Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. But in truth, it most certainly was not done this way! Rather, the same multitude of workmen who raised the mounds returned the entire mass again to its original place for they say that three hundred and sixty thousand men were constantly employed in the prosecution of their work, yet the entire edifice was hardly finished at the end of twenty years.ĭiodorus Siculus's description of the shipment of the stone from Arabia is correct since the term "Arabia" in those days implied the land between the Nile and the Red Sea where the limestone blocks have been transported from quarries across the river Nile.
Now Egyptians try to make a marvel of these things, alleging that the ramps were made of salt and natron and that, when the river was turned against them, it melted them clean away and obliterated their every trace without the use of human labor. But this is certain, that the upper part of the pyramid was finished off first, then the next below it, and last of all the base and the lowest part.Īnd it's said the stone was transported a great distance from Arabia, and that the edifices were raised by means of earthen ramps, since machines for lifting had not yet been invented in those days and most surprising it is, that although such large structures were raised in an area surrounded by sand, no trace remains of either ramps or the dressing of the stones, so that it seems not the result of the patient labor of men, but rather as if the whole complex were set down entire upon the surrounding sand by some god. It may be that there was a new lever on each tier of steps, or perhaps there was only one lever, quite portable, which they carried up to each tier in turn I leave this uncertain, as both possibilities were mentioned. When this, its first form, was completed, the workmen used short wooden logs as levers to raise the rest of the stones they heaved up the blocks from the ground onto the first tier of steps when the stone had been raised, it was set on another lever that stood on the first tier, and the lever again used to lift it from this tier to the next. This pyramid was made like stairs, which some call steps and others, tiers. Herodotus's account claims that the Egyptians used a machine (now commonly referred to as the " Herodotus Machine"), stating: The first historical accounts of the construction of these monuments came centuries after the era of pyramid construction, by Herodotus in the 5th century BC and Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC. Therefore, most discussion on construction methods involves functional possibilities that are supported by limited historical and archaeological evidence. There is no known accurate historical or archaeological evidence that definitively resolves the question. The unknowns of pyramid construction chiefly center on the question of how the blocks were moved up the superstructure. Historical hypotheses Writings of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus Ī number of pseudoscientific theories have been put forth to explain how the pyramids were built. For the Middle Kingdom pyramid of Amenemhat II, there is evidence from the annal stone of the king that foreigners from Canaan were employed.
Archaeologists now believe that the Great Pyramid of Giza (at least) was built by tens of thousands of skilled workers who camped near the pyramids and worked for a salary or as a form of tax payment (levy) until the construction was completed, pointing to workers' cemeteries discovered in 1990. The Greeks, many years after the event, believed that the pyramids were built by slave labor. In addition to the many unresolved arguments about the construction techniques, there have been disagreements as to the kind of workforce used. Disagreements chiefly concern the methods used to move and place the stones. Most of the construction hypotheses are based on the belief that huge stones were carved from quarries with copper chisels, and these blocks were then dragged and lifted into position.
These techniques seem to have developed over time later pyramids were not constructed in the same way as earlier ones. The three main pyramids at Giza, together with subsidiary pyramids and the remains of other ancient structuresĮgyptian pyramid construction techniques are the controversial subject of many hypotheses.
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