone structures, the Pyramid
As a witness to 4,500 years of history, the Pyramid of
of Khufu, has been studied and photographed countless
Khufu has seen the world’s greatest men come and go.
times, its heart remains a mystery, evoking images of
Men who admired the excessiveness of its symbolism,
incredible riches and powerful curses.
who dreamt of infinite conquests or even of immorta-
lity. Passing rulers and anonymous travellers, over the
centuries so many have come to walk on its stones.
Some, intoxicated by the extraordinary feeling of the
place, told themselves that such excess could have no
human origin and that only an alien civilisation from far
away could have produced such a marvel.

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02_ Khufu - a Giant in the Desert

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03_ The Mystery of the Great Pyramid
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The Great Pyramid :
Myth and Reality
Over time, the secret of the construction of the Pyra-
The machine hypothesis. This is the hypothesis repor-
mid of Khufu has been lost. Men have thus been free
ted by Herodotus: machines were used to lift the blocks
to let their imaginations run wild, creating theories
from one course to another. One theory also describes
that range from the impossible to the far-fetched. Real
the use of levers and wedges to lift each block ten cen-
clues are sparse, for example a few lines about the
timetres or so with each heave. But how could blocks
royal architect Hemiunu, who is supposed to have built
weighing 65 tonnes have been raised in this way? Could
the pyramid in just twenty years so that the great Khufu
workmen act as counterweights to lift the blocks which
could be laid to rest in the heart of his vessel of limes-
would then be dragged into position? A slow and dan-
tone and granite, a container for the eternal life of the
gerous operation in any case, it simply would not have
King.
worked for larger blocks. Moreover, such machines
would need a flat support. Thus the whole structure
There are also a few sentences from Herodotus, provi-
would have undergone a rough-cast finish after the
ding another clue perhaps: the famous Greek historian
work… The time constraints are too short for this!
travelled to Egypt around 450 BC, more than 2,000
Machines of this kind were perhaps used, but they
years after the pyramid was built, and wrote down local
could not have been key to the construction method.
legends. In his book, Herodotus describes a tyrannical
King with thousands of slaves dragging stones. Cu-
The spiral ramp. This is the most popular hypothesis
riously, he says that machines were placed beside the
today. An external spiral ramp was constructed around
structure to lift the stones from one level to the next.
the pyramid. The advantages to this method are that:
Four centuries later, another Greek historian spoke of a
• it could help build the pyramid with unfired bricks,
vast frontal ramp used to haul the blocks to the sum-
using a relatively small amount of material;
mit. Others talked of an external helicoid ramp made of
• progressive construction would follow the progress of
unfired bricks, but this idea fails to stand up to serious
the site without slowing it up too much;
analysis.
• an external ramp would provide a constant shallow
slope of 8%. Even so, in practice, it could not work, as
The large ramp hypothesis. Large ramps require a vo-
it would have been impossible to check the geometry
lume of stones almost equal to that used in the pyramid
of the pyramid if it were hidden by the ramp. Further-
itself. In addition, the work of the site would have to be
more, such a ramp would be fragile and would collapse
interrupted continually whenever the ramp was exten-
regularly. Turning the corners would be risky and the
ded. Such ramps would be either short while too steep
pathway would be too narrow.
to be useful, or shallow yet several kilometres long.
Furthermore what became of the material used in the
Considering the above, it was far time to find a ratio-
ramp? It seems irrational to build the entire pyramid
nal solution to the mystery of the Pyramid of Khufu; a
with a large frontal ramp.
solution that would enable us to explain its construction
from start to finish and that would answer all the ques-
tions asked over so many years.

