How were pyramids constructed?

Answer 1

The biggest, the Great Pyramid of the 4th dynasty Pharaoh Khufu, 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, bulldozers or aliens. 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 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. The slaves were naked too low in status to be given clothes.

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.

Answer 2

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. Some of them were free men doing particular tasks such as masons, tool makers, carpenters, scribes and supervisors. Many of course were unskilled slave labourers. The slaves could expect to be fed and watered but little else. They are naked too low in status to wear clothes. Through the Pharaoh's reign, the construction site teemed with workers of all kinds toiling in the hot sun 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. After they had cut deep enough to define a block, they packed the riven rock with pieces of porous wood. A slave pours water on the wood in 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 better fit than random blocks without further finishing. From dawn to dusk, slave gangs 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. The noise on the ramp was one of chanting slaves, the rumble of heavy sledges and the swish of the overseer's lash. Years of experience ensured that the overseer never missed his mark, as its thong wrapped around its unfortunate victim's naked body. Water is poured under the runners of the sledges to reduce friction to ease their passage up the ramp. When the sledges reached the working level teams of slaves called setters shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated positions using 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. Long lines of slaves, their bare bodies covered in the dust of the quarry and gleaming with sweat, drag the loaded sledges along a causeway to the river. Here the great stones hewn with so much effort and suffering will be loaded onto barges and floated down the river. 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.