How the Pyramids Were Built: Unraveling the Mystery

Hello friends! Around 4,500 years ago, a miracle was made in Egypt that still surprises people today. The Great Pyramid of Giza. It was made at a height of 147 meters. It was the tallest thing ever made by humans for around 4,000 years. Such heavy stones were used to make it that the weight of this pyramid is said to be 6 million tons. Compare it to the tallest building of today, Burj Khalifa, which weighs only 5 lakh tons.

The most surprising thing here is how it was built. Because in that time, people did not have cranes, bulldozers, or any big technology. In fact, they did not even have technology. They didn't even have wheels. But still, they built a monument that is still standing today. Imagine, a building that has been built for 4,500 years, in this scorching heat, there was a storm, rain, weathering. There is no such thing in the world that has survived till date. So how did all this happen? Let's understand the mystery of this pyramid in today.

It is the tallest structure on earth for more than 3,500 years. Built as gargantuan tombs of shining white limestone, the pyramids were designed to hide dark secrets of the dead. In history, the more we go back, the more difficult it becomes to find out the exact story of what happened, how and when. It is assumed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in 2560 BC by Pharaoh Khufu. The kings and emperors of Ancient Egypt were called Pharaohs.

If we talk about Pharaoh Khufu specifically, we don't know much about him. We only know that he was the second king of the fourth dynasty of the old kingdom of Egypt. There is a lot of discussion on how long he ruled. Historians make some estimates. Some say 23 years, some say 34 years. It also indicates a time of more than 60 years. This pyramid is located on the west bank of the Nile river. And if you see in the photos and videos, you will see that this is not the only pyramid. There are two more pyramids like this. They are built in the same place. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the tallest of the three. Which is also called the Pyramid of Khufu. The Pyramid of Khafre is smaller than this. Which is the second largest pyramid in Egypt. It is said that Khufu's son Khafre built it. And the third and smallest pyramid is the Pyramid of Menkaure. It is said that it was built by Khafre built it. And the third and the smallest pyramid is the Pyramid of Menkaure. It is said that it was built by the son of Khafre.

These are not the only monuments built in that era. Other than that, there are the Great Sphinx, many other burial tombs, many other small pyramids. In total, there are 118 pyramids of different shapes and sizes. Many of these pyramids have been destroyed due to weathering. Very few have survived in good conditions. And the best well-preserved of these are the three pyramids that are well-preserved. Especially the Great Pyramid of Giza.

What was the reason behind building them? The same reason that was behind building many other ancient monuments. They were built as a tomb. This is a tomb. Their pharaohs were buried here. The thing is, ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They believed that life doesn't end after death. After death, our soul goes to the underworld where God judges our soul. Those who have done good, stay alive forever in this afterlife. And to prepare for this afterlife, when their king, their pharaoh was alive, they would build tombs for themselves. They used to keep a lot of food, treasure, jewellery, furniture, clothes, all these things in the pyramid with them. So that they could use them in the afterlife. After their death, their bodies were mummified. And they were buried in wooden or stone coffins.

Now you'll ask how did we know that the pyramid was used for these things. There are two main reasons friends. First is that we have found writings on such old pyramids. We have found texts on such coffins and such pyramids where it is mentioned what they used to do. Second, the majority of such historical pyramids that we have found in Egypt and Sudan, have been used as tombs. But because specifically in the Great Pyramid of Giza, there is no substantial evidence of these things, people make their own alternative theories.

When the archaeologists went inside the Great Pyramid, they found only 3 relics and an empty coffin. This coffin is believed to be from Khufu and the other treasures and jewellery that should've been around it. It is assumed that someone has looted it and taken it away. Those who disagree with this, their alternative theories are very weird. A very popular theory that is heard is that this Great Pyramid was a power plant that could generate electricity. Those who believe in this say that the ancient Egyptians were very technologically advanced. They had already learnt to generate electricity. As evidence of this theory, some of their old art works are shown. On the walls of their old temples, some of these art works are found. Some people conclude that they have made a light bulb here. They had already invented the light bulb. And I don't know what happened after that. I have repeatedly said that such conspiracy theories are made when there is no substantial evidence. But these conspiracy theories are so weird that they have no logical sense. If the light bulb really existed in the ancient Egyptian times, then why hasn't it been proven yet? In reality, this artwork shows the story of an Egyptian mythology.

