How were the pyramids built?

Answer 1

Building plans showing how the pyramid was built have never been found, experts use present knowledge about construction to make some intelligent guesses. The Ancient Egyptians were an ingenious people. You cannot help to be impressed by the fearlessness the ancient builders exhibited in taking on such a colossal project.

The limestone blocks were cut out in the quarries close the pyramid site. Most of these blocks were roughly cut to size. Only where precision was needed were they dressed and trimmed by skilled masons to exacting standards. Once the limestone blocks quarried they were hauled on sledges along a causeway by gangs of slaves. Water was poured around the sledges to help them slide.

A spiralling ramp of mud, brick and rubble was used to haul the blocks to the level where building was going on. Once at the working level the blocks were man-handled off the sledges into position by levers and brute force by further gangs of slaves called setters. Once relieved of their load the hauliers would then make their weary way back down the ramp to start the whole process again.

A canal connected the pyramid site with the Nile. Here granite brought down from Aswan and fine limestone from Tura was unloaded. These were special stones that involved a lot of preparation in their quarrying, dressing and transportation.

Answer 2

The Egyptians made the first pyramids out of adobe (A-dob-ee) a cement like substance and put it into a triangular shape using a cedar sled.

answer 2 There are three main regions where pyramid building took place, the Middle East (notably Egypt); Meso-America; and China. In the first two, the buildings are mainly of stone, and in China and Egypt, adobe is a common construction.

In each case they were constructed by organized labor, and mostly to commemorate people who considered themselves to be important.
Shortly after coming to the throne the Pharaoh would command his overseer of public works and architects to prepare a burial place in keeping with his status as a god-king. The chosen site was usually one on the edge of the cultivated land in an already established pyramid field. The royal survey team set to work marking out the site. Great care was taken in orientating the site to the four points of the compass and in levelling the site to provide a foundation for the pyramid. When the slaves had cleared away the sand and rubble highly skilled masons were called in to level the foundations. This was done by cutting a grid of channels and filling them with water. The rock was then cut back to the water level to make it perfectly flat. Finally the water was drained away and the channels filled with rubble.

At any one time as many as 20,000 workers may have been involved on this massive project. Some of them were free men doing particular tasks such as masons, tool makers, carpenters, scribes and overseers. Many of course were unskilled slave labourers. A town was built for the free workers where they were provided with houses, food, clothing and even medical care. Less comfortable accommodation in the form of barracks was provided for the slaves. The slaves went naked too low in status to wear clothes.

Through the Pharaoh's reign, the construction site teemed with workers of all kinds hard pressed to complete the monument before the king's death. The quarries are places of great activity creating clouds of dust. Through this dust the bodies of the quarry slaves stand out dark against the yellow stone. Slaves are boring holes using primitive drill bits and sand which acted as an abrasive. After they had drilled cores deep enough to define a block on one side, they packed the holes with pieces of porous wood and pour water into the hole. The wood expands so fast that the block splits out with a bang (or at least a crack). As the drill bits were made from soft copper they blunted after a relatively short period of use. Teams of slaves scurried back and forth to the smith's workshop were the bits were sharpened.

After the stone blocks are extracted from the quarry face they are lowered onto sledges. A mark is made on the stone by a scribe. This aided them to place the blocks in the pyramid just as they came out of the quarry ensuring a good fit without further finishing. Only a fraction of the stones, where accuracy was required to maintain the alignment of the structure, went to the masons.

From dawn to dusk, gangs of slaves drag the sledges loaded with stones each weighing about 2.5 tons to a staging area at the base of the pyramid. Most of the stone blocks proceed up the ramp without future handling. Only a fraction of the stone blocks needed to be cut to precise dimensions by the masons. The slaves begin hauling the loaded sledges slowly up the clay and rubble ramp that spiralled around the emerging structure. The noise here was one of chanting slaves, the rumble of heavy sledges and later in the day when effort begins to flag, the swish of the overseer's lash.

Boats made from reeds deliver brilliant white limestone from Tura just across the river. This stone will be used for the outer case of the pyramid. In order to obtain the best stone, the slaves toiled in manmade caves lit only by primitive lamps. Once put in place and polished the effect will be awe inspiring.

