Season 3 Episode 5: Deconstructing the Construction of the Pyramids

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The ancient Egyptian pyramids have been admired for thousands of years and along with that admiration has come varying theories for how the pyramids were constructed. Over the years, many alternative western theories have arose, often discrediting and underselling the achievements of the ancient Egyptians and these alternative theories have contributed to the perception of Egypt as a mystical place that is part of the “orient”. Through primary and secondary sources from the ancient Greeks to contemporary research, we explore how the perception of the construction of the pyramids have changed over time, break down why Egypt specifically has experienced this, and how archaeologically attested evidence and Egyptologist research have proposed the most likely explanation for the creation of the pyramids. The pyramids continue to be a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the Ancient Egyptians and discovering how the pyramids were created gives us a more genuine appreciation of ancient Egypt.

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Transcript:

Introduction:

John: Hello everyone, welcome to our podcast: Deconstructing the Construction of the Pyramids, Episode 5 of Season 3 of the Now as Then podcast. My name is John Huang and I’m joined by my mates, Alex Ziegler (“hi with your name”), Sidhant Sharma (“hello with your name”), and Wheeler Padgett (“hey with your name”). Before we get started, we want to give a big thank you to Alexandra Poterack, Karen Bouchard, Laura Stokes, Izzy Ulasz, and of course Dr. Robyn Price for all of their help in the crafting of this episode. 

Sid: Today we will be talking about the Ancient Egyptian pyramids. Throughout history, visitors to Egypt have been amazed by the Pyramids of Giza. In this podcast, we will be exploring how travelers across generations have hypothesized about the creation of the pyramids, from ancient Greeks and Romans to English and French colonists to finally, current day archaeologists, Egyptologists, and scientists.

Wheeler: There are over 100 pyramids in Egypt, the most famous of which are the three pyramids at Giza. Most pyramids were constructed during the Old Kingdom period. They were built to serve as monuments to the gods and tombs of the pharaohs, that would house their souls after their deaths. The first pyramids were the Step Pyramids, which were layered, rough monuments originally designed by the architect Imhotep. Over time, the design was refined by the Ancient Egyptians, making the pyramids larger and more intricate until they reached the design that captures the attention of so many people today. These gigantic tombs have enthralled the world for thousands of years.

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Alex: The Ancient Greeks were one of the earliest groups to record their travels to Egypt. Beginning with Hecataeus of Miletus, many Greek scholars were fascinated by Egypt and wrote of its culture and history. Herodotus’s Histories are the oldest remaining example of these texts. Published in 430 B.C.E., the Histories are mainly an account of the Greek and Persian wars; however, they also contain “An Account of Egypt” describing Herodotus’s time there. Shortly after the time of Herodotus, Alexander the Great, who was Macedonian but shared much of Greek culture, conquered Egypt and established the city of Alexandria and his own Pharaonic rule of Egypt. For the next 300 years foreign rulers continued to govern Egypt through what was known as the Ptolemaic Period. During this time Greek writers such as Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo, wrote their own descriptions of Egypt and the Pyramids. 

Sid: Civil war in the latter end of the Ptolemaic period perfectly set the stage for the later Roman visitors. They ruled Egypt from 30 BCE all the way until about 641 AD and had a wide range of attitudes towards the pyramids and their construction. The major primary accounts come from historians and philosophers, the most famous of which was Pliny the Elder. However, the views of the Roman emperors and common people, while not as well documented, were also significant. 

John (Narrator): Wouldn’t it be nice to hear this from the sources themselves? Fortunately, today we’re diving into some conversations with some of the first few visitors to Egypt. However, these sources are all depictions of the ancient Egyptian world by scholars from the Western world. Therefore, it is important to consider how Egyptology and archaeologically backed perspectives differ from this. With that in mind, here’s Herodotus with his views first.