Another popular theory is that this pyramid was a granary for storing grains. A big barn. This theory was proposed by American politician Ben Carson in 1998. According to him, this is his personal theory. These pyramids were actually made by the father of Jesus Christ. My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids in order to store grain. Now all the archaeologists think they were made for the pharaohs.

Great! Now here you can see, friends, the second big reason behind making conspiracy theories. Which is religious appeasement by politicians. So anyways, it's quite clear that historians agree with each other on this point that the Great Pyramid of Giza was made as a graveyard. At that time, people believed that the more magnificent the graveyard, the more treasures we will keep, the better our king's afterlife would be. But now comes the biggest question. How were these pyramids actually built? If we look at it in the right way, this is the most mysterious thing about these pyramids. How did the people of that time build a 137-metre high building here? Which is made of such big stones that the weight of these stones is between 2.5 to 80 tons. Every stone has been cut so finely, evenly, when there was no tool to cut it. Then how were these stones placed one on top of the other when they were not even using wheels? And they did all this within 20 years. Friends, only 20 years is the time span it took to build this Great Pyramid of Giza.

So many theories are told about this, and this time I won't talk about conspiracy theories which are very weird. But before talking about these theories, let's see a big misconception that people have about these pyramids. In movies, it is often shown that slave labor was used to build these pyramids. Very poor servants were working here day and night. Their bosses would beat them with ropes. You must have seen this in a movie. For a long time, people thought that slaves built these pyramids. A Greek historian from the 5th century BC, named Herodotus, suggested this theory.

But today we know that it wasn't like that. The people who were working to build this pyramid were highly skilled laborers. They weren't beaten up out of hunger. They were not beaten up but fed well. In fact, they were fed so well that the average Egyptian citizen living at that time, were more well-fed than them. They lived in cities near construction sites. Apart from this, they got support from different community members in different seasons. Like farmers, if they weren't farming, they would come in their free time and help in the construction. In a way, all the people living in the kingdom were united about the success of this national project. They believed in their king a lot. In total, it was seen that it took 20-30,000 workers in its construction, who worked 10-10 hours a day to make this great pyramid of Giza.

If we talk about the construction material, it is about 5.5 million tonnes of limestone, 8000 tonnes of granite, and 500000 tonnes of mortar. Most of these stones came from the nearby areas. They came from the southern region of Egypt region which was 800 km away. The question is how were these stones cut? Copper was the most common metal at that time. The tools that were made were made of copper. The hard granite stones were broken using dolerite. There were many unique ways of doing it. Like they would find cracks and holes in the stones. And they would insert wooden wedges in it with a hammer. Which were soaked in water. As the stone absorbed the water, the wedges would expand. And the stone would break. But the biggest question is how were these stones moved? At that time, wheels were not used in carts. So there was no machine to put the wheels on the cart. They just put stones on it and moved it.

The most plausible theory is that to bring the stones from far away, they used to make rafts which used to float on the river. After that, when the stone came near the pyramid, to keep one stone on top of another, they used sledges in wet soil. This is a very interesting theory which has been recently discovered. A study was done in 2014. And the basis of this theory is actually a painting, which was found on the tomb of Jehuti Hotep. This tomb is quite old, it is from 1900 BC. But in this painting, you can see about 170 people are dragging a statue on a sledge. And using ropes to pull such a heavy object. If you look at this painting carefully, you'll see how a man is pouring water on sand in front of the statue. In the beginning, the archaeologists thought it was a ritual. A tradition to pour water in front of them. But when physicist Daniel Born and his team tested it, they found out that, if there is a certain amount of water in the sand, the friction of the soil and the soil will be reduced to a great extent. The ratio is quite fine. About 2-5% water in the sand. With the help of this, it becomes quite easy to drag things in wet sand.

