The Construction of the Pyramids

The pyramids are the most different and unique man-made creations of this world. A lot of mystery and suspense surrounds these great monuments. When a person looks at the pyramids, one cannot help but wonder how the construction of these humongous structures was possible in the age where there was no technology. The size itself is enough to astound people but when you look more closely, there are a lot more details which make it so much harder to believe that these are made by the hands of human beings. Another question that arises in everyone's mind is the reason(s) which lead to the construction of these monuments. In order to answer this question, let us begin this paper with the period before the pyramids were made and try to identify the possible causes of construction. The people of Ancient Egypt believed in many Gods and Goddesses. It was part of their culture to recognize and worship them so that life on Earth would continue peacefully.

There are a number of Egyptologists and Archeologists who have differing point of views. Some hold that the belief in Gods is the reason behind the construction of the Pyramids, while some even accept theories related to supernatural behavior. The thought of involvement of supernatural beings arises when one looks at the Pyramids up close and wonders how they were built. The detail is incredible. The researchers nowadays are still unable to understand how people of that time were able to build such complex structures without the use of machines. The biggest question that arises is that of transport of materials and huge blocks with which the Pyramids were built. The blocks were all 2 to 3 meters high and could weigh up to 500 tons. It is extremely hard to believe that ordinary Egyptian workers carried these large blocks and placed them on top of one another to assemble the Pyramids. The stone used in the construction was sometimes located as far as 500 miles away from where the structure was to be built and had to be carried by the workers. Another mind-boggling question is that of the stone used in the construction. Most pyramids are made using large quantities of limestone and granite.
         

Granite is one of the hardest rocks known today and even now, in a world of machines and technology, granite is very difficult to work with. Most of the structures found in the Ancient Egypt, however, are made out of this rock. Pyramids made from granite are very common, but other than these, the rock was commonly used in building columns, sills, jambs, etc. Some of the famous pyramids built, partly or completely, out of granite are the Red Pyramid, the Menkaure Pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Black Pyramid. How the Egyptian workers managed to carve giant slabs of such a hard rock, with nothing harder than copper, will forever remain a mystery. Some have tried to explain how the materials were transported. Remains of what looked like ramps and pulleys have been found occasionally, which clearly suggested that the Egyptian workers knew how to make use of tools to help themselves transport materials. When these discoveries were made, it was very easily believed by everyone that the inventions of pulleys, ramps, rollers, etc. must have aided the workers in the constructions. However, an experiment conducted in 1991 shed light on the fact that pulling a large stone on rollers is only possible on an even surface, not on sand.

This knowledge takes us back to square one. The way the workers managed to build such huge monuments all by themselves is really impossible to understand. As mentioned above, the materials most commonly used were limestone, or White stone, and granite. Egypt was abundant in a number of different building stones which earned it the title of ‘The State of Stones’. During the Cretaceous Period, Egypt was completely submerged in seawater. This made the land suitable for limestone formation. The land is so rich in this stone that it was only limestone which continued to be used throughout the first millennium in construction work. Much of it was cut from plateaus near the pyramid site. The harder and smoother stone however, was obtained from quarries along the Nile. It was not until the middle of the second millennium, at roughly around the beginning of the New Kingdom, that sandstone, which was also plentiful in the state of Egypt, began to be used. Different pyramids were made of different stones too. In the beginning, all were made using mostly limestone, later on it began to be used only on the outsides to give a smooth appearance. While other materials later began to be used on the inside of the walls and on the floors, of the pyramids.

The tools used by the Egyptian workers were always made out of copper. They helped in cut and carve the blocks and stones. Another interesting discovery in the construction of the pyramids is the trial and error method. There are more than 130 pyramids found in Egypt to this day. They are all quite different from each other. Not every pyramid is as massive as the Giza Pyramids. Initially, the Egyptians workers were made to build Mastabas. It was after quite a while that these structures converted into pyramids. Six Matabas were once decided to stack one on top of the other and that is how the first pyramid came into being. Numerous others followed this one but it took some time before the design was perfected by the architects. A few collapsed after being halfway made, one, commonly known nowadays as the Bent Pyramid, was made a little tilted as a result of wrong calculations.

It was some time before it was learned that pyramids made at an angle of 43 degrees will be stable. This calculation then continued and gradually, the sizes and beauty of the pyramids began to increase. The pyramids of Egypt are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. They have been present for over a hundred years now. They main reason behind their construction, as seen through the course of this paper, was to provide the Pharaohs with a place where they could be worshipped, protected and forever remembered.

The ways in which the pyramids were built remains unexplained. We have learnt about the materials used in the construction, how they were obtained, which metal the worker’s tools were made of, which stones were used, the sizes of the blocks used in the pyramids and many more details. The way in which the materials were transported and how the large, heavy blocks were carried to the top of the pyramid however, still remains a mystery

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