How were the Great Pyramids of Giza actually made? The creepy new ‘Unbuilt Theory,’ decoded

One TikTok account posted a video of a theory surrounding the way the pyramids were built and suggested they were unbuilt. But is it true or even plausible?

TikTok is home to many anonymous accounts with hefty audiences. One of these accounts, @truth.xposer, has accumulated nearly half a million followers thanks to its faceless videos featuring an AI voiceover discussing conspiracies.

The account posted a video with more than 337,000 views, where a narrator questioned the supposed origins of the Egyptian pyramids. Then, the narrator claimed that no one “actually built” the pyramids.

“They were unbuilt,” an AI voiceover said in the video. “The evidence has been right in front of us. We just misinterpreted it … Experts once thought the Egyptians used massive ramps. But there is zero evidence a mile-long ramp ever existed.”

The video went on to suggest that ancient Egyptians carved the pyramids out of a natural, limestone mountain.

The evidence

While there is an actual unbuilt theory outside of @truth.xposer's video, it doesn't match the video's description. There is no evidence that the pyramids were “unbuilt” in the way the creator suggested, and the original theory doesn't suggest that ramps weren't used in the pyramids' construction.

The pyramids are so ancient and impressive in scale that their construction remains an ongoing area of study. But there is at least some evidence that ramps were involved in the construction of the pyramids.

In 2018, a team of academics from the University of Liverpool discovered “huge alabaster blocks,” which they suggested were used in the construction of the pyramids.

The real unbuilt theory

The real unbuilt theory, which was first posited by Korean independent researcher Huni Choi and popularized by the YouTube breakdown of licensed architect Dami Lee, engaged with the idea that builders carved the pyramids downward out of a larger structure.

Cleveland 13 News' Joan Elloway-Nash, synthesizing Lee's video breakdown, wrote that Choi's unbuilt theory “proposes that builders first created an oversized, trapezoidal ‘step mass' that contained an integrated ramp system.”

“This broader structure provided a flat, stable working deck near the top, allowing crews to maintain the pyramid's exact geometry as they reached the apex,” Elloway-Nash wrote. “Under this model, the pyramid seen today emerged only after builders carved downward into the final shape from this larger mass … The remaining 2 million tons of stone did not just disappear. Choi argues they were likely recycled to build other structures in the Giza complex, including the Pyramid of Khafre. This matches known Egyptian practices of repurposing materials across different dynasties.”

Pyramids theory vs. fact

Alternative theories have still been created that propose pseudoscientific ideas. Commenters, for instance, shared some of their alternative theories when discussing @truth.xposer's video.

“Giants built the pyramids…. the pyramids are made of stone blocks as you said in your video, yet no mountain is already made of stone blocks, so this theory is wrong,” one commenter wrote.

While the post didn't mention extraterrestrials, it did include flashes of pseudoscientific imagery. Reed Magazine wrote that “pseudoarchaeology” (e.g., that “extraterrestrials helped the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids at Giza”) is often based in racial bias.

“You see [pseudoarchaeology] principally applied to places that are exoticized, like Peru, Native American civilizations, Meso-America, Egypt, India,” Reed College professor Thomas Landvatter told the magazine. In contrast, civilizations such as ancient Greece and Rome have not received the same level of scrutiny, at least according to the interviewed experts.

The two interviewed subjects in the story, Landvatter and technologist Beth Platte, concluded that “it is important to identify and interrogate these dominant narratives.”

Buzz News has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment, along with Egyptologist Mark Lehner via email. The story will be updated if they reply.

@truth.xposer The Great Pyramid of Giza wasn't built, it was UNBUILT. #ancientegypt #greatpyramid #archaeology #history #story ♬ original sound – ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ xᴘᴏꜱᴇʀ