Alex: (Herodotus) As the first to record my visit to the Pyramids I have determined that they were built by a collection of evil kings during the 8th Century. The king Cheops commissioned the first pyramid at Giza. The natives there told me that the pyramid was built like a flight of stairs “[using] appliances made out of short pieces of wood to lift the blocks of stone.” . 100,000 men worked over 20 years to complete the Pyramid of Cheops. The construction of the Pyramids was extremely expensive; it is recorded that they spent 1,600 talents of silver on radishes, onions and garlic alone .

John: (Narrator) “Interesting, but what did Roman historians like Pliny have to say about this?”

Sid (Pliny): I personally don’t see why we are even considering these Ancient Greek tales. After all, the Roman empire was but an improved version of Greek civilization. Historians like me synthesized the knowledge of multiple Greek historians, with theories including: 1600 talents was spent on food for laborers, salt and alkalis were used to create ramps for the building blocks of the pyramids and then flooded and destroyed by the Nile annually, or that bridges were made from mud bricks that were given to individuals to build their houses once the pyramids were made. I sorted through and analyzed works from popular authors like Herodotus, Dionysius, and lesser known ones like Duris of Samos and Alexander Polyhistor, critically analyzing each one and coming to the conclusion that “it took 360,000 men twenty years to build the Great Pyramid and the time for all three pyramids of Giza combined was 88 years and four months”. I was the original Encyclopedia Britannica!

Sid (Voiceover): Hang on, a mix of sources with nobody verifying the quality of any of them? That sounds like a recipe for disaster! Unverified theories floating around were given further validity when referred to by historians like Pliny, and contributed to the mystique that’s always enveloped Ancient Egypt. But back to the interviews, maybe others will be different.

John (narrator): Now we have heard from some of the most prominent Greek and Roman historians, but what did other Greek historians like Diodorus Siculus think of the Pyramids? 

Alex (Diodorus): The Egyptian Pyramids are a true masterpiece. Their size and craftsmanship “fill the beholder with wonder and astonishment.”. Herodotus’s theory is truly impossible because cranes were not invented at the time the pyramids were built, therefore, could not have been used to move the stones into place. I believe that mounds of sand were used as ramps to move the great stones up the Pyramids.  360,000 men were employed in the erection of the Great Pyramid over the span of 20 years. There is no trace remaining of their construction “so that they do not have the appearance of being the slow handiwork of men but look like a sudden creation, as though they had been made by some god and set down in the surrounding sand.”. 

John (Narrator): Were the Romans as amazed by the pyramids as their precursing visitors? Let’s hear from Julius Sextus Frontinus first.

Sid (Frontinus):  Not to brag, but I was the mastermind behind the incredible aqueducts system of Rome, something that can only be described as “indispensable”. By contrast, these Egyptian pyramids are idle and useless! Sure I’m an expert in materials and could have theorized about how these massive structures were created, but I choose not to engage in this tomfoolery. 

John (Narrator): Other Romans allowed themselves to engage in the admiration of these gargantuan creations, like the historians Ammianus Marcellinus and Tacitus. 

Sid (Ammianus)- My dear Julius, you are sorely mistaken. While most Roman philosophers like yourself and the great Pliny himself found the pyramids rather pointless, pun not intended, there were a select few of us fascinated by them and I, Ammianus Marcellinus, a soldier turned historian, was one of them. I love how Tacitus, a politician who wrote about Egyptian history put it, saying the pyramids were “mountain” like buildings, built on “almost impassable sands”. I couldn’t agree more, even saying that they were one of the seven wonders of the world, and that human labor has never produced anything this high and mighty before. I firmly agree with Herodotus’s theories about their creation, we shouldn’t be as quick to dismiss the Greeks!

John (Narrator): Similar attitudes were also reflected in the Roman kings and artists. Here’s Gaius Cestius, a Roman emperor sharing his opinions.