Now the next question arises here, you'll ask, okay, let's assume that stones can be pushed and taken to the sand from here to there. But how can stones be placed on top of each other? How can such heavy weights be lifted without using machines? Now, usually a system of police can be made to lift it. But as I told you, the wheel didn't exist during the fourth dynasty in Egypt. It existed but it was used only for pottery. The answer to this is a unique system of ramps. In 2015, a team of English and French archaeologists uncovered a 4,500-year-old wooden ramp, was uncovered by a quarry. The scholars said that a ramp like this was made at that time. Which was a straight slope from the ground to the top. To push the stones on the slope, they used a system where they cut the wooden sticks around it. Then they used ropes around the sticks to pull the stone up. In a similar way as you can see in the artwork. This was suggested by the physicist Joseph West in 2014. According to this theory, after completing every level of the pyramid, they must have made a new slope. And so that the slope's angle is not too high, they must have taken the slope to the back. Meaning, they started making the slope from the back so that there is no tilt in the slope.

Apart from this, another theory says that they must have used a system of levers to keep the stones on top of each other. See how it works in the drawings. Basically, they took a middle point whose height is a little higher, put a stick on it, put some weight on the other side of the pole and then turned it upside down. Scholars believe that a similar system, named Shaduf, existed in Egypt for thousands of years. They used this mechanism to extract water from the Nile River to irrigate their fields. Both these theories sound good but the problem is the construction time. We know that the pyramids were completed in 20 years. If 20,000 people would transport the stones one by one, then every 3 minutes, one stone should be placed here, every day of the year. Because it seems unlikely that they would have worked at such a speed. Exactly this is the reason, friends, that this thing is a big mystery till date.

Both these theories sound right but they don't explain in detail what exactly happened here. We do know that the initial layers of the pyramid were placed without any mortar. But the upper layers were added with mortar which increases the stability of the structure. And this is the reason that even after thousands of years, even after earthquakes, the pyramid of Giza is still standing. There is a mystery about this mortar. Scientists know the exact chemistry of it but they have not been able to reconstruct it. Finally, the last step of the construction was the outer layer of the pyramid. It was made of very fine whitish limestone. Which means that whenever sunlight used to come here, all these pyramids would have been shining in white. This is one such thing that has broken after so many thousands of years. This outer layer has been worn off from Khufu and Menkaure Pyramids. But in Khafre Pyramids, you can still see this layer a little above.

Now moving ahead from the construction, we've come to the design of these Pyramids. This is also a fascinating thing. Do you know that these Pyramids have been designed in such a way, that all four directions, North, East, South, West, are exactly pointing in the same direction. There is a very small error here. 1 to 1 15th of 1 degree. Which is a very small error here. 1 to 1 15th of 1 degree error. Which is a very small error here. Almost, assume that they are pointing to all four directions very accurately. How is this possible? At that time, there was no compass. There was no modern technology. No GPS technology. So once again, the researchers have tried to give their theoretical explanations. How did the Egyptians achieve such a high level of precision.

A popular theory about this is that of the Autumn Equinox. When the tilt of the Earth is such that the day and the night are exactly equal. The shadow on the ground is in a straight line in the East and West direction. If the Egyptians used this method, then the degree of error in their calculations, the same degree of error is present in this shadow as well. When there is an Autumn Equinox. The second theory is about the constellations. The directions of the stars in the sky, the Egyptians aligned their design here. In 1989, Robert Bowell, an author and Egyptology enthusiast, made his Orion Correlation Theory. He said that the three pyramids of Giza are aligned in the straight line of the three stars of the Orion Belt. He said that the alignment was intentional and ancient Egyptians knew about astronomy. They used to track the stars at night and study them. According to them, they used to harvest their crops at different times. Historians believe that this is a fringe theory. Fringe means that it's not mainstream. Some points that are given against this theory are that all three pyramids were not planned at the same time nor were they built at the same time. And in 1999, when astronomers tested this theory, and looked at the Orion constellation stars, they found that the pyramids don't align exactly according to it. And the thing is that the constellation has shifted a little after thousands of years. The alignment of the stars is not the same as we see today. It is important to tell this theory here because it is a classic case where humans try to find patterns, even if they don't exist.

There are many such similar things in the world that are still mysteries. We will discuss some of these mysteries in upcoming stories. Thank you so much for reading.