Egypt’s Monuments Part V: The Pyramids Part II; The Construction Behind Egypt’s Pyramids

Unlike in my last post I will be going back a few steps to explain how the pyramids were built. So before we go on with other famous kings of Egypt, like I did with King Djoser, we will be looking at the effort, time, and work labor behind the making of the pyramids. One thing that we will find out through Miroslav Verner’s chapter The Construction of The Pyramds is that there is little known about the process of building the pyramids. The amount of workers used to do the building is always disputed, and whether they used pulleys or ramps is debated also. In general many things surrounding the building process of the pyramids is theoretical. A pyramid wasn’t just built in a day or two. A lot of work went into the construction plus gathering the materials, and lastly making the pyramid geometrically precise. Because a pyramid wasn’t constructed in just one year, a pharaoh would work on it through his entire lifetime and sometimes it wasn’t finished before his death. There is one known Pharaoh who built four pyramids throughout his lifetime, Snefru, and this shows that it wasn’t impossible to finish more than one pyramid but as a pharaoh your reign and lifetime had to be quite extensive. Snefru is the next great King of Egypt, like Djoser, that I will deal with in my next post. But for now we’re going to focus on the building, materials, and workers used for constructing Egypt’s pyramids.

I have some experience with construction because my family built our own log cabin. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, today you can buy a kit to build your house and you don’t have to draw up your own blueprints and plans, they’re already drawn up and all you have to do is pick the best fit. It took us two years until the house was livable, and even after we moved in we had many more things to do to finish it up. So having had a little experience with building I still can’t imagine how long, and how many workers, it must have taken for a pyramid to be completed. Much about the construction of the pyramids is unknown and often disputed. The amount of workers used for a single pyramid, whether they were paid or forced, and lastly the inventions they used for construction are all debated and theoretical. Miroslav Verner shows us the many theories behind the amount of workers used on one of the world’s greatest wonders, the Great Pyramid of Giza, because if the amount of laborers used for the largest pyramid constructed the amount for all other pyramids can be easily estimated. But because the ancient Egyptians didn’t keep records, or they were destroyed, the amount of workers used is all left up to hypotheses. For the Great Pyramid of Giza the range of workers has been disputed from 100,000 to 300,000, but no archaeologist or historian has given the correct amount. We would have to go back in time to know the exact sum of personnel used. Even the ancient historian’s, Herodotus, sum of 100,000 doesn’t fit. (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids: Their Archaeology and History. New York: Grove Press, 1997, p. 76-78). When looking at the Great Pyramid from the outside it seems almost inhumanly impossible to make such a gargantuan object, but an interesting discovery made recently shows that the Great Pyramid holds secrets, not only in its mass chambers, but also in the construction itself. Verner talks about a 1980 discovery led by French and Egyptians researchers who used ultrasound technology on the pyramid: “Their measurements showed that in the core of the Great Pyramid large cavities had been filled with pure sand. During construction the ‘chamber method’ was probably used, which significantly accelerated the work and made it easier and less expensive.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 78). So the difficult process we assume by looking at just the outside of the Great Pyramid is all but an illusion. So taking this in account the estimate of the workers used is still theoretical and unknown, but Verner goes on to say that Egyptologists place the sum at 30,000. “In the case of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the current consensus among Egyptologists sets the figure at a little more than 30,000.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 81).

But one thing that can be known about the workforce handling Egypt’s pyramids is the organization. There were those assigned to gathering the materials for the pyramid, and those who worked on the pyramid itself. Plus many other personnel like the overseers, specialized workers, and architects. Whatever the sum of workers, they were split up into five teams which were called “Phylia.” This word is taken from the Greek word “Phyle” which means tribe, group, and brother-hood. This root word is used in the Bible to distinguish “Brotherly love.” These five “Phylia” were then divided into four more groups but only three teams worked on a project at a time. This manner of organization is most commonly seen on ancient vessels and is used to direct a ship’s crew. (Miroslav Verner, p.79). Every team of “Phyle,” and the groups inside them, were directed and overseen by a leader. The thing that is disputed about is what work did they do? It is assumed that these were the workers assigned to gathering the materials needed for the pyramid. These materials were usually a far distance away from the construction site, and many Pharaohs had their pyramids far from where the materials were. Mostly because the Pharaohs built their pyramids in the place they resided, so that when they passed on they didn’t have to be moved far. The most used material in the pyramids, from the time of Djoser on, was limestone and it was used for many of Egypt’s structures; they called it “White stone” because of the color. “White stone” had to be mined and was brought to the construction site in large chunks, which made moving it, from the mines to the site, difficult. Expeditions had to be made to gather the proper materials, and even though it’s debated, the most thought of method for moving the stone blocks to the working area was the use of the Nile river. “When the stone was not available close to the building site, it sometimes had to be brought down the Nile as far as several hundred kilometers away. This was the fastest and least difficult mode of transportation, and written and pictorial evidence proves that it was quite often used, taking advantage of a network of artificial canals, and especially the annual floods, which caused the Nile’s level to rise several meters so that its water flowed far out over the land, right up to the foot of the desert plateau chosen as a construction site.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 65).

