AUTHORS' ACKNOWLEDG EMENTS

Mich:ad Barnes would like to thanJc Jan Adkins

for his hdp in wTiring n,t Obtlisk.
Robin Brighr.veU would like to thank Tania Lindon
who contributed extensively to TI,e Colosserltll.
Adriana von Hagen would like to (hank Edward Franquemollt
for hjs contribution to one IIIcas.

PICTURE CREDITS
13I3C Books ,,"'QuId like to Ihank. the foUowing for providing photognphi and for permission to reproduC<'
copyrighlllUlcrial. While e\'ery elTon has ｮ ｾ nude co mice and acknowlcdgt' all copyrighl holden......-e
would like 10 ｡ｰｯｬｾＱｉＺＧ should mC're M\'e bun any nTOn or ｯ ｾ ｮ ｳ Ｎ
DOC BooksｊＴＮｚ ＵｊＮＴｬ Ｒｊｾ (Brian Ritchie): 169, 172. 173. In (Michelle Clupbv):Amman
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Julian Cb.Mringwn 165; EngI:idl Henage PboI:ognpluc libnry 8. 2.a (Sk)'K:UI &IkxM:I PbotogDpby).28
Ｈｊｵｾ｢ｹｾａｲ､ｵ｣ｯ｡ ｧｹＩ tJ.17.25.39:MMy E\'mS Picture: I..Unly 134I:Robm tbrdmg P1ClU1T
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H 55.57.59.62,6.3,67. 71, 75. 78, 79.8-I.87r. 91. 92. 101bl, IGlr. 113. 12k 125.129b. 132. Ilk DnJa'
luchoo."!!87l:Lom1 Mclnt)"I't ｹｊｫｾｳｮｰｍｈ［ｉＲＮｩＹＳＱＬＸ fU; 12.1881 ｾＧｄ by FCozzem).
Coumsyof11k cwyodt PubIc libnry 121;RbJruon dn; ｍ ｾ .lIaonaux t 17;Sab 1.J4. ISk 168:
Tony Storte 1nup'S -46. 136. 1.wI I. IIHI: Adrinu YOn H.lIgnJ 18-4.20 I, 205, 208, 213. 216d, 2161', 218.

This book lS publadled to KCompmy rhc telcvtsion itTIts Smru '!fUm 5npirn
.... co-produCbon affi8C . . nd NOYAlWG8H-8os«:Jn. fint ｾ｢ in 1996.
E:«<uuve produceD: Mich:ld 8.l1mts (NOYA/WGUH) and Robin Brightwell (UDq
Producers: Michael Barnes and Cynthi.... Page
Gr:m:.ful af;kllowlerlgt'lllclIl IS made to WC3H IlOSto11 ror the right to include: the f;hilpter
'The: Pyr:lluid', which is based on the NOVA progr:1I1l "ntis Old Pymmid,
C fmrudufliolJ and "n,r Coiossrulil Robin llrightwdl 1996
C ｓｬｯｊｲｩｾＱＡｴ Cymhiil Page 1996 C'I1,r Ohtlislt Michaeillarnes 1996
C TIrt Pyromitf Mark Lehner 1996 C 7'rr frlfdl Adrian) von Hagen 1996

The: morn rights ohhe: authors M\'t bc<n asscnc:d

ISBN 056J 371188

M3ps .lind illuRntions by D.lIVId 810"'11

Finl publJSbnI m 1996 by 8BC Boob..an unpnnl ofBUC ｾ ｮ Pubbstung.

BBCWorldw1dc- L.mulcd. \\'oodlands.80\n)od lane. london WI2 OTT.
Sn in Bembo by DOC.Boob
Printed.llnd bound U1 Cte;I[ ariain by Budn:andTannn Ltd.. Frome.Somenn
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Co&our ｾ by IUdRock R.tpro LumIC'd,MIdsomc:r- Nonon
 47

THE PYRAM 0
MARK LEHNER.

BOUT 4700 y ar ago (27 Be) tb Anci nt Egyptian

b gan to build th odd fir t ky crapers: tb pyramid
tomb of their Pharaoh . More than mortal kings, each
rul r as eeo as an incarnation of the god orus who e
symbol the falcon oar d above all living cr ature . So
the pyramids toad like mem al cathedrals at the
centre of the oci ty and economy of their time.

he geometry of a pyramid i imple - four ｰｯｩｮｾ making th square of th base,

a centre point raised to orm th ape • and four triangular slopin face. he
tandard pyramid compI x included a temple at the centre of the ea rem base
where th Pharaoh funeral rook place but also wh re daily rituals including
processions ｾｵｮ､ the pyramid, perperuared the orship of the god-
king. From the morruary temple a cau eway, with walls and a roof ran down the
plateau to end at the vall t mple, th 001 entrance into the hole comple..
The low rectangular tomb called mastabas that surround d the pyramid
were hou ehol of the d ad \ ho e continu d pro perity in the afterlife
depended a in ilii life on the bOll ehold of the king. At the time hen th y
built their large t pyramids tbe Egyptians were de eloping the art of mummifi-
cation. The pre erv d the eartWy form of meir dead as lin n ffigi I ing in

The pyramids of Giza seen from the oum- t,lookin nonh-east.

FRO Menkaure. ENTRE Kbafre. REAR Khufu.
 THE PYRAMID
48

rock chambers under the mastabas; these were equipped with small offering
chapels that formed a link: with the land of me living.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops as he was known to the Greeks)
remained the biggest building in the world unci] the early twentieth ccorury AD.
Within this king"s thiny- or forty-year reign ＱＵＲｾＮＬＨ Be) the builders set
over 2 300 000 blocks of stone, weighing on ::avenge 2M (annes. [0 a height of
146.5 ｭ･ｾＮ The base co,-ers 5.29 hectareS, levelled to within about 2 em
around irs perimeter. The sides are oriented to north, south. ease and ｷ･ｳｾ
"''' Ｎ｣ｬｾﾷＢｯ ＢｾＧＳ ｾ "
leaving at most.1 Iflebb marion. The largen dl.screpancy In the length of
tbe sides is only 4.4 COl. How these ancient builders quarried, hauled, and set
6 million mones ofsrubbom rock into a mountain-sized pyr:unid of such preci-
sion without the pulley. wheel or modern transport baffled archaeologisrs for
generations.
In search of answers I joined Roger Hopkins. a stonemason from Sudbury
in Massachusetts. and the rest of the team in Egypt. Our plan was to test some of
the mort' likely construction theories by building a small pyramid in the shadow
of the Great Pyramid. We knew this would not be a 100 per cent replication of
ancient technology, for our pyramid production had to fit within our film pro-
duction schedule. This only allowed us about three weeks of quarrying and
assembling materials and three weeks of actual building, which meant that the
team had [0 forego testing certain major operations. For example, the stone was
transported from the quarry by means of Oat-bed diesel trucks rather than the
barges that plied the Nile and its canals. In addition, Roger brought in a front-
end loader to speed up the construction so that we would have time to test
operations specific to the highest part, where working space is rnpidly reduced as
the pyramid approaches its apex. The forward scoops of these powerful wheeled
machines are normally used for digging and pushing dirt. Roger used it as
a crane for lifting and manoeuvring limestone blocks slung from neel cables.
Our masons used iron hammers, chisels and levers; their anciellt counterparts
probably used only copper chisels and punches. After the time of what is known
as the Old Kingdom (that is, after about 2181 sq, the Egyptians used bronze, an
alloy of copper with 8-10 per cent rin, which is harder than pure copper. We
 THE PYRAMID
49

tried out both copper and bronze tools. All our experimencs were :aimed at
setting the stage for more authentic trials of specific anciem reols, techniques
and operations.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PYRAMIDS

Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted &om 3000 BC until the death of Cleopam
VII in 30 BC, after which Egypt bearne a province of the Roman Empire.
Egyptologists divide this immense span of rime infO three 'kingdoms' separ.ued
by intermediate periods of collapse. The Egyptians made the largest stone
pyramids in the Old Kingdom. They continued to build pyramids, mostly of
mudbrick, in the Middle Kingdom. The New Kingdom is the age of empire
when Pharaohs such asTurnnkhamen and RanlSe5 the Great made their tombs in
the Valley of the Kings.
Ancient Egyptian history is furcher divided into thirty dynasties - ruling
families or households. Dynasty I marks the emergence of pharaonic civilization
under a unified kingdom around 3000 Be. This is the time of the earliest
hieroglyphic writing and the first monumental architecture, consisting of rectan-
gular mudbrick mastaba tombs for the most important people of the time. In only
three hundred years, the Egyptians progressed from l11udbrick to stone for
building pyramids.
It was the Nile that made pyramid building possible. Fine limestone, granite,
workers and provisions all arrived at a harbour at the foot of the plateau. Indeed,
the Nile l11ade civilization possible. Egypt, shaped like a papyrus plant with the
delta as the head of the long stalk of the Nile Valley, is essentially a linear oasis
lIanked by the nanlral protection of the desert. Loated at the centre of the land,
the connection between valley and delta, the colossal early pyr.unids helped focus
Egypt's kingdom and its resources intO the wodd's first territorial nation-state.
This coordination of core and periphery is marked by the first pyramid,
built around 2700 Be for the Pharaoh Djoser at Saqqara, about 12 miles south of
Giza. The visionary Imhotep, Djoser's architect and high priest of the sun god,
 THE PYRAM1D
50
CO/lstnlClio/l of tI,e pyramids· a coloured engraving of 1 62
show rean of laves hauling up the con a[ a uilding .[e.