Giant barges brought granite from Aswan over 400 miles upriver. Some of the granite stones used for lining the burial chambers and galleries weigh up to 70 tons.

At the working level teams of slaves called setters shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated positions. These naked men used only simple levers, brute force and experience gained from years of hard labour. Once the stones had been delivered the hauling gang would make their way down the ramp carrying their sledge, in order to make the same back breaking journey up as they would several times a day. Their only substantial respite from this round of toil in the hot sun was when they stopped for a meal of flat bread and onions.

Besides the construction workers thousands of support workers both slave and free toil under the watchful eyes of the Pharaoh's project managers, the scribes.

Other slaves are employed in maintaining and extending the ramps as the pyramid grew. These ramps are made of rubble, bound together with desert tafla (a type of clay) and laid with planks to ease the passage of the ramps. Rows of slave labourers are seen breaking up waste material from the quarries, mixing them with the desert tafla clay and loading the finished mixture into baskets. Individual baskets are loaded onto the shoulders of slaves for delivery to the ramp builders on the pyramid.

Copper chisels and drill bits were used for quarrying limestone but the hard Aswan granite required something far more durable. Balls of dolerite, a hard, black igneous rock, were used to extract the granite. These dolerite "pounders" were used to pulverize the stone around the edge of the granite block that needed to be extracted. Teams of naked slaves pound out the stone for days, perhaps weeks, in the broiling heat until sufficient stone has been exposed for extraction. At the bottom, they rammed wooden pegs into slots they had cut, and filled the slots with water. The pegs would expand, splitting the rock. Slaves would then lower the blocks onto sledges. Long lines of slaves drag them along a causeway to the river where they were loaded onto barges and floated down the river.
By using slaves to extract building material from quarries, shipping it to the sites, and using the labour of farmers as relief work during the Nile flooding to erect the pyramids

• The pyramids built by the Egyptians. They built them by using a ramp they made around the pyramid.
• They also had help from aliens.
• One rather interesting theory that does in fact have some merit and basis in facts that can be discovered (as opposed to the alien theory which is unsupported) is an internal ramp leading around the pyramid.

Answer:

Every text ( and old Biblical epic movies) reports that the pyramids were made of limestone blocks positioned by thousands of slaves but Joseph Davidovits (a French Chemical Engineer) proposed, in the 1980's that they were made of concrete. The lower tiers were done by the sweating slaves method, but the higher layers were made by workers Egyptian cement mixture.

MIT is actually reviewing this proposal by duplicating the theorized Egyptian cement mixture.

In any case the larger blocks were set in place and an outer layer of higher grade polished limestone was put around the rough inner layers. Shortly after ascending the throne in 2606BC, Pharaoh Khufu commanded his overseer of works to prepare a burial place in keeping with his delusions of grandeur. A site was chosen on the Giza plateau west of the Nile across from his capital at Memphis. The site was surveyed and levelled to provide a foundation for Khufu's Great Pyramid. As the first stones for the pyramid were being cut from nearby quarries, thousands of labourers began building the causeway, erecting storehouses and digging a canal to link the foot of the plateau to the Nile. Meanwhile scribes dispatched orders for more workers, craftsmen, tools, rope, timber, food, cooking utensils and other supplies. Through the Pharaoh's reign, the construction site teemed with labourers struggling to complete the monument before the king's death. Khufu and his architects did not make it easy for them. The royal planners decided to enlarge the structure several times and relocate the burial chamber from beneath the structure to its inner reaches. Day after day, year after year, the quarries rang with the sound of hammer and chisel on stone. Boats delivered fine limestone from Tura and granite from Aswan over 400 miles upriver. From dawn to dusk, sledge crews dragged stones each weighing about 2.5 long tons to staging areas at the base of the pyramid. There the skilled masons chiselled the blocks to prescribed dimensions, smoothed the sides and squared the corners. Workmen then reloaded the sledge and began hauling them slowly up the clay and rubble ramp that spiralled around the emerging structure. As the working level grew ever higher teams of setters shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated positions. Toiling below were the tool makers, cooks, porters and guards under the watchful eyes of the scribes, the royal project managers. At any one time as many as 30,000 workers may have been involved on this massive project. Some of them were professional craftsmen most however were peasant conscripts.
First, they cut large stone blocks, and use them to make the pyramid.

