How were Egyptian pyramids historically built?

Answer 1

Nobody knows for sure how they were built. Theories concerning their construction include:

Herodotus (c.450 B.C.) a Greek travel writer (perhaps the first) and historian who was told by his native guide that it took 100,000 slaves 20 years to build. According to the guide machines using planks and ropes were used to raise the blocks. The slave theory has persisted to the present day although the machines was replaced by slaves pulling sledges up a ramp. Numbers range from over 300,000 to 10,000. The identity of the slaves vary from black Nubian slaves (Nubia is located where Sudan is today) to the Israelites of Exodus. The Israelite theory can be dismissed as the date of the Exodus (if it actually took place) was over a 1000 years since the Giza pyramids were built and 300 years after the last Pharaoh was buried in a pyramid.

Since WWII slaves were replaced by peasant farmers recruited during the inundation, about three months when the fields are flooded and no work is possible on the land. A body of skilled workers were retained all year long preparing for the big push during the flood season.

Atlanteans or aliens using some advanced and lost technology built the Giza pyramids long before the ancient Egyptian civilisation got started. The later pyramids are just poor copies made by the Egyptians. It must be admitted the post-Giza pyramids are inferior in size and standard of construction. This does not imply that the Giza complex was built by some superior technological civilisation. War, famine, economics, political upheaval and changes in religious practices are rather more mundane and likely causes. There are also earlier pyramids such as the step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (c.2650BC); and the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dashur which show the evolution of pyramid construction.