Why did it take so long to build a pyramid?

The Construction Process According to estimates, each pyramid took 15 to 30 years to be built. The varying sizes range from 1.2 million to 92 million cubic feet, and due to the primary ingredient being massive limestone blocks, it is understandable that some pyramids took longer than others.



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The Short Truth Is, No One Really Knows But estimates suggest each pyramid could have taken somewhere between 15-30 years to complete. Around 118 different pyramids all across Egypt have been identified.

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The workforce is thought to have consisted of thousands of skilled tradesmen and paid laborers, as opposed to slaves, and estimates suggest the project took about two decades to complete. It's been speculated that workers created ramps in order to move the stone building blocks into place on the pyramid.

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The Greek historian Heroditus reported in the fifth century BCE that his Egyptian guides told him 100,000 men were employed for three months a year for twenty years to build the Great Pyramid; modern estimates of the number of laborers tend to be much smaller.

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With modern-day tools and know-how, scientists have not determined a way to recreate the pyramids, even on smaller scales, with the same precisions as those that built the originals. The technology to do so, in that era, simply didn't exist according to historical teachings.

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But what the Egyptians lacked in tools, they made up for with science and engineering precision. Smith explains that they developed and used the cubit rod to measure and lay out the dimensions of the pyramid; a square level to level horizontal surfaces, and a 3:4:5 framing square to create precision 90-degree angles.

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Archaeologists now tell us that the workers who built the pyramids were recruited from poor communities in Egypt, and worked in three-month shifts. There were 10,000 of them (considerably fewer than the 100,000 reported by Herodotus) and they ate relatively well.

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In addition, they used stone like granite: a material so hard that it wouldn't act like a sponge – the water didn't penetrate it. So, the stone would shed the water and the building would last longer.

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Many people have said that the pyramids would last 1 million years or even until the world ended, but I'd say around 10,000 to 100,000 years based on current observations.

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Ancient Egypt reached the zenith of its power during the New Kingdom (1570–1070 BC) under great pharaohs. Ancient Egypt was a great power to be contended with by both the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa.

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Egypt is considered an early superpower due to its resources, economy, and culture. The Egyptians had strong religious roots and were credited with having the first written language (hieroglyphics). The flooding of the Nile River made their soil very fertile for harvesting food.

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Pyramids were built for religious purposes. The Egyptians were one of the first civilizations to believe in an afterlife. They believed that a second self called the ka lived within every human being. When the physical body expired, the ka enjoyed eternal life.

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It was constructed at the order of Pharoah Khufu sometime around 2560 B.C.E., although how it was actually constructed has been shrouded by history. Still, bit by bit, archaeologists have been able to explain various mechanisms behind the building's construction.

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Today's cost of the 2,300,000 limestone blocks used to build Pharaoh Khufu's Great Pyramid amounts to $495 per block. Each block is estimated at 2.5 ton and the cost per ton is just under $200, making the total cost for the pyramid itself, $1.14 billion.

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