Why did the Great Pyramid take so long to build?

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 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 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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While the pyramid was originally built by 4,000 workers over the course of 20 years using strength, sleds and ropes, building the pyramid today using stone-carrying vehicles, cranes and helicopters would probably take 1,500 to 2,000 workers around five years, and it would cost on the order of $5 billion, Houdin said, ...

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The unknowns of pyramid construction chiefly center on the question of how the blocks were moved up the superstructure. There is no known accurate historical or archaeological evidence that definitively resolves the question.

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All three of Giza's famed pyramids and their elaborate burial complexes were built during a frenetic period of construction, from roughly 2550 to 2490 B.C.

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All three of Giza's famed pyramids and their elaborate burial complexes were built during a frenetic period of construction, from roughly 2550 to 2490 B.C.

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The precise details regarding the pyramid's construction remain a mystery, as no written records have been found, but a number of estimates place its completion at sometime between 2560 B.C. and 2540 B.C.

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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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Did you know that ancient sites like Easter Island, Nazca, Ollantaytambo, Paratoari, Tassili n'Ajjer and the Pyramids of Giza are all aligned on a single great circle?

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Today, the Giza pyramids wear the tawny tones of their surrounding Libyan Desert. But back in their heyday, they sparkled. Originally, the pyramids were encased in slabs of highly polished white limestone. When the sun struck them, they lit up and shimmered.

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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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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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Egyptologists believe the Sphinx to be approximately 4500 years old.

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The construction of the pyramids is not specifically mentioned in the Bible. What we believe about their purpose does not impinge on any biblical doctrine.

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There's evidence of burial inside the pyramids: Pyramids were definitely used as tombs: burial equipment, such as sarcophagi, jewellery, mummies or mummy parts were found in some of them.

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Robert Schoch notes that for centuries, starting in the period of the New Kingdom and throughout Roman times, the Great Sphinx of Giza was considered to have been built before the Pyramids. Oral traditions of villagers who live in the Giza area date the Sphinx to 5000 b.c., before Khafre's time.

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Desertification pushed people to regroup along the Nile and create a country. However, in Khufu's time there was still a large strip of savannah along the river valley. We can also see scenes of hunting gazelles or lions in Egyptian tombs. So the pyramids were not built in the desert but in a dry savannah.

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Secret rooms and their passageways have been around for thousands of years. Many ancient Egyptian pyramids that memorialized the likes of the Pharaoh had secret doors and rooms to thwart thieves who were attempting to steal the riches of the Egyptian royalty who were planning on taking it with them into the afterlife.

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What was the source of light used by ancient Egyptians to illuminate spaces inside the pyramid? Sunlight when it was being built layer by layer. For later work they would have used castor oil lamps (not flaming torches).

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