Shortly after coming to the throne the Pharaoh commanded his architects to prepare a burial place in keeping with his status as a god-king. A site was chosen west of the Nile in one of the existing pyramid sites. 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 Khufu's Great Pyramid. When the slaves had cleared away the sand and cut the site roughly to shape 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.
On the Great Pyramid, for example, as many as 20,000 workers may have been involved. Some of them were free men doing particular tasks such as masons, tool makers, carpenters, scribes and slave overseers. The remainder and by far the majority were slaves, naked slaves too low in status to wear clothes.
Through Khufu's reign, the construction site teemed with workers of all kinds hard pressed to complete the monument before the king's death. Day after day, year after year, the quarries buzzed with activity. Through the dust the bodies of the quarry slaves stand out dark against the yellow coloured stone. Gangs of slaves bore 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 then doused it with water. The wood expands so fast that the block splits out with a crack. After the stone blocks are extracted from the quarry face they are strapped onto sledges. A mark is made on the stone by a scribe.
From dawn to dusk, gangs of slaves drag the sledges loaded with stones each weighing about 2.5 tons along roadways laid with wooden planks to staging areas at the base of the pyramid. Water or oil is poured under the runners of the sledges to ease their passage. 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 to retain the accurate alignment of the pyramid. The slaves begin hauling the loaded sledges slowly up a long clay and rubble ramp. By the time the pyramid is complete this ramp will nearly a mile long. The noise here was one of chanting slaves and the rumble of heavy sledges.
At the working level teams of slaves called setters using simple levers and brute strength shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated positions. 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 food, a meal of bread and onions.
A number of slaves are employed in maintaining and extending the ramp as the pyramid grew. The ramp is 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.
Boats made from reeds deliver brilliant white limestone from Tura just across the river. Here the slaves, in light provided by primitive lamps, toil in manmade caves to obtain the best stone. This stone will be used for the outer case of the pyramid. Once put in place and polished the effect will be dazzling.
Granite often used to line the burial chambers and on some pyramids the bottom course was brought from Aswan over 400 miles (640 km) upriver on giant barges made from reeds. Some of the granite stones from Aswan weigh up to 70 tons. Copper chisels and drills used for quarrying limestone could not be used on granite. Balls of dolerite, a hard, black igneous rock, are used in the quarries of Aswan to extract the hard 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 would pound out the stone toiling for hours on end in the blazing sun. 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 straining slaves, their naked bodies gleaming with sweat, drag the loaded sledges along a causeway to the river where they will be loaded onto barges and floated down the river.
Numerous pyramids have been built at different moments in time and in different places. The Great Pyramids at Giza, which are the most famous Egyptian pyramids, are built near to the modern city of Giza on the west bank of the Nile River. Numerous Nubian pyramids were built in southern Egypt. There are Mayan pyramids in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and numerous other pyramids (such as the Pyramid at the Louvre in Paris).the built the pyramids in EgyptP
Thousands of Mayan pyramids were built throughout Mesoamerica, especially in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. Some famous archaeological sites with Mayan pyramids include Tikal in Guatemala, Chichen Itza in Mexico, and Copan in Honduras.
Step pyramids served as royal tombs in ancient Egypt, with the most famous example being the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. These pyramids were characterized by stacked layers or steps, which symbolized the sun's rays reaching towards the heavens. Step pyramids represented an early form of pyramid construction before the more familiar smooth-sided pyramids, such as those at Giza, were developed.
The great pyramids that everyone thinks about are to be found near the city of Cairo on the plateau at Giza. However, there are around 138 pyramids to be found in different locations in Egypt. For instance the first pyramid to be built, the step pyramid was built for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser by his vizier Imhotep during the 27th century BC and is located northwest of the city of Memphis. .
The Aztecs built the terrific pyramids in Mexico.they were built to honour their noble gods
they were step pyramids built out of stone
It was egyptians yo but no one knows for sure bcuz we wasnt around back then...oh dear jesus !
The first of the Great Pyramids, the Step Pyramid, was built in 3700 B.C. The last pyramids in Egypt were built between 1800-1700 B.C.
thy were built by the slaves in Egypt they were made with mud and water
no actaly it was the Aztec were they built step pyramids for making sacrafices to there gods.
The first pyramid was the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, built for King Zoser in 2750 BC.
The first pyramid was the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, built for King Zoser in 2750 BC.
djosers pyramid. He also built the bent pyramid
Pyramids were build for the purpose of protecting the pharaoh it was built for, and all of his belongings that will be spiritually passed down with him to the afterlife. Step pyramids symbolized a walkway to heaven that spirits used to gain access to the afterlife.
The pyramids were built in the Kingdom of Egypt.
Ancient Pyramids were built in Egypt and Mexico!
Yes the step pyramid of Djoser completed c.2650BC