via survincity.com
The Tubular Drill
This tool was used by Ancient Egyptians to hollow out limestone, granite and other hard stones. Johnson declares that these tubular drills “removed material 500 times faster than the rate that can be achieved by modern diamond-headed power drills.” In addition, he conveyed that “To drill at that speed would require a cutting head capable of supporting several tons of pressure while maintaining absolute cutting precision.”
The Sphinx
With the body of a lion and the head of a man, the Sphinx is the greatest monumental sculpture in the ancient world It is carved out of a single ridge of limestone 240 feet (73 meters) long and 66 feet (20 meters) high and remains one of the largest single-stone statues in the world. To form the lower body of the Sphinx, enormous blocks of stone, some over 200 tons, according to LiveScience.com, were quarried from the base rock and these blocks were then used in the core masonry of the temples directly in front and to the south of the Sphinx.
People have often criticized the ancient Egyptians for building the Sphinx in the desert knowing that it would constantly be eroded by the sand. However, it is likely that the Sphinx is older that the Sahara Desert. John Anthony West, an author, lecturer and Egyptologist, confirmed that the Sphinx demonstrated obvious signs of water erosion, thus proving the Sphinx had been constructed prior to 10,000 B.C., while the Sahara Desert was still a rainforest.