Sid (Cestius): Historians and philosophers have dominated the discourse about the construction of the pyramids through the years, when in fact it should be the emperors and the Roman public. My predecessor Caesar and successor Hadrian were amazed by the pyramids, and as was I, even building my tomb inside a pyramid! Just the other day, I read an incredible poem by the Roman poet Horace, who uses the difficulty involved in the construction of the pyramids, but the incredible result achieved, as a metaphor for the process of writing poems and the resultant invaluable contribution to the arts. The vast amount of labor and planning involved in their construction, something I experienced personally by building a pyramid to house my body, makes me appreciate them even more. 

Alex (Voiceover)- A Roman culture split on their views of the pyramids and how they were constructed makes for a very interesting case on their influence on orientalist thought. People like Pliny or Frontinus who didn’t create their own theories on the construction of the pyramids, dismissing them before truly understanding them, embody a pillar of orientalism- how the academic study of countries in the East is considered secondary to that of the West. However, even the emperors and historians who were obsessed with the pyramids were guilty of this, treating the study of the pyramids as a hobby rather than an intellectual pursuit.

John (Narrator): Yes! As we’ve seen the Greeks and Romans generated varying theories on the construction of the pyramids that created a cloud of uncertainty and occultism in the minds of the Greek and Roman readers who could not visit Egypt themselves. Shockingly, some of these theories have found their place even today, despite our improved knowledge and technology!

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Wheeler: Further in the future, after the French and British invasions of Egypt and the development of Archaeology as a discipline, Western science began to create some accurate theories about the pyramids; however, we also saw some more unqualified theorists giving their two cents, often attributing the construction of the Egyptian pyramids to outsiders as opposed to the Ancient Egyptians themselves.

Alex (Narrator): What are some examples of this?

Wheeler: For starters, in 1882, a man named Ignatius Donnelly wrote a book called “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World” in which he claimed that after the Lost City of Atlantis sank into the ocean, the Atlanteans migrated to Egypt and built the pyramids with their superior technologies.

Alex (Narrator): Sounds interesting. What were his qualifications to propose this theory?

Wheeler: That’s the thing – he had none. He was an American Congressman and was well known for his fringe conspiracies, but he had no actual scientific evidence for this theory. Unqualified people spreading misinformation wasn’t an uncommon occurrence around this time, either. In a 16th-century sketch from Flemish artist Maarten de Vos we see an even more exaggerated example of this. The image, titled “The Pyramids of Egypt,” depicts a mystical scene of royalty admiring the pyramids while men work at their feet carving blocks of stone. The Pyramids themselves are shown in a completely inaccurate manner, with incorrect proportions, entryways and arches that don’t exist, and even carvings on the sides and busts of people on the tops. Upon closer inspection, we see more Roman monuments that don’t actually exist in Egypt littering the background of the sketch – and there is even some sort of mysterious flying creature soaring through the sky. The royal figures are pictured in traditional Roman garments, and the Latin caption at the bottom of the image reads, “these things keep the eyes of those who have come to them for ages;” perhaps the juxtaposition of the Romans at the forefront of the image and the workers at their feet suggests that the pyramids were constructed for the marvel of the ‘superior’ Westerners.

Alex (Narrator): Surely no one took that drawing seriously though.

Wheeler: Though Maarten may not have been an Archaeologist, he was a well known historical painter of the time, so it is safe to assume that people may have trusted his depiction of Egypt. And this image was widespread, too – in 1614, Dutch printmaker Magdalena van de Passe made various prints of the sketch and distributed them. The one we looked at was at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence, Rhode Island. Similarly, because Ignatius Donnelly was such a public figure, his book was well published and reached a wide audience. Though these ideas may seem outlandish to a modern audience, they reached a lot of people, and definitely contributed to a wide Orientalist perception of Ancient Egypt, depicting it as a mystical and magical place and asserting Western dominance over it.

Alex (Narrator): Where did these thoughts even originate from?

