How did the pyramids get built?

Answer 1

Shortly after ascending the throne the Pharaoh issued a series of commands to his overseer of works to prepare a burial place in keeping with his status as a god-king. A site would be chosen on the west bank of the Nile, most likely in one of the already established pyramid fields. The site was surveyed and levelled to provide a foundation for the pyramid.

As the slaves cut the first stones for the pyramid from nearby quarries, thousands more began building a causeway, erecting storehouses and accommodation blocks. Meanwhile scribes, the Pharaoh's project managers, dispatched orders for more supplies and labour both skilled and unskilled.

The number of workers involved in the construction depended on the size and complexity of the structure, but it always numbered in thousands. 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 a barracks, was provided for the slaves. The slaves are naked too low in status to be given 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. Day after day, year after year, the quarries rang with the sound of hammer and chisel on stone. Through the dust the dark bodies of the quarry slaves stand out dark against the yellow stone.

After they had cut deep enough to define a block, they packed the riven rock with pieces of porous wood and then a slave would pour water on the hole. 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 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.

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 that spiralled around the emerging structure. The noise here was one of chanting slaves, the rumble of heavy sledges.

At the working level teams of slaves called setters 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. Toiling below were the support workers and guards 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.

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 awe inspiring.

Giant barges made from papyrus reeds brought granite from Aswan over 400 miles upriver. 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 weigh 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, 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 slaves, their bare bodies gleaming with sweat in the hot sun, 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. Then, with hundreds of slaves using a combination of ropes and levers lower the great blocks onto long sledges and dragged them to the river where they were loaded onto the barges.

Answer 2

The pyramids were built by skilled laborers, using a combination of simple machines, ramps, and sledges to move and place the large stone blocks. It is believed that tens of thousands of workers, including skilled craftsmen and laborers, were employed for construction over many years. The exact techniques and methods used are still debated by historians and archaeologists.