Also besides these teams that worked on gathering the materials to be used for the pyramids, there were other working teams that worked on the pyramid itself. “In addition to the ‘team’ system, another system was used in construction, which involved dividing up workers according to the cardinal compass points, north, south, and west. An eastern group is nowhere documented, and another term was used in its place, perhaps because in Egyptian eastern, like left, meant ‘bad.’” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 80). The last thing I’ll deal with about the workers is it’s often wondered if the labor force was paid or forced? Verner give answers this question with a Sixth Dynasty papyrus text from an overseer: “In his letter, the foreman complains that clothes for his workers have not been received on time and that time has been lost waiting for them; thus he indirectly draws attention to the resulting delays in the planned work schedule. This text also suggests that the work party was staying near the royal residence. It can therefore be assumed that the state not only provided clothing for the workers, but also fed and lodged them.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 81). So from this we can conclude that the workers were well taken care of and possibly paid, but there may have been Pharaohs who did use forced labor; like in the case of the Israelites who were under slavery (Exodus 1:11-14).

In this next paragraph I will be dealing with the last argument that surrounds the making of the pyramids; what technique did they use to raise the pyramids? The two types of methods that are assumed to be used are either pulleys or ramps. Throughout the years archaeologists have debated over which one was used, and both objects have been found around the remains of the pyramids. The ancient historian, Herodotus, who claims he was there to see the Great Pyramid built, says that they used short wooden scaffolding and lifting devices provided for each step. Another ancient historian, Diodorus Siculus, says that they used ramps. (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 82). In the 1930’s what looked like to be stone pulleys were found by Selim Hassan: “He found a large stone object that looked like a nail in whose hammered head three parallel notches had been cut.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 83). The question is how could something so small raise stone blocks that weighed tons? And this is often unanswered. But the most favored view is Diodorus’, and ramps have been discovered as well among the pyramids: “Today, most conceptions of pyramid construction are based on Diodorus’ account, which describes the use of inclined planes or ramps. His account has been lent some support by archaeologists’ discovery of the remains of ramps, which have been found in Medium, Dashur, Abu Ghurab, and Abusir.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 85-86). Within this view of ramps being used Verner goes through nine archaeologists’ theories on how the ramps were used. (Miroslav Verner, p. 86-93). Some say that they were elongated to be put on the first and last section without making another ramp and others claim that they made a ramp for each section. One of the best rounded solutions to how the ramps were used comes from A world-renowned expert on the pyramids, Jean-Philippe Lauer. “He suggests that during construction a whole system of cleverly combined ramps of various sizes and gradients was built. At the same time, of course, additional tools and lifting devices were used – wooden levers, round beams, poles, and ropes.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 89). Lauer uses the Great Pyramid to support his theory and ramps were used along with the blocks being put into place by a counter-weight system that used sand bags. In the end Verner answers the question to which technique was used in the construction of the pyramids: “To the question of whether lifting devices or ramps were used, we may reply simply: both.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 89).

In conclusion we see that the ancient Egyptians did not just throw the pyramids together. There was a large amount of work put into it and not only the labor, but the planning, and the gathering of materials as well. The Egyptians did all that they could to make the pyramids precise mathematically and geometrically, and this shows that they had vast knowledge of mathematics and used it to construct their buildings. They are not very different from the architects of our time and the math used is the same although they had a few things off. But what the ancient Egyptians accomplished through their architecture and construction is known to be one of the highly advance in ancient civilizations. Verner explains that many documents record the Egyptians mathematics and I will leave you with this quote: “The Rhind papyrus and the Moscow papyrus, for example, contain various mathematical procedures and problems that show that although ancient Egyptians were not able to formulate mathematical laws with precision, they possessed sound practical knowledge and knew how to make the fullest use of it. They worked with a decimal system and were able to use fractions. They could calculate the area of a triangle, a rectangle, a circle, and even the surface area of a hemisphere; they could determine angles and the volumes of geometrical shapes, including pyramids, cylinders, and cones.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 69).