Ra at H liopoli • conceived this firSt attempt to reach for rh hea ens. It was
Imhoe p ho fir t u ed tone instead of mudbrick eo build a quar lIIastaba
abo th king burial haft. He realized that with this durabl m terial h could
creat a ·gancic tepped mound a kind ofladder b '\ hich th kin oul could
cend eo h a en.The outline of the Seep Pyramid' in fact. the hierogJyphi for
th rb'to c nd.
 THE PYRAMiD
51
BELOW ItlCHT Anciem Egypt: the p ramids line
45-rnile cretch to the ｾ t of the iJ Valley.

Heliopolis

G.iz:I • •
•
S3qqan •
I>.lbIDllr •

El-Lishr.

t :.":$'
dd
='

'"
'l-.

• El-Bershen

...... ',>1 .. '"

P-miles
I I I J I I

Th build compo d th bulk. of ch pyramid from roughly h ped mall

tone t in a mortar of desert clay call d tajla. Th y inclin d th horizontal
cour e towards the cor of ehe pyramid to form a rie a a cretion that 1 an
inwards like the multiple la ers of an onion, one a · the other. er havin
attempeed such heigh .th mudbrick, wood, or re d, the builders ｾ oni d
abom cability and muse ha e seen their in ard-Ieaning accr nons a olution.
 THE PYRAMID

They added an outer sheD affiner limestone from quarries across tbe Nile valley
around Turah.
Not long after Djoser, tbe period of colossal pyramids began. Soeferu, the
first king of Dynasty 4, completed the next large pyramid at Meidum, about
37 m.iles south of Giza. Today the Meidum pyramid is :Ii truncated stone tower,
stripped of its outer mantle. As :Ii result. we can see that Soeferu started with a
seven-step pyrnmid, but enlarged it almoSt immediately to eight steps. His
builders still used courses of relatively small blocks set in rtifla mortar, like the
Djoser Step Pyramid. At Meidum they established the standard arrangement of a
royal pyramid tomb. From near the cenere of the north face a long passage slopes
down to the burial chamber at the very core of the pyramid. Unsure about the
advisability of piling the ronnage of the pyramid on to a ceiling, the builders
roofed the chamber by jutting the upper masonry courses of the walls in umil
they met - a technique called corbelling.
For reasons unknown, around the fifteenth year of his rule Soeferu
abandoned Meidum to begin an enrirely new pyramid at Dahshur just south of
Saqqara. This first true pyramid was intended to have smooth faces that sloped a
steep 60°. The builders used larger blocks, but tilted them toward the centre of
the pyramid. As at Meidum they built upon the desert gravel and clay, but here
at Dahshur the softer surface soon caused the great mass to settle unevenly. To
guard against collapse they added a girdle oflarge stones around the base of the
pyramid, reducing its slope to 54° 31' 13". They then went on to build upwards,
hoping to exceed the height of Djoser's pyramid which rose within view some
13 miles to the north. But severe fissures that show to this day rent both core and
casing, robbing the builders of their confidence. They realized that their inclined
beds of masonry did not increase stability, so at about half the height of the
pyramid they began to use horizontal courses and reduced the angle to 43° 21',
creating the Bent Pyramid.
Motivated. perhaps, by the inauspiciousness of a cracking pyramid. the king
ordered his builders to begin yet a third. Situated several hundred metreS north of
the Bent Pyramid, this new one was a comfortable 43° from the start. During his
last years, as he finished both the top of the Bent Pyramid and the northern
 THE PYRAMID
53
The earl tep Pyramid. BEL lUGHT The M idum pyramid
\ here the undard arrangement ofroyal tomb" e br h d.
BOTTi M Th interior of eidum ho\ving the long d wnward haft
the burial chamber.
 THE PYRAMID
54
The Bent Pyramid at Dahshw:, south ofSaqqara.

Dahshur Pyramid, Sneferu sent another work crew back to Meidum to trans-
form his old Step Pyramid into a true pyramid of 51 ° 50 35 practically the
same as the Great Pyramid of his son Khufu. In simple form, Sneferu added to
the Meidum Pyramid the elements that would come to make up the standard
pyramid complex: a small mortuary temple, causeway and a valley temple, or
here, perhaps, a simple quay.
This arrangement and the 52° slope set the pattern for the Great Pyramid of
Khufu at Giza, followed by the pyramid ofhis son Khafre which was nearly equal
in size at a slope of 53°. The much smaller Giza pyramid ofMenkaure ended the
short series of five gigantic tone-block pyramids, built within three generations
in Dynasty 4. The kings of Dynastie 5 and 6 abandoned large stone blocks,
opting for a tandardized core of more iuegular and smaller stones and a great
deal of loose fill. When these pyranlids were robbed of their fine casing, they
slumped into heaps of rubble. Building these and the Middle Kingdom pyramids
of mudbrick were very different tasks from building th gigantic stone pyramids
of Dynasty 4.
 THE PYRAMID
55
ｂｾ The Great Pyramid ofKhufu with urrounding '" la
vi ｾ from the soum I oking north-w t. BOTTO. Plan of i.z3.
 THE PYRAMID
56

SELECTING A SITE

In the classic complex the pyr.unid had to be close to the vaUey floor, where
it could be reached by a canal, yet far enough ou( in the desert to achieve the
dramatic effect of approaching it via :I long C3USC\vay. Ideally, the site would be
fairly flat. Our team had differem considerations. Building on the Giza Plateau, a
protected antiquities zone, was out of the question. We had to settle for land
generously donated by the Mena House Hotel, at the northern foot of the
plateau, down-slope and down-wind from the kitchen. Although this did not
match the ancient pyramid setting. the Creon Pyramid of Khufu loomed behind
us to the south-easr and the smell of French fries told us when it \\'215 rime for
lunch and dinner.
Khufu's planners needed a source - preferably ｣Ｑｾ by - for me enormous
quanticy ofcore scone that would form the bulk of the pyramid. In addition, they
needed material to make ramps. roadways and embankments that would be: COo1-
pan.ble in volume (0 that of the p)'Tamid itself.A workforce of thousands needed
to be housed and fed close to the construction site. Although the bulk of the
material for the pyramid could be quarried near the site, thousands of tonnes
of fine Turah limestone had to be brought from the opposite side of the valley.
Huge granite beams would come from Aswan, 500 miles to the south. Also trans-
ported to the foot of the plateau were unskilled workers employed on a rotating
basis; gypsum and basalt from the Fayum; copper from Sinai; and wood for levers,
sleds and track as well as wood fuel for cooking, preparing gypsum mortar and
making copper tools. These deliveries required a substantial harbour with quays
for unloading, space for barges to turn around, and nearby storage and produc-
tion facilities. Giza proved to be 3n excellent location for this infrastructure.
Along the high north-west side of the plateau a hard embankment of stone
composed of nummulites, coin-shaped fossil shells of an extinct organism,
formed a perfect foumbtion that would not give rise to the problems that
Sneferu's builders had encoumered when building on the desert clays and gravel.
The low south-east side of the Giza Plateau is composed of thick limestone
layers dut alternate sofi-hard-sofi-hard - just right for extracting large blocks for
 THE PYRA ID
57
The i at the northern foot ofthe iza Plateau, b th
onstruction of ur pyramid began.

the core of the pyramid. Khufu.' builder open d a quarry 30 metres du outh
of th pyramid site that exploited chi ideal lay rin . Further outh cis nother
formation with thin crumbly La: r of cia and lim tone. H r the quarried
material t build ram .The broad di (3 dry watercour ) be een th h 0
plateau \ ould erve a conduit or deliverin granite, CdSing rone and urn.
from ou id Giza.Th n rural d pr ion at the opening of ch wadi rna: aIr ad
have r ined water after each annual Nil ood and rv d very 11 a a
harbour. Th wadi I d to the momh of the quarry, fi-om which materials flowed
up the on truction ramp to be placed within ch pyramid.
 THE PYRAMID
.... . ....
58

SELECTING A CIUW

Skilled builders and craftsmen no doubt worked for the Pharaoh on a permanent
basis. Peasant farmers were organized into competing gangs whose names were
compounded with that of the reigning king, such as 'Friends of Khufu' or
'Drunkards of Menkaure'. Each gang was further divided into five phyles (the
Greek word for 'tribe') which had the same name in each gang: the Great (or
Starboard), the Asiatic (or Port), the Green (or Prow), the Little (or Stern) and the
Good (or Last) Phyle. Ten to twenty men composed the smallest labour units, the
divisions of a phyle. Divisions were named with single hieroglyphs for ideas such
as 'life', 'endurance' and 'perfection'.
Much less dramatically, in the late twentieth century we hired rather than
conscripted. Reis ('Overseer') Abd al- Wahab led thirty men who had excavated
with me at Giza for fifteen years and who now provided unskilled labour.
Quarry master Ahmed led fourteen skilled Egyptian masons on the building site
and twelve men in the distant quarry that had been newly opened about the
time we started our pyramid.

