How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built?

Scientists have had to piece together clues as to how pyramids were constructed.

Transcript

00:00How were the Egyptian pyramids built?

00:04Building the pyramids was, understandably, a colossal undertaking.

00:09Aside from feeding a labor force of 10,000 people and constructing temples, cemeteries,

00:14and boat pits near the pyramid, how exactly did the Egyptians build these titanic structures?

00:20The process began when workers cut stone blocks from a quarry near modern-day Cairo and used

00:26boats to ship the blocks along the Nile River to Giza.

00:30These blocks were enormously heavy, so workers in Giza piled them onto large, sled-like vehicles

00:35called sledges that laborers could either push or pull to the construction site.

00:41These sledges were heavy, but a clever trick likely helped laborers move them.

00:45Illustrations from ancient Egypt show that workers poured water in front of the sledges

00:50to dampen the sand, making the sledges easier to move.

00:54Current experiments show that this method greatly reduces friction and halves the number

00:58of workers needed to move a load.

01:01Once the stones arrived at the pyramids, workers used a system of ramps to haul up the stones.

01:07Little evidence of these ramps survived, but scientists are now scanning and reconstructing

01:11the pyramids with the hopes of figuring out this mystery.

01:15Projects such as these may also reveal previously undiscovered chambers within the pyramids.

01:20Stay tuned, because if they do, live science will cover it.

01:23Egypt's pyramids?

01:24Just another one of life's little mysteries.