Where did the stones come from to built the pyramids?

Answer 1

Sandstone

/Edit: The Egyptians did not know about sandstone until the New Kingdom. Before, they used Granite and Limestone. The Granite was used to make the pyramid itself, while the limestone was used to cover the "steps" of the pyramid.

Answer 2

The construction techniques seem to have developed over time; the earliest pyramids were built in different ways than later ones. Most of the construction hypotheses are based on the idea that their huge stones were moved from a quarry and dragged and lifted into place. Disagreements center on the method by which the stones were conveyed and placed, after being carved using copper chisels to carve them out of the quarry stone. But a recent hypothesis claims that the building blocks were manufactured in-place from a kind of "limestone concrete".

Answer 3

Many of the pyramids were built with a number of different stone materials. Most of the material used was fairly rough, low grade limestone used to build the pyramid core, while fine white limestone was often employed for the outer casing as well as to cover interior walls, though pink granite was also often used on inner walls. Basalt or alabaster was not uncommon for floors.

Answer 4

The Egyptians quarried limestone from Saqqara, Giza, Dahshur http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/material.htm
Shortly after ascending the throne in 2589BC, Pharaoh Khufu commanded his overseer of works to prepare a burial place in keeping with his status as a god-king, a pyramid tomb far grander than anything that had been built before or since. 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 slaves cut the first stones for the pyramid from nearby quarries, thousands more began building the causeway, erecting storehouses and digging a canal to link the foot of the plateau to the Nile. Meanwhile scribes, the Pharaoh's project managers, dispatched orders for more supplies and labour both skilled and unskilled.

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.

Through Khufu'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. Through the dust the bodies of the naked quarry slaves stand out dark against the yellow 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 pour water into the holes. 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 naked slaves drag the sledges loaded with stones each weighing about 2.5 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 and the swish of the overseer's lash as its thong flies through the air. With years of experience in its use the overseer rarely misses as it coils like a snake around the naked body of a slave.

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 brought granite from Aswan over 400 miles upriver. Some of the granite stones from Aswan weigh 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 60 to 70 slaves pound out the stone. Their naked bodies gleam with sweat as they toil in the hot sun. 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 equally bare slaves hauling on ropes, lower the great blocks onto long sledges and dragged them to the river where they were loaded onto the barges.

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.

Answer 5

sand and lime stone, the outside would be sandstone but the inner would be a mixture, limestone is considerable stronger than sand stone.

MistroJoe

No that's not true. If it would be sandstone it would be blowing in the wind by now. The outside is made by limestone

Answer 6

The stones used to build the pyramids in Egypt were mainly quarried nearby the construction site. The limestone blocks came from quarries on the Giza plateau, while granite blocks were transported from Aswan located further south along the Nile River. Some theories suggest that the stones were also transported across the river using boats.

Answer 7

limestone

Answer 8

Limestone