Frank Sewell, age 9, of Monroe, La., for his question:
HOW DID THEY BUILD EGYPT’S GREAT PYRAMIDS?
Three pyramids at Giza stand on the west bank of the Nile river outside Cairo. They are the largest and best preserved of all Egyptian pyramids. No actual record of their construction methods has been found, but we know that thousands of workers toiled for many years to build these great tombs for kings.
Largest of the three was built for King Khufu. It is called the Great Pyramid and it is a marvel of building skill. it contains more than 2 million stone blocks that average two and a half tons each.
The Great Pyramid was originally 481 feet tall, but some of its upper stones are gone now and it stands about 450 feet high. Its base covers about 13 acres.
By studying the structure, we can tell how it was probably built.
The ancient Egyptians had no machinery or iron tools. They cut big limestone blocks with copper chisels and saws. Most of the stones came from quarries nearby. But some came from across the Nile River and others came by boat from distant quarries.
Huge gangs of men dragged the blocks to the pyramid site and pushed the first layer of stones in place. Then they built long ramps of earth and brick, and dragged the stones up the ramps to form the next layer. As they finished each layer, they raised and lengthened the ramps.
Finally, after the topmost stone was in place, they covered the pyramid with an outer coating of white casing stones. They laid these outer stones so exactly that from a short distance away the pyramid appeared to have been cut out of a single white stone.
Most of the casing stones are gone now, but a few are still in place at the bottom of the Great Pyramid.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus said that 400,000 men worked each year for 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. Archaeologists now doubt these figures but the true figures cannot be determined.
The three pyramids at Giza were built about 2600 to 2500 B.C.
Peasants built the pyramids. They most likely worked on the tombs during the periods of time when floodwaters of the Nile covered the fields and made farming impossible.
Thieves broke into most of the pyramids, stole the treasures that were included and even sometimes destroyed the bodies. Later Egyptian kings stopped using pyramids and instead built secret tombs in cliffs.
The Great Pyramid is considered one of the marvels of ancient architecture. A corridor leads from an entrance in one side to several rooms within the pyramid. One of the rooms is called the Queen’s Chamber, although the queen is not buried there. The room was planned as the king’s burial chamber.
But Khufu changed the plan and built another burial chamber, called the King’s Chamber. The Grand Gallery, a corridor 153 feet long and 28 feet high, leads ~to Khufu’s chamber.