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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A 2024 study proposes that water-powered lifting may have helped build the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. It does not demonstrate that “high-tech machines” built the pyramids generally: the researchers offer a possible mechanism for one monument, based on landscape analysis, architectural interpretation and a simplified model.
What the study proposes
In a paper published in PLOS ONE on August 5, 2024, Xavier Landreau and nine coauthors examined the roughly 4,500-year-old Step Pyramid of Djoser. They connect several nearby features into a possible water-management system: a check dam at Gisr el-Mudir, a route that may have carried water toward an ephemeral lake, and compartments in the southern Dry Moat that they interpret as settling, retention and purification structures. The paper presents this as an interpretation, not an established reconstruction. Read the study in PLOS ONE.
The authors then suggest that water could have entered the pyramid’s north shaft and raised a loaded float. In this scenario, stones would be lifted from within the monument, in what the paper describes as a “volcano” fashion. The south shaft and a long underground connection may also have been part of the proposed water route. No intact lift or direct record of the mechanism in operation has been found; this is a hypothesis that the architecture may be consistent with.
What evidence supports the idea—and what it cannot show
Landscape and structures
The researchers used high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, digital elevation models and geospatial analysis to map the watershed. They also drew on dimensions and descriptions documented by earlier archaeological missions. Their analysis identifies a watershed of about 15 km² west of Gisr el-Mudir and considers whether it may once have connected to a larger basin estimated at about 400 km². These are geographic estimates used to assess the plausibility of the proposed water supply, not proof that water flowed through the system during construction.
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Architecture and an unresolved connection
The Dry Moat’s deep, rock-cut compartments and the pyramid’s shafts are central to the interpretation. But the connection between the moat’s second compartment and the shafts has not yet been identified. The authors call for further investigation of the shafts and geological sampling to establish when the proposed dam operated and how the structures relate in time. Until those questions are resolved, the proposed route from water-management features to lifting mechanism remains incomplete.
A model, not a historical measurement
The paper includes a simplified numerical model intended to give orders of magnitude. It estimates an upper-bound requirement of 18 million cubic metres of water if a float lifted stones starting with the pyramid’s first layer. That is a model result, not a measurement of water historically used. The authors note that ramps for the initial levels and a counterweight arrangement could reduce the modeled demand.
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How hydraulics fit alongside other construction methods
The study does not present water power as a proven replacement for ramps or other construction methods. Its own discussion allows that ramps may have been used during early stages, with a hydraulic system potentially assisting later lifts. In that combined scenario, ramps address initial elevation while a float mechanism could have helped move stones from within the structure. The paper proposes this as a possibility; it does not establish which method was used, how much each contributed, or whether the hydraulic arrangement operated as described.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does this apply to the Giza pyramids?
No conclusion about the construction of the Giza pyramids follows from this study. Its case is the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, and its evidence concerns features interpreted at that site. The 2025 Indian Defence Review headline framed the idea as “advanced high-tech machines” used to construct “the pyramids,” but that plural and the suggestion of a demonstrated machine go beyond what the 2024 paper establishes. A more accurate description is a proposed hydraulic lifting mechanism that may have assisted construction at one pyramid. See the 2025 headline and article framing.
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