It is generally accepted that the larger Egyptian pyramids were constructed using mud rubble ramps to move the stone blocks to the placement level. This theory lacks credibility. The single ramp illustrated in many references would have to be about a mile long and a hundred yards wide at the base in order to reach the top of the largest pyramid. Placing and removing this enormous amount of material by hand labor is clearly impractical, if not impossible. In addition, the ramp would have to be maintained as a smooth surface to allow the movement of the stone blocks. A mud surface is too soft to allow this to happen.

Another variation on the mud ramp theory postulates that the ramp spiraled around the pyramid as it was constructed. This type of construction is simply impossible because the sides of the pyramid are too steep. The ramps would slide off due to their own weight, and certainly would not support heavy stone blocks.

If one assumes that the angular facing stones were placed from the top down after all the rectangular blocks were placed, the fact still remains that the spiraling mud ramps would not support the stone blocks, especially since in this case the ramp base would have to be very narrow.

It is clear that the only practical means of moving the stone blocks is the use of movable wooden ramps. Each ramp consisted of a sloped portion and a horizontal section the same height as the vertical dimension of the stone blocks. Each block was pushed and pulled up the sloped ramp to the level of the next course, then pushed and pulled into place.

Wooden rollers were used to expedite moving over longer distances.

Before starting to place the blocks, it was necessary to orient the pyramid in a true north-south, east-west direction. On a night with no moon, two technicians with plumb bobs and oil lamps established the true north-south line. Worker A at a marked spot sighted through his plumb line to the plumb line of worker B. Worker A directed worker B to line his plumb line to coincide with the nearest polar star and mark the spot. Fortunately at that latitude the pole star was not too high in the sky. However, it may have been necessary for worker B to be elevated on a support of some kind. As the polar star made its apparent small circle in the sky, worker B shifted his plumb line to coincide with the star, as observed by worker A. After a complete shift from side to side had been observed, the midpoint of the marked spots was then marked,

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