Once the stone had been cut or offloaded near the construction site, it needed to be hauled to the pyramid.

They stack the stones and are often cut to a slant so they form pyramids.
Egyptian pyramids are amongst the oldest stone buildings in the world. They were built nearly five thousand years ago. These ancient tombs are also among the world's largest structures. The biggest is taller than a 40-story building and covers the area occupied by Lincoln's Inn (about 13 acres; 5.3 hectares). Men built these huge structures without the help of equipment such as cranes and bulldozers. The ancient Egyptians used tools of copper, a softer metal than steel. Wooden wedges to help prise the stone from the quarry face and levers to help put the stones in place were also used in building the pyramids. Building a pyramid was dirty, difficult and dangerous work. It required meticulous planning and organization.

Two varieties of stone were used, limestone and granite. The limestone which made up the bulk of the pyramid was quarried locally. The granite had to be brought 400 miles from the quarries at Aswan to where the pyramid was being built. They were transported on the Nile River in massive reed boats. The average weight of one of the pyramid's stone block is two and half tons. Some of the Aswan blocks, however, weighed up to 70 tons. To complete the Great Pyramid at Giza, one stone block was quarried, shaped and placed in position every two minutes for 20 years. It was this dangerous, hard and monotonous work that was done by slaves. This was an era of slave labour and none were more expert in directing their slaves than the ancient Egyptians.

In the minds of the Ancient Egyptians the pyramid form served a very serious purpose. Ancient Egyptians had a strong belief in life after death. The pharaohs wanted their bodies to last forever, so they had pyramids built to protect their bodies after death. Each pyramid housed a pharaoh's preserved body. It also held the goods he would need in his next life to continue living as he had when he was alive. Granite doors, false passages and fake burial chambers were built in an attempt to confuse and stop robbers from robbing the pyramids. In spite of these precautions, all pyramids were robbed of their treasures by around 1000 B.C.

Building plans showing how the pyramid was built have never been found, experts use present knowledge about construction to make some intelligent guesses. The Ancient Egyptians were an ingenious people. You cannot help to be impressed by the fearlessness the ancient builders exhibited in taking on such a colossal project.

The limestone blocks were cut out in the quarries close the pyramid site. Most of these blocks were roughly cut to size. Only where precision was needed were they dressed and trimmed by skilled masons to exacting standards. Once the limestone blocks quarried they were hauled on sledges along a causeway by gangs of slaves. Water was poured around the sledges to help them slide.

A spiralling ramp of mud, brick and rubble was used to haul the blocks to the level where building was going on. Once at the working level the blocks were man-handled off the sledges into position by levers and brute force by further gangs of slaves called setters. Once relieved of their load the hauliers would then make their weary way back down the ramp to start the whole process again.

A canal connected the pyramid site with the Nile. Here granite brought down from Aswan and fine limestone from Tura was unloaded. These were special stones that involved a lot of preparation in their quarrying, dressing and transportation. A vast amount of labour: of quarrymen, masons and of course slaves.
Although it is not precisely understood how the pyramids were constructed, it is widely understood that simple, effective tools were used to quarry the stones, move them to the construction site and place them in desired locations. It was a monumental undertaking, estimated to take 20 years per pyramid, involving the mechanics of moving huge masses of building material, mind boggling logistics and a labour force of thousands. Pyramid construction was the most massive building project in all of history.

The Aztecs, Mayans and ancient Egyptians had one thing in common: They built pyramids. Egyptians set the standard for classic pyramid design, massive monuments with square bases and four smooth sided triangular sides rising to a point. The construction involved highly skilled masons and various other tradesmen as well as thousands of slave labourers, many of whom died during construction. The crafts people lived in a specially built town where they were provided with houses, food, clothing and even medical care. The slaves were sheltered in vast barracks. They went naked, it was considered unnecessary to provide mere slaves with clothes.