HAULING THE BLOCKS OF STONE

Roger and I found ourselves in a stone construction yard with a crew of forty-
four and three weeks to assemble 186 stones into a small pyramid, measuring
9 metres at the base and 6 metres high - a pyramid that would fit nicely on the
truncated top of the Great Pyramid looming on the horizon behind us. The
blocks weighed from three-quarters of a tonne to three tonnes. To sort these out
and to clear a space for the pyramid we first needed rope, but both the quarry-
men and the villagers rejected out of hand our first consignment of2.5-cm-thick
rope, saying that it was too dry and therefore lacked tensile strength. When first
used on a large block it snapped straightaway. Ahmed then ordered rope of 4 cm
diameter treated with oil. This rope was sufficiently thin for the men to get a
good grip, yet strong enough to be used when tumbling blocks.
 THE PYRAMID
59
The time-comwnin m thod oftumblin me st:One bloc and
th more efficient' of hauling the weight after: loading it on 3
,ooden led.
 THE PYRAMID
60

For tumbling. the men put a rope lasso. or a sling of synthetic material that
Roger Hopkins brought, 2TOund the cop of a 2- or 3-tonne block. As few as
thirteen men pulled on a single or double length of rope while fOUf men pushed
from behind and two men prised up the back of the block with levers. One rug
lifted the back end of the block enough ro get purchase with the levers. Before
the block could pivot on irs lower front edge and fall over. the experienced
quarrymen usually put a smaller stone on the ground in from of the block to act
as a fulcrum so mat it could be pivoted again easily. Until it arrives at its final
destination, 'Oat bedding' a very heavy load is never desildble.
Bur tumbling took time, and it would have been difficult to roll .all the
blocks up the incline of the ramp quickly enough to build the pyramid within
the ki.ng's lifetime. Unlike the Incas, as will be seen in Chapter 5, the Ancient
Egyptians moved heavy weights on wooden sleds as shown in relief-carved
pictures on the walls of tomb and temples.When our custom-made and not
inexpensive replicas of ancient wooden sleds arrived at the site, our team put one
on the track and tumbled a 4.5-wnne block next to it, hoping that a final roll
would mount the block on to the sled. The block hit the sled off-cenrre, pushing
one runner into the soft sand and che\ving the edge to splinters. Pinched
between block and ground, the sled stuck up in the air at a 30 0 angle, much to
everyone's frustration. After several more attempts the men became more adept
at loading a multi-tonne block on a much lighter wooden sled - the first of many
lessons which dell10strated that long experience was one of the primary ingredi-
ents in the best anciem technology.
In order to use slllall cylindrical pieces of hard wood as rollers, the bottom
surface of the load (or the sled that carries it) and the tOP surface of the road must
be hard and smooth. But unless a crew possesses a gargantuan supply of wooden
rollers (which would themselves have been labour-intensive to produce in a
country short on trees and lacking the modern lathe), each roller mUSt be taken
from behind the load after it has ｾ､･ｳ｡ｰ brought to the Cront and carefully
replaced in front of the runners of the sled.
We found that as few as ten men on tWO lines could pull a 2-tonne block
up a gradient that matched the lower pafts of the pyramid construction ramps.
 THE PYRAMID
6\

With the load advancing at a fair speed, 3. man must rapidly take each roller from
those coUecting at the rear, and place it upon the track exacdy perpendicular to
the direction of the load.lfhe turns me roUers even slightly {O one side of the
rrack, the load follows and is likely (Q become snick. In the upper Teaches of me
pyr.unid, :my departure from the track could have led to the loss of the block
and possibly to the injury or de3tb of the crews working below. Also, if the
worker placing the rollers in from of the load lost his concenrracion or was
not synchronized with the pullers, the load could easily roll over and crush
his hand.
We found it particularly awkward to keep the load on a crack of parallel
wooden plan.ks bid over the soft sand. We also cried roUers on the much broader
paved road mat rises toward the Giza Plateau behind the Mena House Hoed, and
here the operation went much bener. It was certainly within the Ancient
Egyptians' ability co make hard-bed roadways.
To manoeuvre heavy loads the Egyptians also used round balls of a hard
black stone C2lled dolerite.These started out as heavy, pear-shaped hammerstones
that the ancient masons used two-handed to shape hard rock such as granite,
continually turning the hammerstones to strike along an edge until the entire
none was rounded. Archaeologists have found dolerite balls underneath heavy
stone coffins in tombs at Giza; the workmen used them as pivots and rollers
to position the sarcophagus in the tight confines of the subterranean chambers.
One or twO of our workmen could pivot a 2-tonne block 011 a hard round
cobblestone.
Wall paincings in Egyptian tombs show lines of men on ropes dragging
narues of the tomb owner on a sled. A man pours water from a jar on to the
surface just in front of the runners of the sled. In the tomb of the 12th Dynasty
nobleman Djehuty-hotep, at the site of el-Bersheh, his colossal stttue. estimated
to have weighed 58 tonnes, is shown being dragged in this fashion from the
alabaster quarries.
At Luht. near the 12th Dynasty pyramids ofAmenemhet I and Senwosret I,
archaeologists have found hauling tracks composed of a bed oflimestone chips
and mortar, upon which the ancient workmen embedded wooden beams that
 THE PYRAMID
62
An illustration oftbe wall painting in the tomb ofDjehu -horep
sho" his colossal Clwe being moved b a team of men dragging it
on a oden 1 d.

ere once par of SID hulls. The pi ces of ood are regularl spaced like rail-
'way Ie pers, Thin 13 r of both allu ial mud from the ile vall and " hite
gypsum, that mu t hav been deposited as a lubricating liquid run lightly above
the top urface of the bam.
Following the ancient pecificarion we built a track using th tan-
coloured desert day called tafla.We u ed rollers to bring a block loaded on a sled
to the b ginning of the track. on of our workmen b gan to prinkle water
jut ahead of the sled, veryon ,ineluding the experienced quarrym n, protested
loud} at the ry idea of dra ing the load down the track on lubricat d clay,
But at the first [(empt the load lid along 'tb ease. "el to twenty men could
pull a 2-tonne block! With the ood n pI nks provicling a firm ba e, tb sled
runner did not get bogged down in the taJla. Th fact that th ends of the
runner turn up also helps pr vent th led getting tuck.ln pile of the succ of
this eA'"Perim nc Rag r used the front-end loader to pe d up the wo a that,
befor reached the end of our tight production chedu! we could out
variou techniques that might have been u d thou and of years ago in the
higher parts of the pyramid.
 THE PYRAMID
3
The bauling track for our wooden led was builr by unn
uifld cia and piec ofwood laid like raihvaysleepe .
 THE PYRAMID
64

LAYING OUT THE PYRAMID BASE

The pyramid builders started with a square on the ground that they managed (0
orient to the cardinal directions with amazing accuracy. Preparing the pyr.unid
｢ｾｬｩｮ･ im-olved ･ｾｨ｛ sepante usks: finding mJe north to orient the pyramid,
dnwing a nue square and levelling. When they buut pyr.amids ｹ､｣ｾｩ on we
narural desert surface me ancient surveyors only needed to perform these oper.a-
Dons once. As soon as they had the square afthe base, the builders could rect"ive
the first tr.tins ofstone-laden sleds and start setting the blocks.
Things were not so simple for Khufu and Kh:afre's builders. because mey
started at Giza with a sloping surface of natural stone. They carved aW2Y the
higher western corners to me level they chose for the base. For the Khafre
Pyramid they simult:meously built up the opposite eastern corners. As they cut
down, they left an irregular patch of natural rock prorruding as high as 7 meues
in the middle afme square.The builders only levelled an a.re3 about the width of
a ciry street around the b:lse of this core, and then only :lpproximately.ln fact
their best levelling in bedrock w:15 about :IS wide as :I modern pavemem. The
masons did their finest levelling of the Khufu Pyramid - otT by only 2.1 cm in
the entire circumference - on :I platform built of fine limestone slabs. The base-
line of the Khafre Pyramid was simply a vertical Cll( in the foot of the bonolll
casing course of granite, where the slope of the pyramid would meet the top
surf.,ce of the pavement of the pyramid court. The layout and levelling of these
pyram.ids therefore presents a 'chicken and egg' siwation.ln order to know where
to level approximately, the builders had to lay Ou( the square. But for the accuracy
of the square with the mass of natural rock protruding in the centre, they needed
a surface that was as level as possible.
The builders responded to this pandox with a method of successive approx-
imation, firSt drawing their lines on the sloping natural surface 7-10 metres
higher than the eventual level of the pyramid base. They then projected their
lines down in lead trenches as they worked the surface away. At various stages
they refined their orientation to the cardinal directions and the perpendiculariry
of their corners. As they quarried :lway the rock to the level of the final baseline,

.
 THE PYRAMID
65

the rough cube of natural rock that they left in the middle of the square
prevented them from measuring the diagonals from one corner to another.

