The question of how the pyramids were built has not received a wholly satisfactory answer. The most plausible one is that the Egyptians employed a sloping and encircling embankment of brick, earth, and sand, which was increased in height and in length as the pyramid rose; stone blocks were hauled up the ramp by means of sledges, rollers, and levers. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the Great Pyramid took 20 years to construct and demanded the labour of 100,000 men. This figure is believable given the assumption that these men, who were agricultural labourers, worked on the pyramids only (or primarily) while there was little work to be done in the fields-i.e., when the Nile River was in flood.
The Egyptian pyramids are the only true ones, although some similar monuments were built in central and south America by the Aztecs. Until the end of the archaic period in Egypt both the kings and the nobles were buried in tombs made of brick called mastabas. The kings began to use stone for building and the earliest pyramid was made for king Zoser at aqqarah, south of Cairo, by his famous architect Imohotep. This was called the step pyramid because it was built in a series of steps (six in total). The pyramid was surrounded by a wall, inside which was a temple in which funeral offerings would be made for the dead king who would be regarded as divine. The step pyramid is 60 metres high and is built of Tura limestone. It still remains one of Egypt’s finest ancient Egyptian monuments. Under the building were 11 shafts running into the ground and in these were found pink granite and alabaster sarcophagi (coffins) in these were the kings and various members of the royal family that had been buried. Unfortunately, the tombs had been robbed so that the bodies themselves were not found.
The stone was quarried on the opposite side of the river nile. The limestone came from the Tura hills near Cairo, but the granite had to be brought from Aswan. It was roughly shaped and dragged on rollers to the river where it was placed on barges and floated down to the nearest point to the pyramid. Here a wharf was built and a granite stone was dragged up the causeway on the wooden rollers. The men who quarried and moved the stone carved their names and those if their gang on the stones in red ochre, where they can still be read. All the stone was cut with cooper tools and was very accurately done.
There were at one time many pyramids along the west bank of the river, and their building to be connected with the worship of the sun god Ra and the introduction to mummys. The ancient eygptians believed in an after life which could be ensured if the body was preserved and supplied with food and drink. They therefore buried the kings with all that they might need in the after world, and with paintings and inscriptions on the walls of the tomb telling them how to avoid any dangers that they may meet.-