Sid: In the Roman period, we saw the start of Egyptomania, and a resultant array of theories about the construction of the pyramids. A prominent example includes the ideas from the followers of Hermeticism. This ideology had a cult following and believed that a mythological ancient sage and demigod called Hermes Trismegistus founded the cult. They thought that he had created a system of secret knowledge hundreds of years before Romans entered Egypt and saw that there would be an apocalyptic event sometime in the future. As a result, this demigod built the pyramids to hide his knowledge deep inside them, so that future followers of the cult would be able to find it. While this sounds ridiculous, this was one of many cults at the time, and Hermeticism is only this well known because classic Christian thought criticized it, keeping it in the public eye.

Alex (Narrator): Did the association of pyramids and religion only come from cults like hermetic ones or were there others who thought similarly?

Sid: The lack of knowledge about the pyramids construction often made people resort to religion as a way of explaining them. A prominent example can be seen in an extract from Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews book two. Josephus was a military leader, but was also a respected scholar and historian. Surprisingly, despite how well read he was, he believed that the Egyptians were lazy people who could never build the pyramids themselves, and hence forced Jewish slaves to do it for them. This theory has now been debunked, but is a prime example of a key trope of orientalism- that the orient was full of barbaric and backwards societies, with cruel practices.

Wheeler: The theories equating the construction of the Pyramids to outsiders was not only common in Western Culture, but in Islamic Tradition as well. One legend accounts the construction of the Pyramids to two Yemenite Kings. These kings conquered Egypt and later built the Pyramids after having a dream foretelling disaster. Many Islamic Traditions and Legends claim that the Pyramids were built anticipating large natural disasters. These theories are now viewed as fairy tales; however, they were once received as truth and further portrayed the idea that Egyptians were lesser and could not have built the Great Pyramids by their own might.

Alex (Narrator): Well, those theories seem very outdated. They can’t still be relevant today.

John: Even in our current day, there are some influential figures that hold pretty questionable beliefs as to how the pyramids were constructed. For example, former presidential candidate, Ben Carson, strongly believed that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain, referring to the Old Testament story of Joseph. 

Another well-educated and influential person is Elon Musk, as he tweeted: “Aliens built the pyramids obv”. It was likely that he was joking, as in the following subtweets, he commented with a more plausible and archaeologically sound explanation for the pyramids. However, because Elon Musk is so influential and so many people will believe him, this tweet led to concern from Egypt’s international co-operation minister to go so far as to invite him to Egypt to see the pyramids for himself.

Additionally, if you look up “Who constructed the pyramids?” on Youtube, you will see a bunch of varying alternative theories as to how the pyramids were built. Here, we have attached a clip from the History channel’s Ancient Aliens: Secrets of the Pyramid. This full episode has amassed over 1.5 million views on Youtube alone and likely contributes to many people believing in extraterrestrial intervention in the creation of the pyramids. However, these alternative theories discredit the ancient Egyptian pyramid builders and diminish the engineering prowess, and cultural achievements of the ancient Egyptians.

So, while modern Egyptological research and science have found the most plausible explanations for the creations of the pyramids, a few questionable thinkers can still contribute to an Orientalist perspective of ancient Egypt. It is essential to approach alternative theories with a critical mindset, considering the evidence-based research conducted by scholars in the field of Egyptology in order to gain appreciation for the genuine achievements of Ancient Egypt.

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Sid (Narrator): What are some of the more plausible explanations for the construction of the pyramids that we’ve seen throughout history?

Alex: Egyptian and Muslim historians had been admiring and studying the Pyramids for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of the French in 1798. ʿAlī Mubārak was an Egyptian politician who worked towards reform and Egyptian Nationalism in the mid 1800s. Mubārak was fascinated by the history of Ancient Egypt and produced many writings on the subject. In his writings on the Pyramids, he accounts the vast previous beliefs from both Islamic and European sources on their construction and purpose. Ultimately, he seems to agree with the common Egyptological idea that the Pyramids of Giza were built by Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. As to the process of constructing the Pyramids Mubārak does not take a distinct stand, but does refute Herodotus, claiming that the Egyptian Pharaohs responsible for the Pyramids were not cruel, but were viewed with great esteem. Although Mubārak’s writings were largely ignored by Europeans, they were widespread throughout the Islamic world and contributed heavily to the cause of Egyptian Nationalism and Independence. 