FINDING TRUE NORTH

Egyptologists have long suggested that the ancient surveyors determinro true
north by ｯｾｲｶｩｮｧ the circumpolar SUI'S. Ancient texts call these scars the
'Imperishable Ones' ｾｃＲｵｳ･ they neither rise nor set as they circle around the
celestial pole about 26 up in the nonhero sky. Temple walls more than two
0

thousand ye;ars younger than the pyr.un.ids show the king perform.ing founda-
rion ceremonies with Seshat and Thoch, the gods associated with writing and
science. The king is 'looking at the sky, observing the stars, and turning his gaze
toward the Great Bear'.The king and Seshat pound long st3kes connected by a
looping cord.
In his book n,e Pyramids, I. E. S. Ed\.......rds suggeslS that the ancient surveyors
could have constructed a circular wall 'with a diameter of a few feet on the
already levelled rock-bed of the pyramid'. Standing in the centre of the circle and
facing north, the observer could mark the point at which a star rose above the
wall on his right (east) and where it set below the waU on his left (west). Bisecting
the angle between rising and sctting points (plumbed down to the base of the
wall) and the centre of the circle would give true north. In the darkness of njght
the ancient surveyors would have needed candles or oil lamps to illuminate the
points along the wall. They would also have had to extend the resulting north
line, only half of'a few feet', more than 230 metres (755 feet), The slightest inac-
curacy, even a fraction of a millimetre, in the original north line would have
vastly increased, in what surveyors call 'the angle of error', the further this line
was extended.
The same scenes and texts of cord-stretching ceremonies also ｫｾｳ of'the
shadow' and the 'stride of Ra', hinting perhaps that the Egyptian surveyors used
sun and shadow in an old Boy Scout technique to find true north. This idea was
developed by Martin Isler, graphic designer, sculptor and avid theorist who has
 THE PYRAMID
66

written a number of articles on pyramid building in schobrly journals, and who

joined our team in Egypt. The method is based on the awareness that the sun
rises and sets in equal and opposite angles (0 the meridian (true north). A tall
pole, or gnomon, is plumbed to ...-ertical. The length or its shadow on a level sur-
face is measured about C\\fO to three bours before noon. This becomes the radius
ofa circle that is inscribed \Vich a cord and stick with the pole as its centre. As the
sun rises in the sky toward noon, the shadow withdraws from the circle. In the
afternoon the shadow lengthens again, forming an angle with the line of the
morning shadow. When its end touches the circle again, the bisection of the
angle between morning and afi:emoon corresponds to the meridian.The method
is most accurate if carried oU( during the solstices.
Martin demonsrrated his method for us using miniature models. Roger
then carried out the same operation with a straight rod set in the ground about
2 metres from the east side of the square that we had 2lready approximated
for the base of the pyramid. His gnomon was 1.38 metres high. The radius of
his circle, given by the shadow three hours before noon, was 1.77 metres. The
line between the morning and afternoon points where the tip of the gnomon
shadow touched the circle measured 2.9 metres. This was halved to make
1.45 metres, and the perpendicul2r line from the pole to the half-mark "vas our
north Line.

EXTENDING AND MEASURING THE LINE

After finding true north the ancient surveyors had to carry out several more
operations in order to layout the pyramid b2se. First, they had to extend their
north line of a few metres, derived from sars or shadows, for a length of more
than two football pitches without deviating east or west. Second, along this
extended line they had to measure the distance of one side of the pyramid base.
Third, they had to turn good right-angles at the corners. Finally they had
to repeat these operations to me2.Sure the perpendicular sides to the opposite
corners and turn another set of right-angles.
 THE PYRAMID
67
Using a method thought to have been employed by E prian
ur 0 .Ro er nl'erimems with a gnomon to find true north.

Th ugg tion for how the Egyptians found north all a urne an initial
tarting point - th ntre of the circle in both Edward north tar and I 1 r s
sun! hadow m thod - and re ult in a very short north line. How can th line be
extended whil ke ping the north orientation? U ing th hado m thod,
Roger and I xperim nted with a series of gnomons array d rou hly north to
south but tagg red lightly ea t to west. The e ga u erie of hort parallel
north lin ta r d along the east side of our pyramid base.We could use each
short north lin as an orientation check as we extended me main referenc line
for the pyramid b
 THE PYRAMID
68

Extending the line over great distances probably involved pounding stakes
into the ground, as the king and the goddess Seshat do in scenes of founding
ｴｾｭｰｬ･ｳ on fragments of relief from a sun temple of the 5th Dynasty king
Niuserre, and again on temple walls from the Greco-Roman period. Setting
srakes was easy enough on the valley floor or around pyramids built on tbe desert
days and gravel, but the final layout of the Khufu and Khafre Pyramids "v.J.S on
prepared limestone bedrock. The bottom casing blocks orbach weighed many
(annes, and it is probable that the builders would have scraped, scratched,
pounded and buried the setting line as they began co build the bonom of the
pyramid. They would need to check the baseline repeatedly by measuring from
an outside reference line, which they might have marked with cord running
across the raps of a series of stakes set in holes that run in regular lines and
spacings around the bases ofboth pyramids.
Tomb scenes show the Egyptians measuring with cords on which incre-
ments are marked by knots; alternatively paim could have been used. But a cord
would stretch and sag when measuring a distance as long as 230 metreS, unless it
was tied at intervals to wooden posts like the ones in which modem surveyors set
nails, sometimes marking the line with string. This may. again. account for the
series of regular holes along the bases of the Khufu and Khafre Pyramids. The
distances between these holes are not accurate increments and do not therefore
add up to an accurate measmement oflength. A !'"Ow of stakes allowed the SUl'"-
veyors to establish a taut line with cord. Once they had a good line extended a
sufficient distance at the correct mientation, the ancient surveyors could have
measured the length of the pyramid base in incremel1ts with rods marked in
cubits, an ancient equivalent to our yard- and metre-sticks.
Having extended their north---south reference line, the next stage was to lay
out a square with precise right-angles. Blit by the time the builders cut down the
terrace of the Khufu and Khafre Pyramids and were ready to scribe the actual
baseline they had already repeatedly performed the operations of extending the
line and turning right-angles for the corners. They first carried out these tasks at
the original surface of the plateau, some 5-10 metres higher. and kept refining
the lines and angles in successive stages as they worked down.This point has been
 THE PYRAMID
69

ignored by almost all pynnlid-building theorists! The exactitude in the pyramid

base was achieved in me same way that a sculptor creates very fine and precise
surfaces on a stone sutue by approaching the desired shapes very gr.adually in
doser and closer approximations. Once=: again, the protrusion of natural rock
left inme core of the pyramid base would have prevented the builders from
measuring the diagonal [0 check the 2ccuracy of cheir square.
At all Stages, the ancient surveyors could have achieved a right-angle in one
of three ways. They could have used the 'Sacred' or Pythagorean triangle - three
of any unit on one side. four on the second and five on the third. Such"triangles
seem to be present in the design and layout of the Old Kingdom mortuary
temples :lItuched to pyr.amids. But me evidence is not conclwive. Alternatively
they could have used the Egyptian set-square - an A-shaped tool with perpen-
dicular leg5 set at right-angles and a cross-brace. One leg is placed on the already
established line and the perpendicular is t2ken from the other leg. The square
is then Dipped and the operation repeated. The exact perpendicular is taken
from the small angle of error between the twO positions. As a third method
they could have used measuring cord to pull two intersecting arcs of the same
radius. A line connecting the points of intersection will be at right-angles to the
original line.
Roger and I established a reference line corresponding to north along the
east side of our pyramid. Two lessons were brought home the hard way, when
Roger was about ro set the first of the crucial corner stones. The first lesson was
the need for a reference line outside the pyramid base and along all four sides.
The second lesson was the advantage of building upon bedrock. To get it JUSt
right, Roger wanted to set the corner block from above by suspending it with
steel cable on the scoop of the front-end loader. But the ancient builders had no
such option: they had to dng the stone into place, as we insisted Roger must do.
The 1.5-tonne casing block had no respect for the thin survey pin and string
marking Roger's corner. When it was knocked out of place Roger lamented, 'It
was much easier just to come in and set it down where it is supposed (Q be. I've
got to re-establish that line all the way from Illy north-south freference] line
again in order to find this [settingJ line.'
 THE PYRAMID
70

