At Hatnub in Egypt, an ancient quarry ramp, side staircases and post holes offer clues to how workers hauled stone. A 20% gradient means one unit up for five along. The rope arrangement is a proposed reconstruction; the discovery does not prove a pyramid construction method.

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Imagine hauling a heavy stone up this ramp. Now look at the holes beside it. At Egypt's Hatnub quarry, archaeologists found a remarkable ancient hauling system. It dates to around forty-five hundred years ago, the age of the Great Pyramid. The ramp could climb at a gradient of twenty percent, or more. But the ramp was not alone. Staircases ran beside it, with rows of post holes. Researchers propose that wooden posts helped crews handle ropes attached to the sled. Does that solve how the pyramids were built? No. This is evidence from an alabaster quarry. But it gives us a much clearer clue to how Egyptians moved heavy stone.