Sid (Narrator): When did Western Egyptologists start to study the Pyramids more deeply?

Wheeler: Beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries, Western scientists began to make some useful mathematical observations about the pyramids. During this time, Egyptology as a field of study was coming into its own. John Gardener Wilkinson was one of the first Westerners who was qualified in the field to publish his findings about the pyramids. Wilkinson had studied in Egypt for a long time, and in 1835, he released “Topography of Thebes,” in which he expounds upon numerous groundbreaking mathematical and geological discoveries about the pyramids, including the alignment of the temples with North and South as well the quarries that the Ancient Egyptians may have taken the stone from. Similarly, in 1859, Egyptologist John Taylor discovered a correlation between the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza and the numerical constant Pi. He published his findings in a book called “The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built and Who Built It,” which was received by a wide audience.

Sid (narrator): Why were these theories any more important to the public than previous conspiracies, say, Donnelly’s Atlantis theory that you spoke about earlier?

Wheeler: Well, perhaps some might have disregarded this science in favor of fringe theory, but at this time, the fields of Archaeology and Egyptology were beginning to be respected as valid academic fields in Western scientific circles. Because people like Gardener and Taylor provided valid evidence for their discoveries, they were often taken more seriously. This helped serve to “demystify” Egypt a little, as many began to accept that it wasn’t magic that built the pyramids but the mathematical and scientific prowess of the Ancient Egyptians.

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John: Recently, science-based theories have provided the most plausible explanation as to how the pyramids were constructed, which serve to debunk a long held mystery of the pyramids. 

Wheeler (Narrator): Really? How so?

John: One of the key foundations for pyramid construction is the use of water, more specifically the Nile River. A long-held area of confusion and inquiry has been how the transportation of tons of materials was possible with the limited technologies of the time. However, a recent research paper has provided valuable insight in this area. Research conducted by Sheisha et. Al concluded that Old Kingdom pyramid constructors used the river environment of the Nile and its floods to exploit former parts of the Nile to move the tons of limestone and granite required to build the pyramids. By studying fluctuations in water levels throughout the past 8000 years, Sheisha et. al’s research can be used to support a long held theory, called the fluvial-port hypothesis. This hypothesis proposed that pyramid engineers used the annual Nile flooding like a hydraulic lift, bringing the higher water levels to the base of the Giza plateau to transport supplies and building materials directly to the pyramid site.

Wheeler (Narrator): How else was water used in the construction of the pyramids?

John: Another vital use for water explains how a large work force could have moved massive objects. At its base, the Giza pyramid was built with blocks with dimensions of 1.0 m × 2.5 m x 1.0 — 1.5 m high and weighing a staggering 6.5 — 10 tons. Ancient Egyptian evidence suggests that the blocks were first levered onto wooden sleds and then hauled up ramps made of sand. However, dry sand tends to pile up in front of a ramp which increases friction until the sled is nearly impossible to pull. This issue is eliminated when dealing with wet sand. A group of physicists experimentally tested that the friction on sand is greatly reduced by the addition of an ideal amount of water. 

Wheeler (Narrator): Okay, this is a non-Egyptologist perspective; what do Egyptologists say about this theory?

Alex: Dows Dunham, a former Egyptologist at Harvard University, proposed a similar theory in his 1965 paper, Building an Egyptian Pyramid. In creating a model of the Egyptian pyramids, they appeared to be carrying jars of water for the pyramid builders to drink or for wetting down the timbers to reduce friction. 

So, from both an Egyptologist perspective and science backed perspective, the use of water to reduce friction was not only feasible in ancient times but also essential in transporting heavy materials up ramps. Using modern methods of science and research models, scientists are able to clarify the often misheld conceptions for how the transportation of materials was organized.