ｔｈｅｾａｒ ｙ

About 300 metres directly south of the Khufu Pyramid a great bite has been
taken out of the slope of the plateau - a horseshoe-shaped quarry where the
Egyptians had exploited the alternating thick-thin, hard-soft sequence oflayers.
Cut into the western wall ofthe quarry are a series of4th Dynasty tombs - three
of theK belong to children of Klufre, suggesting that the quarry was DO longer
used in his reign. This mwt be the quarry that furnished the bulk of the core
stone for Khufu's Great Pyramid. Although that western edge always shO'ved
above the surface. in the previous century the quarry '\vas filJed with millions of
cubic mecres of limestone chips, gypsum, sand and tajIa - probably the remains of
the ramp that the workers pushed back into the quarry as they completed the
pyramid.
In the 19205 and 1930s the Egyptian archaeologist Sdim Hassan carted
3W2Y much of this debris. Where he cleared the bottom one can still see rock

shelves, about 1.5 metres high, that the quarrymen left when they separated
blocks the size of those in the core of the pyramid. I stood at the bottom of the
quarry with Nick Fairplay, an English master C2rver who has visited many quar-
ries from Italy to Indiana and can see the living hand of ancient masons and
craftsmen when he looks at mute stone blocks and tool marks. Nick was shocked
at the depth of the quarry - some 30 metres. Given its breadth ofJUSt over 230
metres, the volume of missing stone is about 2 700 000 metres!, comparable to
the 2 650 000 metres J in Khufu's Great Pyramid.
On the surface behind the rock shelf there are long narrow channels that
the ancient quarrymen cut to deftne the width of the blocks they would take
away. Ahmed's quarrymen made similar banks and channels to separate the
blocks for our own pyramid. Their quarry to the south-east of Cairo, on the
opposite bank of the River Nile from Giza, yields fine-grained hfO\ogeneous
white limestone similar to the Turah stone which was used fcf:E rple ancient
pyramid casings. It amazed us that only n.velve men, working with othing on
their feet and sleeping in a lean-to against the rock walls, quarried L stones in
n.vemy-rwo days for our pyramid.
 THE PYRAMID
71
Jr rook Ahmed's team of C\ dve ｱｵ｡ｊｔｙＱ ｬｾ only twenty-cwo cb to
cut the 1 6 blocks of\' hite lime tone ne ded to build our pyramid.

Perhaps the hardest work \! cutting the channel to define th ban of

rock that were, in turn ubdivid d into blocks. One man [Ook migh wings
with a long-handled pick, chopping out a epararion tr nch 15-18 cm wid for
a depth or bed height, of a little Ie than a m ere. He d p ned the tr nch by
ext nding one leg do n into it, nd :winging the pick dir cely toward his bin to
strike at tbe bottom of the channel. The pick man could cut about 2 metre of
channel per cia . oger point d out, if th wanted to parate a lar block
the ould have [0 make a .d r trench, and this is.. hat' een on a colo al
scale in the un£nished quarrie at Giza betw n the basin quarry directly ouch
ofebe Khufu Pyramid and the phinx:.
Having separated the block around thee ides the ancient quarrymen
would pri e it up by m aDS of ooden lever hich w r as thick railway
 THE PYRAMID
72

sleepers. Ahmed's quarrymen were practlsmg a more evolved form of this

principle, made possible by the development of iron (as opposed to wood, stone,
and copper) tools. In place of yawning sockets for wooden levers they used iron
wedges, shims and feathers, hammered into slots that only needed CO be 7-8 em
high. 38 em long and 14 em deep. A series of such wedges would split the block
from its bed.
Again and again in our experiments we found this advantage of iron tools
over those of the ancient pyramid builders: iron and steel deliver more force to a
significantly smaller area. Another e.xample was the way Ahmed's workmen made
use ariroo crowbars. The best stone setter of his crew was an eighteen-year-old
named Adel, not because he was stronger chan all the rest (in fact he was thin and
slight of build) but because he could make a 2-ronne block dance through the
skilful use ofms crowbar and small pivoting manoeuvres. Add's skills would not
have worked with a copper rod, which would simply have given way to the stone
and bent. And a wooden lever needs ro be much thicker, as seen in the ancient
lever sockets.
More quarrymen worked across the Nile valley at Turah ro get the fine
white limestone for the outer casing. Here they Cut deep galleries into the
escarpment to follow the best layers of srone, beginning with a 'lead' shelf that
would become the ceiling of the gallery. They took the stone along terraces or
banks, as they did in the bottom of the Giza quarry. The granite quarries were
500 miles to the south at Aswan, where Khufu employed men to extract the
enormous blocks for lining his burial chamber and for plugging his pyramid
passage; Khafre and Menkaure lIsed even more granite. The Pharaoh's navy
floated the granite down the Nile on large barges that have so f.1f remained lost
to archaeologists.

STONE CUTTING

Ahmed's masons made short 'vork of cutting limesrone with their iron tools such
as the 511a1l00ta, a heavy hammer that thins to a razor-sharp line of teeth at bach
ends. The hammer-wielder grips the tool just below the head and strikes the
 THE PYRAMID
73

stone rhythmicalJy at an acute angle, shaving the surf.ace with great accuracy. The
fine teeth that leave a combed signature in modem masonry would be destroyed
in the first ｶｾｲ blows ofa similarly sluped hammer made of copper.
ａＱｯｮｾｩ､･ ｴｨｾ post-Iron ａ ｾ advances, our men ｾ masonry techniques
that have remained the same since the time of the pynmids. For example. they
split \"ery large blocks by simply etching a line "vith the corner of a heavy U;n-
headed h.ammer. then pounding the surface directly until the stone fd! apan at
the desired pbce. Inruinan and the sound of their blows feU them just when and
where the stone will split. Modem masons use the 0:1[ end ofsmaller hanunen to
dress the surf':Ice ofa block by hitting it directly, which ClWt'S thin slivers to flake
off the sumeC'. Ancient masons did the same, albeit with hammers ofstone.
Copper chisels will cut limescone, as we demonstrated on our pyramid, but
the ancient masons must have sharpened and reworked their tools far more often
than their modern counterparts. Nick Fairplay estimates that they would have
needed one full-time tool sharpener per every hundred none cutters. The chisels
used for fine dressing were all the width of a thumb or less, as evidenced by the
marks that the masons did not sand away. The ancient masons also made ample
use of a metal point. or 'nail', to work limestone. Like masons and sculpwrs of
all time and places, they used the point to rough out the desired form in none.
The evidence can be seen in the long, thin, deep strokes on the walls of tomb
shafts and in unfinished jobs such as the Subterranean Chamber of Khufu's
Pyramid.
The Egyptians of the Pyramid Age also sawed and drilled very hard stone.
Numerous saw marks can still be secn on the sides and bases of the black basalt
slabs of the Khufu Mortuary Temple. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the
British archaeologist who made the first scientific survey of the Great Pyramid,
observed the saw marks on the red granite sarcophagus in the King's Chamber.
How can soft copper [ools saw and drill such extremely hard stone? Probably
with the assistance of quartz sand in a wet slurry - the quartz does the cutting,
while the metal tools simply guide the abrasive mixture. Some of the cuts in the
basalt of the Khufu Mortuary Temple still retain a dried mixture of qU::ITtz sand
and gypsum tinted green from the copper blade.
 THE PYRAMID
74
OI'POSITE.ABOVE lEfTThe puule of ramp consrruction:(a) an
impractical. too Sleep slope: (b) a practical 1 in 10 slope, but an extremely
long length; ee) the probable solution - a wnp-around n.mp.

