Its lower section is built of sloping courses while in its upper section the stones are laid horizontally. The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur seems to indicate acceptance of a new technique at a transition between these two building techniques. In the early pyramids, the layers of stone (called courses) forming the pyramid body were laid sloping inwards however, this configuration was found to be less stable than simply stacking the stones horizontally on top of each other. Occasionally, granite was used in the outer casing as well, such as in the Pyramid of Menkaure.
Granite, quarried near Aswan, was used to construct some architectural elements, including the portcullis (a type of gate) and the roofs and walls of the burial chamber. Locally quarried limestone was the material of choice for the main body of these pyramids, while a higher quality of limestone quarried at Tura (near modern Cairo) was used for the outer casing. ( December 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭuring the earliest period, pyramids were constructed wholly of stone. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. 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 must have been 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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