Whenever I think of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the words that come to mind are awesome, incredible and mysterious. The word that dominates my thinking however, is impossible. This, and the other 17 major pyramids, are incredible feats of engineering in an age before the invention of the wheel, the pulley or the winch. The massive lime stones for the Great Pyramid were quarried over 600 miles away. These stones were cut with such precision that, thousands of years later, you cannot fit a credit card between the joints. The Great Pyramid is 451 feet high and consists of 2.3 million blocks weighing anywhere from two and a half to fifteen tons each. It is thought that the Great Pyramid was constructed in 23 years. To lay this many blocks in this time frame, working 7 days a week, would have required that a block be placed every 2 and a half minutes. A multi ton block placed every two and one half minutes, 7 days a week for 23 years; could we even do that today? Oddly enough, it is the facts we do know, like these and others, which generate most of the mysteries that surround the Great Pyramid.

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are as follows:

· The Great Pyramid

· The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

· The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

· The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

· The Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus

· The Colossus of Rhodes

· The Lighthouse of Alexandria

Of these seven ancient wonders only one stands today, the Great Pyramid. It is 4,500 years old and at its current rate of deterioration it is estimated that it will not completely disintegrate for another 65,000 years. A structure that is slated to last for 70,000 years begs several questions, the first of which are: Who built this massive monument? Theories range from Jewish slaves to aliens. Some “Pyramidologists” believe the pyramid is the earthly version of the heavenly city described in the Bible, and that its design was given to the Egyptians by Enoch who never saw death but was translated into heaven on a chariot of fire. Accordingly, they ascribe supernatural powers to the pyramid. Estimates of the manpower necessary to build the pyramid range as high as 100,000. Where did this many people stay? How did you feed this many people three times a day seven days a week? Recent excavations of the area surrounding the pyramids are giving modern archeologists the clues they need to answer these and many other questions.

The Great Pyramid and its two companion pyramids are not the only residents of the Giza Plateau. There are several smaller pyramids as well as a mortuary temple. The area also has 5 boat pits, a causeway, a valley temple and many tombs for officials and lesser members of the royal family. For years archeologists have been excavating these complexes but it is a stunning recent discovery that has provided overwhelming evidence for a more benign explanation of who actually built the Great Pyramid.

In modern times it is now known that the Great Pyramid was built during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu. Indeed, one piece of graffiti inside Khufu’s Pyramid contains his name. Modern archeology is finding that, contrary to popular belief, Khufu did not enslave his or any other population to build his massive monument. The recent excavation of an industrial city in the area have revealed a city complex complete with granaries, food preparation areas that could only be for mass production, dormitories and housing thought to have been for overseers and more permanent workers. It is thought that the more skilled craftsmen such as sculptors, carpenters and priest-astronomers were housed here while the temporary labor force that came from nearby villages may have had dormitories or even camped on the grounds surrounding the pyramid. This industrial city would have been the first of its kind known to us, similar in nature to the cities and towns that surrounded our large factories in the 20^th century. In part, using this city as a guide, it is now thought that the standing labor force at any given time was between 20 and 30,000.

Paleontologists studying the bones of the people buried in this area have found another astonishing fact: the ratio of male to female workers was about 50%.  This is considered another reason to discount the use of slaves as it is believed they would have consisted mainly of males. It also paints the picture of family life since children were also found to be present.  There is also evidence for hired workers in the care that was taken of them.  They ate very well.   In the areas thought to be dedicated to food production, the bones of cattle and goats suggest that meat was consumed in huge quantities on a daily basis.  There are bread making ovens that turned out huge amounts of bread baked daily.  Slaves most likely would not have been this well fed.  There are also numerous evidences of surgery having been performed.  This included more complex surgeries such as amputations and even brain surgery.  Slaves would have been considered expendable and not worth the effort, at least not to this degree.

So, now the picture we have is one of an industrial city, lying near the Nile, with campgrounds all around the pyramid glowing at night and full of workers and their families.  Some are lifetime employees in the construction of three pyramids over eighty years and some are only around seasonally.  They worked in teams.  Each team seemed to have had a name like, “Friends of Khufu” and “Drunkards of Menkaure”.  Whether teams of stone pushers or stone carvers, there may have been an ongoing friendly competition between them as is hinted at in graffiti found in the pyramids.  Far from the slavery theory of the past several centuries, these workers from all appearances were united in their effort to provide their Man-God with a magnificent gateway to the stars before he died.  As ordinary as this picture is, what these people accomplished was nothing short of extraordinary.

The Khufu pyramid is not the first to have been built in Egypt.  The first is the Step Pyramid of Djoser.  It is thought to have been constructed in 2650 B.C. in Saqqara, Egypt.  This pyramid was constructed during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser under the supervision of Imhotep.  Starting as a flat roofed mastaba, Imhotep continued adding on to it over the 19 years of Djoser’s reign until he had a 204 foot high pyramid.  Innovative use of construction techniques led ancient historians to declare Imhotep the world’s first architect.

Around 2600 B.C. Pharaoh Snefru built 3 pyramids over a thirty year period learning from each one as he went.  The first was a step pyramid known as the Maidum Pyramid that was later partially filled in at the base leaving only the top three steps visible.  The next pyramid was the well known Bent Pyramid.  Although this pyramid reached a height of 344 feet, it was begun at an angle that was later reduced. It is believed that construction failures due to the clay foundation caused the engineers to reduce the angle relieving some 140,000 tons of weight.  It is thought that this was the first attempt at the true pyramid shape we now see at Giza.  It is also thought that this was the reason that Snefru commissioned the construction of a third pyramid.  This one achieved the true shape of the pyramid and is known today as the Red Pyramid.  The Red Pyramid is 341 feet high and derives its name from the red hue given off by its exposed granite face.  It is in the Dahshur Necropolis and is the third largest pyramid. 