RAMPS

There are only three basic techniques that the Ancient Egyptians could have used
for lifting blocks: the inclined plane or ramp, levering, and some assembly using
rope, wood and stone.To raise most aCtbe stone the builders probably used ramps
that, however shaped, muse have been enormous strUCtures in their own right.
We should expect to find massive deposits of the material from which they were
composed. Many books about the pyr.unids suggest that the rnmps were made of
mudbrick. and archaeologists have found mudbrick ramps near the Middle
Kingdom pyramids of Lisht. At Giza, mere are no great deposits of mud rubble
from which to conscruct the necessary gigantic ramp. The quarries to the south
of the pyramids are filled instead with millions of cubic metres of r4la, gypsum
and limestone chips.This must be the materiallefi over from the pyramid ramps,
bur could the builders have used it to make an ascent against the ever-narrowing
faces of the pyramid more than 100 metres up in the air?
The forlll of the construction ramps is a persistent puzzle. There are two
main possibilities: a sloping, straight ramp that ascends one face of the pyramid,
and one or more ramps that begin near the base and wrap around the pyramid as
it rises.
The problem with the straight-on ramp is that it must be lengthened each
time its height against the pyramid is increased in order to maintain a slope of no
more than one unit of rise in ten units oflength. Either work stops at such times,
or the ramp is built in two sections and one side is used by the builders while the
ramp crew raises and lengthens the other half. The ramp would need to be ex-
tremely long in order to maintain a usable slope up to the highest part of the
pyramid. At Giza, the ramp for the Great Pyramid would have had to go far to
the south, well beyond the quarry where Khufu's builders rook most of the stone
for me core of his pyramid.
The wrap-around ramp was probably supported either on the slope of the
pyramid or on the ground and leaning against irs faces like a giant envelope with
a rising roadbed on top. Since the latter cloaks the entire edifice, as the pyramid
rises it would be difficult to control squareness and slope by checking back to the
 THE PYRAMID
75
DEL RIGHT The unfinished grani[e casing on the 1 wer
part of me Menkaure Pyramid.
M ur ramp ro the top of the first course of th pyramid.

c
 THE PYRAMID
76

part already built. If the ramp is actually founded on the 52-53° sloping faces,
enough extra stone must be left on the casing blocks in steps wide enough [Q
support the Idmp.The granite casing on the lower part oCthe Menkaure Pyramid
at Giza is unfinished, but the extra stock ofnone does not seem adequate to sup-
port a roadway on the 52° slope. Both kinds ofspiral ramp run into trouble near
the top of the pyramid, where the slope becomes increasingly steep and the faces
of the pyramid too narrow to support a ramp from one corner to the next.
Near the base of the pyramid, the builders could have delivered stone over
Illany short ramps. At higher levels, tbey needed some rise in the run of the ramp
from the -quarry to the pyramid. Since we know the location of the quarry that
probably served the Khufu Pyramid, we also know mat if me ramp began at the
north mouth of the quarry it would have extended 320 metres to the soum-west
base of the pyramid. If it rose 30 metres above the base, it would have sloped
6° 36'. At this height nearly 50 per cent of the pyramid was already in place.
The Khufu roadbed could have climbed up and around the pyramid, its slope
increasing against each face, reaching a height 0[95 metres above the pyramid,
two-thirds the tO[al height when nearly nearly 96 per cem of the pyramid was
complete. However. three sides of the pyramid trunk would already have been
enveloped by the supporting embankments, and the fourth would have to be
covered to make the rest of the ascem at intolerably steep angles.
Knowi.ng that we did not have the solution to the troubles at the tOp, our
ramp consisted of retaining walls of ttifla, limestone chips and gypsum, about
60 cm thick. The ramp approached the tOP of the north-west corner of the first
course of our pyran:tid for a rise of 1 metre in 14 metres length. We set wooden
sleepers every 90 Clll. The second section ran 10.34 metres along the west face
for a rise of73 em and had a width of2.9 metres. Here our ramp turned a corner
to run along the unfinished south face of our pyramid for a widm of2.7 meO"eS.
We were surprised that a small crew of builders who specialize ill clay and
broken stone completed all this in less than three days.
Next they extended the ramp along the south face of our pyramid, the
roadbed rising towards the south-east corner with tbe foundation on the
ground. When we came to the fourth (north-east) corner of the pyramid we
 THE PYRAMID
77

were faced with <1 decision: should we build a foundation for the roadbed all
me way down to the pyramid base and in so doing mask its north face, or should
we try to base the roadbed on the slope of the pyramid itself? Roger opted for
the second possibility, but he used casing blocks with considerable extra stock of
Stone to form a ledge on which he supported the retaining walls of the r.amp.
Abs, he did not have rime to do more than the corner stooe in mil fashion.
If the ancient builders had Opted for this solurion, it \\'QuId M\'e btt-n neces-
sary to ｊｾｶ･ protruding casing stones staggered diagonally across me pyramid
face in order to allow the ramp to rise, or else horizontal courses could have
protruded at cemin intervals so that the base of the retaining wall of the r.unp
would be level but step up at intervals, while the roadbed rose :1[ a gndient.
Recendy, Zahi Hawass has excavated the bases of Khufu's Queens' Pyramids to
reveal that a great deal of extra stock was left, stepped one course down to
another, on undressed bottom courses of casing stone. These may be unusual
because they are part of the foundation, but if this much extra stock was left on
all the casing stones it might well have supported a spiral ramp like the one that
Roger started. He calculated that a spiral ramp would have wrapped around the
Khufu Pyramid 6\'e times to reach the tOp.
Twenty men could pull a I-tonne block up the incline. For turning the
direction of pull at the corner, Roger embedded two stout wooden posts deep
into a thickening of the ramp's retaining wall to keep them firm against the
pressure the pullers would exert. Each post was 20 em in diameter, spaced 85 em
apart. Instead of wooden sleepers, Roger embedded into the roadbed a slab of
limestone which would give a hard surface to turn the load by levering. When
the pullers reached the corner Roger adjusted the ropes around the pOSts, which
he lubricated to reduce friction. Some men pulled from around the corner,
others pulled down the slope with the ropes reversing direction around the pOSts.
At the corner, the men easily levered the load to its new orientation.
The ancient workmen needed to remove the ramps as they finished the
pyramid. Using picks. our men easily broke down our ramp into its constituent
limestone chips, gypsum and clay. Deconsrructing a gigantic ramp ofdense mud-
brick might have been more difficult.
 THE PYRAMID
7
Martin I ler's method oflevenge was t ted on the ouch ide
of our pyramid.
 THE PYRAMID
79

LEVERING

Sonte pyramid theorists say that no m:ltter how a ramp is designed it requires tOO
much material - rivalling the bulk of the pyramid - to have been practical.
They suggest that many of the scones were r:aised by levering even though
ancient evidence indicates that this technique was mosdy ｵ ｾ ､ for side move-
ments and final adjusttntm:s.
It is true that levers can be used for see-sawing a block upw<lrds by raising
one side at a time and placing supportS undemeath, then r.lising and supporting
the opposite side. But to anyone who manages to climb me Khufu or Khafre
pyramids one thing becomes clear: it is inconceiV3ble that such lever-lifting took
place on the stepped courses of the core stone or the undressed casing stone.
Those who think so have in mind very regular wide courses, like those of a stair-
way_ But here the courses are less regular. and at a metre or less in width, there is
not enough space for teams ofmen to lever up blocks weighing I tonne or more.
Without a working placform, the sheer slope of the pyramid precludes levering
nu.ny tonnes ofnone for the higher courses.
Martin Isler proposed such working platforms and. in place of nmps, stair-
\Y;1ys on which the pyramid builders levered up the stone to build the upper parts
of the pyramids. He illustrates his theory with drawings of massive mudbrick
stair\Y;1Ys against the centre of each pyramid face, making them look like Mayan
pyramids. Hundreds of workmen lever stone blocks up these steps and onto
working platforms that are founded, like Roger's spiral ramp, on extra stock of
stone left on the casing blocks. The builders rocked the stones up and tumbled
them over on to each step of the supply stairw:J.y.
Isler agreed to tCSt his method with a 680-kg none on the unfinished south
side of our pyramid. Two levers and four men were used on each side of the
block. Two additional men worked in front of the block, inserting supports.
Each pull of the levers r.l.ised tbe side of the block just enough to slip in an
indusaiaUy planed flat board. Immediatdy a question arises: using this technique,
how much flat-planed wood would have been required to build the Khufu
Pyramid?The amount of wood used for levers and sleds alone must have been
 THE PYRAMID
80

enormous. but it \\>'Quld have vastly increased if the builders raised aU the blocks
on wooden supports. The fact that the supports must be planed smooth also
vastly increases the amoum of work. If the suppons are not planed smooth, the
srack becomes unstable as it rises. Even with our m3chine-pl:med boards the sup-
pan sack, comprising [wehre layers of board for a 72-cm rise. became unwieldy,
as did the lever fulcrums. 1n order to get purchase the fulcrum - a rottering stack
of scone - had to be r.Used as the block 'went up. In spite of ｴ ｨ ｾ worries, afier a
very tensc [\\''0 hours our men had raised the block 86 ent.
So the levering worked, but it is doubtful that the Egyptians raised most of
the stones in this way. It is very possible. however, that levering was the only
means to raise the blocks of the highest courses, near the apex, once the builders
had brought them as far as they could on ramps.

INSIDE KHUFU'S GREAT PYRAMI D AT GIZA

The anciem workmen left the Subterranean Chamber, some 30 metres below
the pyr.ullid base, half hewn out of me
bedrock. Perhaps the king cbanged his
mind about the location of his burial chamber; alternatively if aU three chambers
in the pyramid were a un.i6ed design from the beginning, this one might have
been given up because it was so difficult to complete at the end of the
Descending Passage, a lOS-metre stone rube slightly more than a metre in height
and width, sloping up abom 26° towards the circumpolar St3rS, the 'Imperishable
Ones' that neither rise nor set, an image of eternity and a destination of the king
in the afterlife.
The work in the chamber was far from pleasam. Chips flew from the
stonework. Dust from hauling the waste up and au[ of the passage filled the air.
Oil lamps or slow-burning torches provided the only light. But the human
suffering involved in making the chamber in the ｢ｯｷｾｬｳ of the bedrock was
inconsequential compared to the need to aim Khufu's spirit to the Imperishable
stars. No other king pUt a pyramid chamber so deep in the earth at the end of
such a long, narrow passage.
 THE PYRAMiD

rth-south ern n 0 the Khufu P rramid.The thin 'air

chann I 'leading from rh Kin ' and Qu n' bambe are condui
for the kin ' ouI 00 cend r the CU'S.

