Dassault 3D Tools Help Solve Great Pyramid mystery

You’ve heard all about how 3D technology can be tapped to design everything from football-field-size airplanes to the latest high-tech mountain bikes. Well, what about employing 3D to solve one of the world’s great mysteries: How the Great Pyramid of Kheops was built.

Jean-Pierre Houdin, a French architect, has come up with a theory, which is says is scientifically proven thanks to the use of Dassault Systemes’ real-time 3D solutions. At a recent conference, Houdin created a virtual reality auditorium using seven networked computers running Dassault’s Virtools to recreate the pyramid construction site in 3D, exactly as it was 4,500 years ago.

Houdin’s theory is based on three foundations: The use of an outside ramp to build the first 43 metres of the pyramid; the use of an internal spiral ramp running behind the faces of the pyramid to complete construction; and the use of the Great Gallery to accommodate a system of counterweights to lift some of the heavy granite ceiling rafters, which can weigh in at up to 63 tons.