Once the correct angle was down, construction of the Great Pyramid became a possibility. Khufu’s Pyramid is 451 feet tall but since some of the top is missing there may have been as much as 30 additional feet to its apex. Its base is approximately 755 feet a side; give or take a half foot since each side of the pyramid has a slightly different measurement. The area of this base is a little more than 13 acres. The base is aligned along an axis of true north, south, east and west to within a twentieth of a degree. At one time there was a limestone casing surrounding the pyramid, remnants of which still cling to the top of Khafre's pyramid, the rest having been robbed to use in tombs and temples. This would add another 33 feet to the outer structure. At the time of completion of construction, this outer limestone would have made the pyramid a literally blinding white beacon on the Nile River. All three of the Giza pyramids are thought to have had this casing and so it would have been an impressive sight. Add to this the possibility that the capstone was a pyramid shape and may have been made of gold and you understand the incredible monument this was intended to be.

There are three “burial chambers” in the interior of the pyramid.  The first is below ground, carved into the actual bedrock underneath the pyramid. The purpose of this chamber is not known since it was never finished.  The second is above ground within the pyramid and early explorers referred to it as the queen’s chamber.  Since the queen is buried outside of the pyramid we now know this was not intended for her.  Archeologists believe it housed a statue of Khufu that is no longer there since there is a massive indentation in one of the chamber walls that is typical of alcoves used for this purpose.  The next chamber is at the exact center of the pyramid and is known as the Kings chamber.  Here, a red granite sarcophagus was found that was empty.  There is a descending passageway that leads to the below ground chamber that is also connected with an ascending passageway that leads to the Queen and King’s chamber respectively.  From the King and Queen’s chambers extend a total of four “air shafts” (two for each chamber) that fuel a great mystery since they are not thought to be used for the purpose of getting air to the chambers.   Between the King and Queen’s chambers lies the Grand Gallery, a 26 foot high passageway. 

To install these chambers and passageways, the builders did not cut through a finished pyramid.  Rather, they cut pre-determined holes and trenches in the limestone and granite blocks before they were laid in place.  This is a magnificent feat done one block at a time through 210 layers of lime stone.  Each passage or chamber dimension relative to its position in the pyramid had to be pre-determined and cut into each block before it was laid.  This created an interior floor plan without the need to weaken the pyramid through cutting into it as an afterthought.  Before the Romans invented the arch for roof support, the Egyptians had a plan that has stood the test of time as well.  A technique known as “Corbelling” was used.  Each chamber had successively smaller courses cut until they formed an apex at the top of each room and passageway.  Also, above the King’s Chamber is a series of 5 smaller rooms that contain nothing but graffiti.  These are thought to help disperse the load over the large chamber. 

All of this would be pointless, of course, without a good foundation.  The pyramid’s foundation is granite, which is certainly able to hold the approximately 6 and a half million tons the pyramid represents.  It is thought that the engineers leveled the foundation using a trench filled with water.  This trench would be dug 750 feet along the projected base of the pyramid and filled with water.  Then a craftsman would chip away at the granite until it was level with the water line.  In this tedious manner, many craftsmen leveled the entire granite foundation with precision.

Most of what has been presented here is the speculation of 21^st century man and his technology looking back on the construction of a monument we would not have been capable of building until the last one hundred years. Many of the methods described for construction are actually the best assumptions that can be made and are in no way written in stone. This seems like a tremendous undertaking simply to provide a tomb for a pharaoh. And since many of the pyramids contain no bodies (and some never had any) there is plenty of room for debate about their true purpose. The idea that the pyramids of Giza are earthly representations of the constellation Orion is the latest and greatest of theories. And while this is scoffed at by most Egyptologists today, it is true that one of the “airshafts” in the Khufu pyramid is aimed directly at the largest star in Orion’s Belt. It is also true that seen from above; the three pyramids are similar in appearance to the arrangement of the three main stars in Orion. There are calculations aplenty to prove any number of theories. One such calculation states that if you take the original height of the pyramid (481.3949) and multiply it by 43,200, the sum is just 11 miles short of the earth’s true polar radius. Similarly, when you multiply 43,200 times the base perimeter of the pyramid (3023.16) the sum is within 170 miles of the equator’s circumference.

There are many other calculations of a similar nature. That these calculations were ever the intention of the architects and builders of Giza may be easily debunked for lack of evidence. However, the same may be said for many of the more accepted theories surrounding the pyramids construction and purpose. In fact, there is still no agreement today on how the stones were transported to the place at which they were needed. Quarried 600 miles away, the stones were thought to have been floated by barge downriver to the pyramid. Imagine laying a stone every two minutes and having just in time delivery. The barge traffic would be backed up for 600 miles all the time. Also, it is necessary to this theory that the Nile be in flood season, since it would be too shallow in places any other time.

Neither is there any agreement on the positioning of the ramps at the pyramid site. Did the ramp go straight up one side? Did it zig zag up one side or did it wrap around the entire pyramid ascending as the pyramid got higher? While we can fashion tools from the materials available to the builders in their day, we must also imagine the builders and craftsmen plying their trades at a horrendous rate in order to keep up with the stone every two minute timetable. It is the picture of a relentless schedule that defies the imagination.

So, the theories will continue for lack of evidence. There is surprisingly little in the way of hieroglyphs depicting the methods used and even less in literature of the day. Hence, for years we depended on Greek and Roman historians for information and theories as to how they were constructed. And the grandest construction of all is Khufu. It not only stands in defiance of time, but it laughs at our feeble efforts to understand its majesty and purpose.

For more information on the pyramids click on the following links:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/khufu.html

http://www.cheops-pyramide.ch/khufu-pyramid/pyramid-alignment.html