The construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza is one of the greatest mysteries in history. They are the largest and most elaborate structures built in the ancient world, which is what considers them to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Great Pyramids of Giza are made up of three separate pyramids for three different pharaohs: Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure who were all pharaohs during the Fourth Dynasty (2,575-2,450 BCE), also known as the Old Kingdom. Khufu’s pyramid was built first and is known as the Great Pyramid.
It took over 20 years to build his pyramid with the help of hundreds of thousands of peasants. Khafre, Khufu’s son, built his own pyramid a few years later and this pyramid appears to be larger than Khufu’s, however, it’s an illusion and is actually around thirty feet shorter. The third and final pyramid is Menkaure’s pyramid, which was built once his father’s pyramid was finished. His is the smallest of the three pyramids, only half the height of the Great Pyramid built by his grandfather (Millmore).
Historians find it extremely difficult to determine how such large structures were built thousands of years ago when we still have difficulty building structures that size using today’s technologies and knowledge. Who built the Great Pyramids and what methods and technologies were used to do so? There are many theories surrounding the idea of how such large and complex structures such as the Great Pyramids were built thousands of years ago. Some say aliens built them, and others suggest technologies such as earth ramps were used to move such large stones to great heights.
Many believe that the technologies used by the ancient Egyptians to create these magnificent pyramids have been lost over the centuries. In an article written by Marissa McCauley, she states that most people imagine slave labor as being the primary method used to build the great pyramids, however, this is not true (McCauley). McCauley discusses the ideas of a professor at Penn State named Donald Redford who believes that peasants were the ones who worked on the pyramids.
There is evidence that they didn’t live at the site of their work, but lived together in communities where the pharaoh Khufu provided them with shelter, food and other necessities. This does not sound like slave labor by any means. So the question is, what technologies were used to move these stones hundreds of miles to the site of Giza and how did the peasants get the stones up so high? How were the ancient Egyptians able to transport the large stones used to build the pyramids?
First, we must examine where the stones came from since there’s evidence that some of the stones were brought from hundreds of miles away. In order to move stones hundreds of miles, they used their greatest resource: the very large and powerful Nile River. In a book titled The Pyramids by Miroslav Verner, there’s a chapter titled The Construction of the Pyramids where the author discusses methods that were used to build the Great Pyramids of Giza. According to Verner, the Nile was the quickest and least difficult way to transport stones of these sizes down the river for hundreds of miles (Verner 65).
He states that there is written and pictorial evidence that supports the idea that the Nile was used quite often to transport these massive stones (Verner 65). However, the Nile wasn’t the only way stones were brought to the site of Giza. There is evidence that most of the stones used to build the Great Pyramids came from nearby quarries, which is why limestone was chosen as the primary medium for the pyramids (Verner 67). Since limestone was the closest and most abundant medium, it seems plausible why it was primarily used.
In order to get the stones up the sides of the pyramids to heights around 400 or more feet, a lot of manpower needed to be used. One of the greatest mysteries behind the construction of the pyramids is how many people worked on the pyramids. We know that in order to get extremely heavy stones up the sides of the pyramids, hundreds of thousands of people would have had to help push and pull the stones upward. One method historians believe to have been used in order to do this was by creating ramps made out of earth.
In The Pyramids, Verner says that the ramp theory is present in certain written documents from ancient Egyptian times (Verner 86). One question that researchers were posed with was what kind of ramp was used? In order to figure this out, some assumptions needed to be made. According to Verner, researchers had trouble deciding which of the two theories was correct: was there a single ramp that wrapped around the entire structure or was there a single vertical ramp that was extended over time as the structure rose taller and taller? Verner 88).
The researchers agreed that a single vertical ramp that grew over time was used in the construction of the pyramids (Verner 89). However, this is only what they are inferring from the evidence that is available to them. The ancient Egyptian’s mathematical knowledge was extensive and was needed in order to build such mathematically flawless structures like the Great Pyramids. According the Verner, the best evidence of the ancient Egyptians mathematical knowledge is found in the construction of their pyramids (Verner 70).
For example, the Great Pyramid itself, which was built by Khufu, is not a typical four-sided pyramid like most pyramids built during the fourth century. In a book titled The Egyptian Pyramids, the author, J. P. Lepre states that the Great Pyramid is an eight-sided figure which is made possible with the concavity of it’s core (Lepre 65). The indentations that make this figure eight-sided, however, can only be seen from the air and are basically invisible from any position on the ground.
This unique pyramid design and the ability of the ancient Egyptians to create an eight-sided figure that looks four-sided unless seen from the air, shows just how vast their mathematical skills and knowledge were thousands of years ago. In an article titled The Mysterious Secrets of the Great Pyramid, the author, William F. Dankenbring, discusses the ideas of another author named Peter Tompkins who says “Whoever built the Great Pyramid… knew the circumference of the planet, and the length of the year to several decimals – data which were not rediscovered till the seventeenth century” (Dankenbring 21).
The fact that the ancient Egyptians had knowledge of such complex ideas before the common people rediscovered it so many years later shows just how intelligent and informed they were about the world around them. This is also why some historians argue that the Great Pyramids couldn’t have been built during the fourth century. According to some, the fact that such advanced ideas were used in not only the mathematical angels of the pyramids but also in the placement of the pyramids themselves, shows how the pyramids had to have been built in more modern times.
In an article titled The Great Pyramid of Giza, the author, Martin Grey, discusses evidence relating to why he believes the ancient Egyptians couldn’t have built the Great Pyramid. He states that there is no solid evidence that Khufu, or the ancient Egyptians in general, built the Great Pyramid (Grey). However, a lot more evidence has been found inferring that the ancient Egyptians were the ones who built the Great Pyramids, but this doesn’t stop some people from believing differently.
The Great Pyramids of Giza have many mysteries surrounding the construction and technologies used, however, they still live up to being one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Although there are many theories relating to the mysteries about the great pyramids, we will never know for sure just how the great monuments were constructed. All we can say for sure is that the amount of knowledge and manpower needed to construct these magnificent structures exceeds what we originally believed the ancient Egyptians possessed.