Wheeler (Narrator): Okay, that explains how they got the materials to the pyramid site, but what other techniques did they use to build it? 

John: First of all, completing such a large project could not have been achieved without proper organization and extensive preparation. Evidence has been found to support the existence of a well-organized team as a pictorial representation from the tomb of the royal architect Senedjem-jb Inti (5th Dynasty) shows that the architect was in charge of planning a pyramid complex. Furthermore the discovery of Deir el-Medina, a workmen’s village which housed artisans and craftsmen who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during Middle Kingdoms into the New Kingdom, demonstrates the existence of well structured and organized systems for completing large scale projects in ancient Egypt.

Additionally, scientists have proposed that the construction of the pyramids actively involved the use of ramps and rollers. Using archaeologically attested evidence of the stepped core of the pyramids, archaeologists and Egyptologists deduced that ramps were used with their slope adjusted for the transport method chosen for the respective materials. While this evidence was used to explain the Step Pyramids from the Old Kingdom, other studies have found the use of ramps in constructing other pyramids like the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

For example, in Stephen Brichieri-Colombi’s research, Brichieri-Colombi found the ideal configuration of spiral ramps was a spiral ramp extended tangential to the pyramid. This configuration is found to be feasible by ancient Egyptians and endorses previous approaches by other archaeologists.

Alex: However, while these scientific theories that involve physics, math and geology have western scientific backing and are plausible explanations for the construction of the pyramids, it is important to keep note that most of these scholars are scientists in other fields and not Egyptologists and may not be necessarily following the best Egyptological practices. For this reason, it is vital to explore how archaeological evidence supports these theories. The fundamental finding that supports all of this contemporary research is the Wadi el-Jarf Papyri.

Wheeler: What is the Wadi el-Jarf Papyri?

Alex: The Wadi el-Jarf Papyri was discovered by Pierre Tallet, a famous French Egyptologist. It was a papyrus written in hieroglyphics by workers who built the Great Pyramid of Giza. Among the papyri was the journal of an inspector named Merer, which provided a detailed account of the daily life and work of ancient Egyptians during the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. This papyrus contains information about the transportation of limestone blocks to the pyramid site, the construction of a harbor at the site, and the daily activities of Merer and his team. Despite the texts being in separate fragments, they are exceptionally valuable and are a testimony to the construction of the pyramids. Using the diary, researchers were able to base and guide their current research in the field of pyramid construction. 

John: Modern research not only demystifies the construction of the pyramids but also challenges outdated perspectives rooted in orientalism, promoting a more informed and respectful appreciation of the achievements of the ancient Egyptians. As explained earlier, many of these techniques and technologies required decades of engineering and incredibly large workforces, which only speaks to how sophisticated and advanced ancient Egyptian society was. By providing more accurate explanations for the pyramids’ creation, we are able to further appreciate Ancient Egyptian society.

Conclusion:

Alex: Well, there have been a lot of theories about how the Pyramids were built. I can see why so many people nowadays have such crazy beliefs about the Pyramids.

Sid: Yeah, all of the different theories have caused great confusion and false understandings of Egypt throughout history. 

John: For the longest time I thought the Pyramids were built by aliens!

Alex: Wheeler, do you want to summarize what we learned today?

Wheeler: Yeah, throughout history, visitors to Egypt have been amazed by the Pyramids of Giza. Their theories about their construction have further contributed to the western mystification and orientalist perspectives of Ancient Egypt, establishing a widespread flawed understanding of Egypt that persists even today.

Alex: As we look at other sources on the history of ancient Egypt and the pyramids, it is important to understand the effects these theories have on modern Egypt and the true history of Ancient Egypt. Additionally, we must remember that the ancient Egyptians were real people and we must strive to honor their legacy and achievements. 

John: Thank you for listening to this episode of Now as Then.

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