Who built pyramids and what was their purpose?

Answer 1

Pyramids were built with the primary function of being a tomb.

The Pharaoh would have ordered his overseer of works to draw up plans, organise the workforce and materials. The work force was made up of artisans, workmen, and craftsmen. It is estimated that 20,000 to 30,000 workers would have been needed for the task.

Answer 2

The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for the 4th dynasty Pharaoh Khufu who reigned between the years 2589BC and 2566BC. Ten to twenty thousand naked slaves toiled for 20 years to built this monument to one man and his ego.

Answer 3

the realization of divinity was the number one goal of the kamau(ancient egyptians). this realization culminated into becoming what they referred to as Ausar(osiris), people today would call it christ-consciousnsness. during the solar year, the spiritual faculties of 'man' has its annual receptivity of change, from februrary to december; the solar year being determined by the solstices and equinox'. each faculty of the paut neteru(tree of life) starting with Amen and ending with Geb was to be worked on, uniting the will(heru) to the spirit(Ra). this was called the theology of ausar. this work culminated at the winter solstice, the highest time of the year of change because the externalizing aspect of the mind and body was at its weakest and the internalizing was at its strongest. this resulted in a great time of reflection, meditation and introspection of the work done from the previous 10 months. the great pyramid was used as a clock to track and mark the coming of the winter solstice, for this reason. its shafts' alignment with a star of the belt of the constellation orion(ausar) and of the star sirius(auset) at sunrise shows this significance.

Answer 4

The main purpose of a pyramid was as tomb for the Pharaoh to aid his soul's transition to the stars and the gods where he will intercede for Egypt. The pharaoh was also declaring to his people, other nations and posterity how great he was. He obviously did not built the pyramid himself. This was the responsibility of his overseer of works, architects, scribes (the project managers), craftspeople (e.g. masons, carpenters, smiths and ropemakers), overseers and thousands of naked slaves.

Answer 5

One big dump from my Word files.

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, a launching pad to enable his soul to soar from the earth to join the gods and his ancestors in the heavens. 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. The slaves receive food and shelter in the form of a barracks, far less comfortable than the houses of the skilled workforce. They are naked, too low in status to wear clothes.

From the yawning depression of the quarry come the clink-clink of copper chisels and the thump of rock hammers of the quarry slaves toiling under the hot sun. After the stone blocks are extracted from the quarry face they are lowered onto sledges and a mark is made on the stone by one of the scribes. This aided them to place the blocks in the pyramid just as they came out of the quarry ensuring a better fit than random blocks without further finishing.

From dawn to dusk, gangs of slaves drag the sledges loaded with stones each weighing about two tons to staging areas 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. Whether it was a single long or spiralling ramp depends on the size of pyramid.

When the sledges reached 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 weary way down the ramp carrying their sledge, in order to make the same back breaking journey up as they would several times a day.

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 sledges. Rows of slaves 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.

Granite came from Aswan located 400 miles to the south. Granite was used for the lining of the burial chamber and the internal passage leading to it or in some instances the lower courses of the pyramid. These blocks were the largest in size used on the structure, for example, some of the granite stones used on the Great Pyramid at Giza weighs up to 70 tons. Copper chisels used for quarrying limestone could not be used, a harder material was required. Balls of dolerite, a hard, black igneous rock, were used in the quarries of Aswan to extract the hard granite. This is a place of great heat, dust and noise a hellish place to be sent to work. These dolerite "pounders" were used to pulverize the stone around the edge of the granite block that needed to be extracted. Teams of slaves pound away for weeks in order to expose enough stone for the block to be extracted from the quarry.

At the bottom, they ram wooden pegs into slots they have cut, and fill the slots with water. The pegs will expand and split the rock with a resounding crack much more impressive than anything heard with the softer limestone. With much cursing and sweat the slaves lower the great blocks onto sledges. As many as two-hundred slaves are used to drag a loaded sledge along a causeway to the river where they are loaded unto barges and floated downriver with the current to the pyramid site.

Answer 6

The three great Pyramids at Giza were built over a period between approximately 2589-2515BC. They were built for three 4th dynasty Pharaohs: Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. The Pharaoh did not do any actual work on his pyramid that was left to his architects, scribes, masons and thousands of slaves.

Answer 7

To relax and eat Pizza or at least invent it.

Answer 8

The Great pyramids were built for the Pharaohs to show their power, and by King Kuhfu.