Kbufu also tr tched the engineering capabilltie of his time to put a

chamber high r in the pyramid than any other king before or after. The
cending P age slope up 26° fr m the D ending Pas age into th pyramid
for a distance f metre and' little more than I metre qUaI', udd nl the
hute rise [0 height of .5 me concinuin i eep up int the pyramid.
Th sid of this Grand Gallery ｾ corbelled im rd until the m t [a ceiling
1, 5 metr wide. This is the same width as the flo r passage which runs b n een
t\ 0 'de ramp each 'th a of d ep notch or wooden b to hold
back the granit plugging bloc' .Me r the kin funeral the granit plu would
lide down th c ntr pas age and traight into th nding P a
 THE PYRAMID
82

From the bottom of the Grand Gallery the Horizontal Passage le.ads to the
misnamed 'Queen's Chamber'. Here for the first rime the builden used huge
gabled limestone beams like an inverted 'v' to form a roof, so that the weight of
the pyramid pushes down on the low end aCme beams rather than on the centre
of the ceiling. A tall, corbelled niche in the east wall must have contained a statue
which would make the Queen's Chamber a strdab, a blind scone chamber for a
statue of the deceased such as tbose often attached to Egyptian tombs above
ground_
The Grand Gallery leads [0 the appropriately named King's Chamber,
where the priestS probably put Khufu to rest in a red granite sarcophagus. Similar
in form to the sarcoph:agus, the room is a rectangular granite box. roofed by flat
beams up to 8 metres long and weighing from 40-60 mnnes. This third kind
of ceiling in Khufu's Pyramid represents the first time that the builders attempted
to span a distance as wide as 5.24 metres with stone laid flat. But cracks in the
granite beams, filled with ancient gypsWll, indicate that problems developed.
In order to lift the stresses off the King's Chamber, Khufu's engineers
devised one of the most astounding features of any pyramid. They added mree
more granite ceilings, each spaced one course of stone, to form four srress-
relieving chambers. Above these mey added a 6fth relieving chamber topped
wim pitched limestone beams like those r006ng the Queen's Chamber.The first
of the 6ve chambers was entered in anciem times by way of the Iitde crawl space
from the cop end of the Grand Gallery - probably to smear the gypsum in the
cracks of the King's Chamber beams. The upper chambers were first entered in
1837 when the British explorer Howard Vyse blasted his "vay in with dynamite.
On the walls of the relieving chambers he found ancient red-painted levelling
lines, axis markers, and even the names of the work gangs who set the stones.The
gangs compounded their names with that of the king, who is mosdy here called
Khnum-khuf.A beautifully preserved graffito on one of the uppermost lime-
stone beams reads 'Friends ofKhufu Gang'.
When the king's burial rites were finished, the workmen completed the
third line of defence ag3inst robbers. They slid heavy granite portcullis slabs
down three great notches in the side walls of the small antechamber leading from
 THE PYRAMID
83

the top of the Grand GaUery (0 the King's Chamber. Next they removed the
restnints on the gnnite blocks in the Grand Gallery, allowing the plugs to slide
down intO the Ascending Passage. This was the second line of defence. The last
workmen [0 leave the pyramid escaped through a runnel quarried from the bot-
tom of the Grand Gallery through the already-bid I1l2SOnry down co the bottom
of the Descending Passage. Finally, they sealed the outer entrance with stones
that matched the pynmid casing [0 form the first line of defence against robbery.
Ultimately, none of these mechanisms worked. Today thousands of tourists
S\V3rm into the pyramid through the robbers' runnel dut violators blasted along
the pyTamids centre am. The tunnel tums co the east to connect JUSt above the
ｪｵｮ･ｴ ｾ between the Ascending and Descending Passages. Legend has it that the
runnel is the work of Caliph al-Mamun in AD 820. But the violators appear to
have known just how rar and where to go to get to the Ascending Passage; so
they might have lived within a few generations of Khufu himself, the recipients
ofa memory of the defence system handed down from the men who worked on
the mysterious interior.

SETTI NG STON ES

The few remaining bits of the Khufu casing are a marvel to behold. Blocks of
about 7 tonnes were fitted together with joints so fine that neither knife nor
razor blade can penetrate the seam. These exquisite joints run the entire length of
the blocks back toward the core, in many cases more than a metre.
Roger was frustrated in his attempts co get his bottom casing scones to fit so
well, in part because he built on soft sand and gravel. He had to insert small stone
chips under the lower edges ofms blocks to get the joint faces. which his masons
precut, to come together. 'With a little practice,' Roger said, 'we could get those
fine joins too.'
But he might have to change his procedure, because the ancient masons
custom-cut each casing stone on the course under construction so as to achieve
a perfect fit with its neighbour. They laid the casing stone on a completely Oat
 THE PYRAMID
84
Remains of the bottom course of casing sroIle and foundation
platform 00 the north side of me Khufu Pyrami.d.

urtace - either the pyramid foundation, or the top of the course just below. But
the bottom casing courses ofKhufu's Queens' Pyramids and Khafre's Pyramid-
where the lowest casing is granite - are exceptions. Here the masons cut the
bedrock foundation into seats of different depths for the individual blocks so as
to bring their tops flu h, forming a level surface all the way around the pyramid
at the top of the first course which must have functioned like the pavement
sUlface which formed the Khufu pyramid baseline.
The builders first set the corner stones and several tones in between to
establish the 'lead line' of the four sides of the pyramid. The stone cutter had
only dre sed one side which would form th bottom of each casing block. Near
 THE PYRAMID
85

their destination the blocks had to be off-loaded from the sled.The haulers might
have moved the blocks the rest of the way on rollers, which would have worked
well between the flat bonoms and the smooth surface below. The setting crews
parked the rough COl"Oer stones above their final resting place on blocks, or on
",,-edges placed under the roUers. The masons then cut the cwo side faces sttaight
and smooth, as near as possible to the original plane of c1eaV2ge from the quarry.
These faces were not necessarily at right-angles to the line of the pyramid face.
or to the horizontal surface of the platform below.
At this point they could bring in me normal blocks of the flrst course,
following the same procedures as wim me corner blocks. Masons cut the joint
faces of any two stones panJld by measuring from one fuee [Q another with
string as they dressed the surfaces. They probably staned with the corners of the
joint faces and then chiselled away until they had achieved flat parallel planes.
The setting crew had to park the blocks ｣Ｑｾ enough for the parallel joint faces
to be achieved, yet far enough apart for the masons to be able to work on the
faces. The advantage of using wedges under the rollers is that the setters could
remove the wedges and roll back the latesi stone in order to create more room to
lever the previous one into its final position.
The stone setters then lifted the corner block slighdy with levers before
removing the wedges and rollers to set the block on its bed.A final dressing ofthe
joint face - probably with small chisels and sanding -left a line on the horizontal
bed along the bottom corner of the joint face. ([he resulting setting lines, mark-
ing the joint between blocks that are now missing, can be seen on top of
prese.rved casing courses at the Giza Pyramids.) The first block on either side of
the corner remained on supports above the bed while the setters brought the
second block close to it. They trimmed the next two joint faces parallel before
lowering the first regular block down on to the bed, then used levers for the final
adjustment of a few centimetres, pushing the block against the joint face of the
corner block. (This is why some pyramid casing blocks show lever sockets at the
bottom of one joint face.) A thin film of gypsum morton was probably used as a
lubricant. The masons did a final dressing of the free joint face after they set the
block down. which left another 'setting line' on the top of the course below.
 THE PYRAMID
86

