Here are a few book covers examining the Pyramids and Egyptian themes.
The first one, Pyramid Illusions, is a straightforward they-did-it-with-a-ramp type of book.
The most interesting "exotically speaking" is Worth Smith's Mystery of the Ages from 1948. Smith is one of many in past times who felt that the Great Pyramid of Giza is a "gospel in stone." Several folks would try to "decode" the G.P. in an end-of-the-world type of way. Using standard inches or various contrived "Pyramid Inches," these guys would match measurements of the G.P.'s passages with the time of world events, on a 1 year = 1 inch basis. By their reckoning, the world ended around 50 years ago, I think.
From a realistic point of view, -- believable too! -- we have William Bazhaw's The Search for Cheops and His Treasure. This book, in my opinion, offers the only believable method for the construction of the Great Pyramid by folks 4000 years ago, using their technology and not Space God mumbo-jumbo.
(By the way, the reason that "earthen ramps" were probably NOT used is, by the time the G.P. was about halfway built, the amount of material for the ramp or ramps would have far exceeded the amount of materials used for the entire G.P. ! Making the ramps a much huger undertaking than the finished product.
No, Bazhaw has come up with a craftier way to build a pyramid, given its location (hint, hint).
Next time we'll look into how it was (probably) done.