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03_ The Mystery of the Great Pyramid
The large ramp thesis
The machine thesis
The spiral ramp

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04_ The Birth of a Theory, One Man’s Intuition
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By Jean-Pierre Houdin
The Man
Behind the Theory
Suddenly an idea dawned...
What if the pyramid had been built from the inside out?
I was born in Paris in 1951, but I grew up in Abidjan, in
Africa, where my father was the director of a construc-
tion company. As a small boy, I spent my spare time on
construction sites while my mother, who was a doctor,
cared for her patients in a bush dispensary. My interest
in building and construction no doubt grew out of this
first period of my life. Back in Paris, after the baccalau-
réat, I naturally enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in
the architecture section.
After obtaining my diploma in 1976, I set up as an
independent architect, a profession that I would follow
for twenty years. I participated in the construction of a
large number of residential and office buildings in and
around Paris. At the same time, with my wife Michelle
and our friend Laurent, I opened an avant-garde art
gallery cum salon (“Les Enfants Gâtés”), which over a
pyramids had been built from within – from the inside
period of ten years supported scores of young artists,
out as it were? This was a revolutionary concept that
and which became a centre for the arts in Paris at the
swept away all the other hypotheses that had been put
turn of the 1980s and 1990s.
forward until then. As an architect with experience in
In 1996, Michelle convinced me to move on and we
three-dimensional graphics, I was called in to assist
decided to take a year out in New York! I went with no
him in his research.
specific plans but with a thousand ideas in mind: I was
During 2000, we met with members of the team who,
eager to start learning again and excited to be able to
in 1986, had worked on the mystery of the Pyramid
work in freedom, without constraints. It was the perfect
of Khufu under the aegis of the Fondation EDF. They
moment for such an approach, because the 1990s saw
showed us plans on which we discovered a construc-
the remarkable development of the Internet. This new
tion anomaly, a detail in the drawings that none of the
communications medium presented a universe of new
hypotheses could account for. This anomaly, baptised
perspectives for every field of activity, including for my
“the spiral structure”, looked exactly like a ramp built
work. I learned how to use the Internet and how to use
inside the pyramid which could have played a part in its
the first digital design tools. I got involved in website
construction!
design, first in New York then in France when I returned
to Paris in 1998, with a new career and a whole world of
In 2003, my father created the Association of the
new experience. On January 2, 1999, while I was once
Construction of the Great Pyramid (ACGP) in order to
again away in New York, my father, a retired engineer,
promote the project. This association enabled me to
saw a television programme about the construction of
meet a number of experts. In 2005, Dassault Systè-
the pyramids presented by François de Closets. With
mes welcomed me enthusiastically into its brand new
his civil engineer’s eye he took a critical look at theories
sponsorship programme “Passion For Innovation”.
in vogue at that time. He thought they just didn’t stand
Together, we decided to examine the theory in the light
to logic. And then suddenly an idea dawned: what if the
of Dassault Systèmes’ industrial and scientific 3D

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04_ The Birth of a Theory, One Man’s Intuition
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« This revolutionary idea sweeps away all the
other hypotheses put forward up to now. »
solutions. I would finally be able to analyse and confirm
my theory in the virtual 3D world, which enables today’s
industrial corporations to produce in the real world.
Using these software applications to reconstitute the
site of this gigantic construction in three dimensions al-
lowed us to test in real-time whether such an approach
was plausible. We would see whether the human and
material organisation that it implied was optimal and
coherent and whether it conformed to the unchanging
laws of physics and mechanics. Hundreds of calcula-
tions and algorithms were used to gauge the soundness
of our premise, to check whether our models and hypo-
theses defied the laws of gravity or operated contrary
to the forces and the materials being manipulated. Si-
mulations were used to back up and enrich the theory,
continually inciting me to ask new questions to ensure
that no doubt would remain concerning the mystery of
the construction of the Great Pyramid.
But it was not enough just to confirm the theory. We
had to explain it and communicate it: we had to share
The contribution of scientific 3D technologies. Jean-Pierre Houdin
explains the history of the cracks in the King’s Chamber, which we
the secret of the construction of the sole survivor of the
were able to reproduce precisely through FEA simulation.
Seven Wonders of the World with the public. With Das-
sault Systèmes, we decided to push the challenge even
further by using 3D technology as a teaching medium
and to propose the first interactive voyage through time
in three dimensions, both on the giant screen of the
Géode and on the Internet at www.3ds.com/khufu. This
would be a world premiere and proceed the field-based
scientific exploration that would enable us to probe
the actual pyramid in order to find proof to confirm the
existence of the internal ramp.
The theory being presented by its inventor. Jean-Pierre Houdin
elucidates, wearing 3D glasses.

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