The Great Pyramid of Gaza is not square. It's slightly lopsided – by about five inches – according to archaeologists who measured it and wrote a study reported on by the website
Live Science.
The
Glen Dash Foundation said it and the Ancient Egypt Research Associates conducted a survey of the pyramid's base in February 2015. Using a statistical method called linear regression analysis, their archaeologists found the west side of the pyramid was 5.5 inches longer than the east side of the pyramid, noted Live Science.
More precisely, the survey found that the east side measured from 755.561 feet to 755.817 feet while the west side measures 755.833 feet to 756.024 feet. Researchers said that despite the differing measurements they were impressed with the "remarkable" precision in the pyramid's construction more than 4,500 years ago.
"We also continue to analyze the data for new insights, and we have not been disappointed," the foundation said. "The data show that the Egyptians possessed quite remarkable skills for their time. We hope to eventually figure out how the Egyptians laid out the pyramid with such precision, and in doing so hope to learn much about the tools and technology they had at their disposal."
Dash told Live Science he believed the Egyptians used a type of grid to lay out the pyramid. He said the degree of error from the north-south and east-west were nearly the same.
"(There is) good evidence that the pyramid and its associated temple were laid out on a common, very precisely oriented grid."
The Great Pyramid, built by Pharaoh Khufu around 2550 B.C., needed about 2.3 million stone blocks weighing 2.5 to 15 tons each, according to
National Geographic. The pyramid had three burial chambers, one underground, a second one in an above ground chamber and the third, called the king's chamber in the center of the pyramid.