14 DAY TRIAL // Among the most puzzling monuments in the world, pyramids are also among the first large-scale landmarks, built with no help from the engineering and technology of modern times. Although the large majority thinks of Egypt when speaking of pyramids, it is not the only place where they exist(ed).
Geometrically speaking, a pyramid defines a shape with a rectangular base and four triangular sides. The “perfect” square pyramid has a square as its base, while the triangles that form its sides are equilateral. This is the most stable geometrical form in terms of structure, especially when immense amounts of building materials and masonry are involved. Various types of pyramids, different in complexity, shape or size, were raised throughout the ancient world in places like Egypt, Central America, China or Greece, primarily as tombs for great rulers, but also as temples. The Central American pyramids, smaller but wider than their Egyptian counterparts, took longer to build (several centuries as opposed to several decades) and were part of the Mayan or Aztec cities, while the Egyptians placed them far from their habitats.
As for their evolutionary line, pyramids were simple piles of earth over burial places, then mastabas (flat, box-like constructions) which first served as resting places for the ancient pharaohs of Egypt. These were soon replaced by the stepped pyramids (called ziggurats in Mesopotamia), the first of them being built in Saqqara for the pharaoh Djoser of the 3rd dynasty, and then by the “normal” pyramids, the greatest of them being that of Khufu at Giza. The respective monument was built from 2.3 million limestone blocks and it's 146 meters (480 ft) high, 230 meters (755 ft) at base and 65 million tons heavy.
There was an intermediary stage between the stepped pyramid and the regular one, called the bent pyramid, which was built in 2565 BC at Dahshur for Sneferu, on a poor foundation and too wide angles so that its top's angles had to be made steeper. It was also Sneferu who ordered the first regular pyramid (the Red Pyramid) built at Dahshur in 2560 BC. The Giza complex of three pyramids, the largest in the world, was erected in 2540 BC for Sneferu's son, Khufu (the greatest of the three), for his grandson, Khafre and his grand-grandson, Menkaure. Possibly because of the enormous costs, these were the last grand pyramids built.
As for the way they were built, although there are plenty of emerging theories, this is still uncertain, since no building plan records have been found. What is clear is that the foundations and layouts were discovered to be crucial. Surprisingly, although they had no means of pinpointing the north (no compass and no North Star yet), the sides of all the pyramids were parallel to the N-S and the E-W axes. It is believed that they used circumpolar stars (close to the direction indicated by the Earth's North Pole) and the Sun in order to find out the exact location of the four directions.
The foundations were somehow extremely precisely laid in place, up to 2 cm level differences (less than one inch). Some theoreticians speculate that perhaps water movement was used to determine the plane inclination, while others opt for the idea of a lead bobs-leveled line which helped the builders excavate each of the regular intervals thus measured up to a certain point. The building blocks consisted of limestone, granite (from Aswan), locally sun-baked mud bricks, basalt (from the Fayoum depression), and alabaster (carried from Luxor). As iron tools were not available yet, the workers had to rely on copper and stone instruments for carving the 2.5-ton blocks in stone quarries. But how they were able to get them up to the building sites still eludes modern researchers.
Ropes and wooden planks were more useful than wheels in the desert sand. Perhaps the blocks were rolled on circular wooden bars. The Nile was counted on for longer transports, as barges were built and canals dug. The 300 stones per day (as scientists convened) were carried up the pyramid through the means of some sort of ramps which were constructed as the monument got higher. The great ancient historian Herodotus calculated that 100.000 people were needed for such a tremendous work, but recent research by Mark Lehner found no evidence of such a massive population having been housed in the pyramids' area. In fact, it has been discovered that only 2.000 people were at the site at any given time, summing up to an amount of 30.000 for the whole duration of the endeavor. The study of these mysterious ancient monuments and of their genius builders goes on.
