The Great Pyramids were tombs built for
pharaohs (or kings). The Egyptian kings wanted to preserve
their bodies for the next life. The Egyptians put the king's
body, his treasures, and his last meal in the tomb. The
pyramid of Cheops is one of the two remaining eight wonders
of the world. The age of pyramid building was between 2686
B.C. and 2181 B.C. During this period, the tools were very
primitive. Many people wonder how the slaves could move the
heavy stones to form these great structures without the
tools and equipment of today. The pyramids were built near
the Nile river. The supplies, stones and workers were
transported on great barges. Before any stones could be put
in place, a site had to be chosen. The Great Pyramids were built on the west
bank of the Nile river at Giza. The Egyptians believed in a
myth that the sun set in the west, creating an area called
"The Realm of the Dead". They also built them close to a
stone quarry or the pharaoh's capital. Once a site was chosen, the Egyptians
needed to level the building site. They did this by removing
the surface sand and cutting a grid of interconnecting
channels in the bedrock. The trenches were then flooded with
water. They were able to make level marks on the rock walls.
The walls could then be cut to the same height, making the
top surface level. The trenches were then filled with
rubble. After the surface was level and a solid
foundation was formed, the pyramid needed to be centered
with each side facing the four directions on a compass. They
used astronomy to help them find the exact points. Theories
suggest that a round wall was built to the level of the
horizon. A priest observed a star as it passed from east to
west He marked the wall in both points and then calculated
where direct north and south would be by bisecting the
angle. The pyramid could then be built perfectly square and
facing each compass point. While the site was being prepared, the
slaves were busy cutting large limestone and granite blocks.
Each block was about seven feet high, eighteen feet long and
weighed as much as two tons. They cut the limestone with copper
chisels, mallets, wedges and lots of hard work. The granite
was a much harder stone. They were not able to use these
tools. Instead, they used dolerite stone balls to rub the
granite. This caused the flakes of dolerite to cut through
the rock. Not very much granite was used in the construction
because this process would have taken too long and the
granite quarries were about 500 miles to the south of
Giza. Most of the limestone came from the Tura
quarries, across the river from Giza. During the flood
season, the workers were able to ship the stones by large
flat bottom barges to the building site. They also used
canoe shaped boats with sails for daily transport of smaller
materials. Both types of boats used oars as well as the
sails. The most difficult part of the transport
was getting the stones from the boat to the pyramid site.
They pushed and pulled the cut stones on sleds by using
ropes. A causeway had been built to connect the pyramid to
the Nile. One belief is that wooden logs were laid down side
by side along the causeway and ramps. They were able to move
the sleds alongthe rolling logs by using water and oil to
make them slick. They also used level lines and a plumb rule
to keep each layer parallel to the next Archaeologists have
had several theories on how the Egyptians got the heavy
stones to the top of the pyramid. The Eastern supply ramp theory suggests
that one ramp was built out of rubble and mud from the Nile
to the east side of the site. For the workers to drag the
stones, the ramp had to be shallow. As the pyramid height
grew the ramp grew longer. Some people thought that the ramp
would have risen one foot for every twelve feet of length.
This theory is often disputed due to the extreme length of
ramp needed to build a 400 foot high pyramid. It is also
felt that the ramp structure would have been bigger and used
more materials than the pyramid itself. The four ramp theory states that there
were four inter-connecting ramps at each corner that
spiraled around the structure. It is more widely accepted
but "there is no apparent archeological evidence to support
it" according to one source. With the ramps spiraling from
all four corners, the length of the ramps could be
significantly shorter without being steep. The controversy
of this theory is that the spiraling ramps would not have
been as stable as the one wide ramp. The angled ramp theory
states that ramps were built between the pyramid layers. The
pyramid was formed as a series of steps. The internal
construction of most pyramids consists of a series of
support walls surrounding a central step core. The walls
decrease in height from the center outward.In addition to
the ramp theories, there are also two other explanations
suggested by more recent scientists. The Grand Gallery could also have been
used as an internal ramp. Some felt that as the interior
gallery was being built that it served as a pulley for the
exterior stones. They suggest that as a counterweight of
stones slid down the steep slope of the grand gallery a rope
and sled system would pull the next stone to the top. This
is like a primitive form of a pulley. The "Jack up" procedure involves a step
pyramid form to create the core. It is suggested that teams
worked simultaneously around the pyramid by using jacks
created by levers placed into the sleds. Four levers were
used (two on each side). As the levers were pulled down, the
sled was lifted. With each lift a new pallet was added to
the bottom. The levers were moved to the lower sled and
lifted again. This continued until the stone reached the
next step in the pyramid. The stone was transported sideways
by using the levers in a paddling motion. The problem with
this method appears to be worker safety and the instability
of using the pallets. It also seems that the levers would
break because they would have to be very long to lift the
stones to the next level.120,000,000 bricks were used to
make this tall monument. As the outside of the pyramid grew
taller, the inside tunnels and chambers were also being
built There were rooms and galleries for the treasures, the
Queen's chamber, and the King's burial chamber. Once the pyramid grew to 300 feet and
there was only a ten foot square at the top, a pyramid
shaped granite capstone was set at the top. A piece of stone
stuck out from the bottom of the capstone and was
interlocked with a notch from the lower level. This formed a
permanent bond. After the capstone had been placed, the
ramps were gradually removed and replaced with scaffolds.
There are also two different theories about the final
shaping and smoothing of the pyramid. Trimming involves
cutting away the excess triangular shapes of stones on each
level and casing refers to adding triangular shaped smooth
stones to each level. Workers on different levels of the
scaffold polished the limestone with dolerite stones and
abrasive powders. After the pyramid was smooth, it was then
ready for the interior decoration.