The construction was an enormous drain on both the economy and manpower resources of the civilization. Thus, the pyramids became smaller and less extravagant as time passed. It is estimated the construction period lasted from 2700 B.C. to 1700 B.C.

Every time a new pharaoh ascended the throne, construction on a pyramid began. The new pyramid would be the pharaoh's final resting place. The construction site was laid out after engineers found a suitable location with a good foundation, which was excavated and levelled by the workforce. Slaves used copper- and stone-cutting tools to carve out large stone blocks from the quarries. These large pieces were transported from local quarries using wooden sleds that were dragged by gangs of slaves. Transportation from remote quarries was accomplished with barges.

How the large stones were raised is uncertain. There is evidence that earthen ramps made of mud brick and rubble were used at an inclined plane during the first stages of construction. These were built up as the pyramid progressed upward and then removed as the pyramid was finished downward. The large blocks were dragged on sledges to the needed height. The exact configurations of the ramps are unknown.

Pyramid construction followed exact measurements and calculations performed by mathematicians. Skilled stonecutters had precision tools with which they ensured the stones were smooth and fit together perfectly. The slaves were coordinated to bring all the materials together to accomplish the pyramid's construction. There is no documentation available on how these great artefacts were actually built. However, human stamina, ingenuity and a stunning degree of intelligence and no doubt a measure of cruelty were certainly critical to the pyramid's monumental construction.
To serve the king and the power to perform a miracle

Shortly after ascending the throne in 2606BC, Pharaoh Khufu commanded his overseer of works to prepare a burial place in keeping with his delusions of grandeur. A site was chosen on the Giza plateau west of the Nile across from his capital at Memphis. The site was surveyed and levelled to provide a foundation for Khufu's Great Pyramid.

As the first stones for the pyramid were being cut from nearby quarries, thousands of slaves began building the causeway, erecting storehouses and digging a canal to link the foot of the plateau to the Nile. Meanwhile scribes dispatched orders for more labour (including masons and slaves) tools, rope, timber, food, cooking utensils and other supplies.

Through the Pharaoh's reign, the construction site teemed with workers of all kinds hard pressed to complete the monument before the king's death. Khufu and his architects did not make it easy for them. The royal planners decided to enlarge the structure several times and relocate the burial chamber from beneath the structure to its inner reaches. Day after day, year after year, the quarries rang with the sound of hammer and chisel on stone. Boats delivered fine limestone from Tura and granite from Aswan over 400 miles upriver. Some of the granite stones from Aswan weighed to 70 tons.

From dawn to dusk, naked slaves using sledges dragged stones each weighing about each to staging areas at the base of the pyramid. There the skilled masons chiselled the blocks to prescribed dimensions, smoothed the sides and squared the corners. Slaves then reloaded the sledge and began hauling them slowly up the clay and rubble ramp that spiralled around the emerging structure.

As the working level grew ever higher teams of setters shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated positions. Toiling below were the tool makers, cooks, porters and guards under the watchful eyes of the scribes, the royal project managers.

At any one time as many as 30,000 workers may have been involved on this massive project. Some of them were professional craftsmen most however were slaves.
the pyramid was built out of stones and then shaved down at the top to form a point

Answer 3

Plans showing how a pyramid was built have never been found, experts use present knowledge about construction to make some intelligent guesses. The Ancient Egyptians were an ingenious people. You cannot help to be impressed by the fearlessness the ancient builders exhibited in taking on such a colossal project.

The limestone blocks were cut out in the quarries close the pyramid site. Most of these blocks were roughly cut to size. Only where precision was needed were they dressed and trimmed by skilled masons to exacting standards. Once the limestone blocks quarried they were hauled on sledges along a causeway by gangs of slaves. Water was poured around the sledges to help them slide.

A spiralling ramp of mud, brick and rubble was used to haul the blocks to the level where building was going on. Once at the working level the blocks were man-handled off the sledges into position by levers and brute force by further gangs of slaves called setters. Once relieved of their load the hauliers would then make their weary way back down the ramp to start the whole process again.

A canal connected the pyramid site with the Nile. Here granite brought down from Aswan was unloaded. These were special stones that involved a lot of preparation in their quarrying, dressing and transportation.