MAINTAINING SLOPE AND ALIGNMENT

When they set the blocks of the pyramid casing the m3sons left a good amount
of extra rough stone protruding on the from face of each block. There is good
evidence that, by the time of the Khufu Pyramid, the practice was (0 shave olf
the e>.."tra stock of rough stone after the entire pyramid had been built. starting
from the rap and working down ro the baseline as they removed the construc-
tion ramps and embankmems. How did they know that under aU the extra rough
stone they had four straight corners :rnd fOUf good flat faces that would slope
evenly (0 a point? How could they dress the acres of fine limestone without
developing waves and modulations across the pyramid f.aces? The litcle that
remains of the pyramid outer casing suggests that chey trimmed the sides as accu-
rately as if a huge blade had cut off all the extra rough stone in a single dean cut.
'The answer seems to be that the masons incorporated guidelines for that cut
into each and every casing block as they joined one block to another. When they
set the lead casing blocks at the corners and in the middle of each side of thtY'
pyramid, the rough e."tra stock on the front of each block stuck out beyond the
intended baseline of the pyramid. After they had dressed the sides of these blocks
to be joined to the next blocks, but before they concealed the joint side by set-
ting the next block against it, they had to draw the lines of the pyramid face - the
lines along which that gigantic cut would shave away the extra stock at the end
of the building project.
Measuring a set amount from an ourside reference line, the masons marked
the point where the baseJine of the pyramid would intersect with the smootWy
dressed joint sides of the block. Then they etched the slope line of the pyramid
face on the joint sides. The Ancient Egyptians determined the slopes of walls
with a measurement called seqed, the anlount that the face of the wall is set back
for a rise of one cubit (0.525 metres). A set back of one cubit for a rise of one
cubit results in 45° slope. The nearly 52° angle of the Khufu Pyramid could be
obtained from a set back, or run, of II to a rise of 14. Khufu's builders could
measure from the already determined baseline 11 units in and 14 units up with a
plumb line to mark the top of the slope. But it would have been easier to draw
 THE PYRAMID
7
Roger' masons working on their first ca ing course.
IN Mark: poiming out the line and bevel that guided the rrimming
of the pyramid' ace from the extra tock of ancient c ing blocks.
 THE PYRAMID
88

the slope by placing wooden set squares made to the desired angle against the
joint face of each block.
Once they had marked the angle of the pyramid face on the sides of (he
blocks, the masons left the extra stock of stone on the outer face of each block,
but bevelled it away from the lines where all fOUT join faces (top, bottom and two
sides) intersected with the plane of the pyramid face. This bevelling was a lead,
created block by block, for the final dressing of the pyramid casing. When the
m.asons bought up the next block in sequence and set it down, creating the side
join with its neighbour, the new stone had extra stock on the non-joining front
face, and extra dressed joint face, extending out beyond the bevelled sloping side
joint of its older partner. The masons then bevelled away the extra stock on the
newest block along the slope of its neighbour. Then, on the opposite free join
face. they repeated the procedure, marking the slope and bevelling away the extra
stock along this line and along the top and bottom where these sides intersected
the sloping plane of the pyrunid face.
Roger's masons did something similar in that they left extra stock of rough
stone on the from face of each casing block - although nor nearly as much as on
the ancient stones. They also provided a kind of bevelled lead on each block for
dressing down the pyramid face, but they cut their lead as a flat border around
the extra stock on the front faces of the casing blocks. They did not custom trim
the joint faces of match blocks, and herein lies one of the main reasons that they
could not match the extraordinary fine joints of the ancients.
Block by block, the ancient masons created the sloping planes of the
pyram.id faces, leaving it hidden behind the extra stock of stone. If the slope as
marked on one block was a little offin one direction, the others might deviate in
another direction so that the errors averaged out.The last major operation was to
free the pyramid faces. As the masons cut way the extra stock, the bevelled space
between each block would come together. Just at the point where the spaces
between adjacent blocks closed to a fine joint, the masons knew that they should
not Cut any deeper. They were at the desired plane of the pyramid face.
In addition to obtaining the slope by bevelling the face of the pyramid inco
each casing block, the builders had to avoid twist in the rising pyramid. They
 THE PYRAMID
89

could have established back sights down on the ground at some disance from
me pyr.unid Ｇｃｳ･ｨｔＮｾ markers. wooden poles perhaps, would ｨ｡ｾ aligned with
the centre axes and diagonals of the pyramid. In fact. among the many fearures
that have yet to be mapped in the rock floor around the large Giza Pyramids
there are large holes and notches that seem to align with the major lines of the
pyramids.

THE INNER STEP PYRAMID

In one sense, a pyramid is an infinite series of squares within squares, each one
successivdy smaller and raised just the right amount to provide the desired slope
of the four sides to the top point. Once the Khufu and Khafre Pyramids had
risen above the mass of n:uunJ rock that the builders len in the base. the masons
could measure across me square of the rrunc<ned pyr.ullid [0 insure that its diag-
onals and sides were of equal length and thereby check its squareness. At this
height the reference lines on the ground would have been inaccessible, covered
with ramps and building debris. But the builders could have transferred a system
of measurement and control up on [0 the [Op of the truncated pyramid. If the
core masonry rose ahead of the fine outer casing, the masons could have
measured out to the facial lines of the pyramid from reference points and lines on
the core.
It has been suggested that every pyramid contains an inner step pyramid.
Some theorists believe that the rise and run of the steps have a specific relation-
ship [0 the slope of the outer casing. These ideas are inspired by the pyramid
of Meidum, where me steps of the inner eight-step pyramid have fine. sharp
corners and faces that could have served as references for measuring out to the
slope of the enlarged rrue pyramid. We do not know if the largese pyram.ids
of Dynasty 4, from Sneferu to Khafre, are built with an inner step pyramid. The
partially destroyed or unfinished Queens' Pyramids of Khufu and Menkaure, and
the gash in the north face of me Menkaure Pyramid, allow us to see that me core
of these pynmids is composed of great rectangular blocks of crude masonry
 THE PYRAMID
90

similar in form to masrahas - a kind of chunk-approach to assembling an inner

step pyramid mat lacks the beaurifuUy finished faces and corners ofMeidufil.The
pattern is obscured by backing stones, of almost equal size to those forming the
mttStaba-like chunks, that filled in the broad steps, and by smaUer packing stones
that filled the space between the core and the casing.
Built in this fashion, the core masonry muse have risen a good height above
the casing. The three-tiered step pyramid in the Queens' Pyramids was certainly
not in itself a reference for the rise and fun of the outer casing. However, the core
could have carried reference lines and points with paint, pegs and COfCi. On the
southernmost pyramid of Khufu's queens there are small holes, about 5 el11 in
diameter, near the corners of the tiers of the inner nep pyr.unid. Some of dlese
align with the sharp corners still preserved in the fine casing near the base of the
pyramid. The holes might be socke[S for small pegs that carried temporary cord
reference lines from which the masons measured out the appropriate amount
to mark the line of the outer pyr.amid face when the setting crews built up
the casing.

GETTING TO THE POINT

Lacking evidence about the technique that the ancient builders used to raise the
last blocks of the pyramid, most serious theorists assume that they used levers.
The fact that any pyramid's four sides narrow towards the top means that its
builders run out of room for ramps and for men to pull on ropes. Our own small
pyramid was too high for Roger's favoured technique of raising stones with steel
cable and the scoop of a borrowed loader. So Roger also reluctantly used lever-
ing for some last few blocks.
There was much debate on how to get the capstone to the top. Our wind-
ing ramp went two-thirds the height of our small pyramid. From there the
stepped unfinished courses at the back led up to a small platform where the three
finished sides awaited closure, while the fourth side of the capstone hung out
over the uncased stepped courses. The masons roughed out me stone on the
ground. It was small enough for the men to carry all a wooden frame, yet so
 THE PYRAMID

Th mo dangerous procedure - gettin the capstOne in[O

po °tion 3[ me [Op orch pymnid.
 THE PYRAMiD
92
The re ult of our three-week experiment. The w rk which
went into ouniny effort made us look at the Great Khufu Pyramid
looming above it with even greater admirati n.

oon as they lifted it they realized there could be no re ring or

turning b k. hey practically ran the load up and around th ramp. The rna t
dan r u mom nt cam when the crew a coded th t pp d c ur e to
the ap. nd tilted the load, which threatened to lid off and cra h do n the
p ramid. W, and r d if for ev ry ancient pyramid met< w uch a final
moment of uncertain and tension: recentl archaeol gis hav eli co ered a
r lie ton carvin from the causeway of the Dyna ty :; pyramid of hure at
Abu ir hich how dancing inging and c 1 beation on tting th cap tone.
 THE PYRAMID
93

THE TRJUMPH OF ANCIENT SKillS

The body of the pyramid completed, our masons began, as did cheir ancient
counterparts, to frC'e, from the (OP down, the smooth sloping faces hidden in the
rough exCI2 stock afnone.The pynmid m.n our crew built in three weeks, with
the assistance of modem machines, was a tiny fraction ofKhufu's looming above
us on the plate3u beyond. But even chis limited experiment made it abundantly
clear that the pyramids are very human monuments, created through long
experience and cremendous skill, but \vimour any kind of secret sophistication.
More than we could capture on 6lm, our trials resulted in many insights and
deep admir.nion for the skills of ancient buildcl"5. Everyone on our [earn wished
that thq- could repeat the three-week experiment every year, for the more
pyramid building \\Ie did, the better we beome and the more we discovered - far
more than we could hope to gain from all the theorizing in books. Where we
tried the (Ools and techniques of the ancient builders but failed to match their
best results in Khufu's Pyramid, it was due (0 the lack of several lifetimes of
practice and not because we were missing some mysterious technology.