We Know More About The Pyramids Than You Think

[00:00] the news story breaks: new satellite imagery, new scans, of the pyramid-but it's usually a big nothing burger.

[00:12] and that understanding comes from multiple discoveries, Discovery number one: the Giza Quarry.

[00:25] and the Giza Plateau. Most of the stone that was used to build We have, in fact, an area that was a quarry,

[00:39] that was used to pull up the blocks out of a quarry like this. but it can actually be done fairly well.

[00:53] a stone like granite or diorite, so, in a line. You're going to do this in a bunch of lines.

[01:07] narrow trenches made by dropping a hard stone And you go down for a couple of meters like this. Now, looking from the side, you have these narrow trenches.

[01:21] You've only defined this on the sides from the top. It's harder to do this because you don't have gravity, but you chip away the sides.

[01:36] And then you put a log in each of these. When you wet the log, the wood is going to expand. And as the wood expands, it cracks right here.

[01:49] that you can pick up and take to your ramp. This is the big question: How on earth did you raise before modern technology?

[02:05] We do not have ramp remains at Giza itself. This is one reason why this is fertile ground for theories But, in fact, we know a great deal about what ramps looked

[02:19] Probably the best remaining example of an actual ramp Karnak is a huge temple. but it does show us a lot

[02:33] And, particularly, it shows us the building of a mud brick One reason the ramp at Karnak is so cool is Very often, we don't have evidence of construction process

[02:50] At Karnak, that wasn't the case. and, as such, they removed the remains of the ramp, as they finished them.

[03:03] would've been straight and gone up the side of the pyramid, that supported it and spiraled up around the pyramid,

[03:16] A straight ramp for a building as large The ramp would've had to be extremely long for dragging the blocks up once you got to the top.

[03:30] and think how much territory That means your starting place for dragging the blocks and it's less likely that there would be nothing left

[03:44] So, both practically and in terms of the evidence a spiraling ramp up the pyramid particularly for the higher levels of the pyramid.

[03:56] It's another thing to get the blocks up the ramp. To get a block of this size up the ramp, They're flat.

[04:08] And you pull the sledge up. It doesn't seem that they're using animals You can ease that process somewhat by lubricating

[04:22] by pouring water in front of the sledge as it's going up. It's backbreaking labor. But ramps didn't build the pyramids alone.

[04:38] of people were needed to haul the stones up those ramp. the work mans' village at Giza, Archeologists since the 1980s have been working

[04:55] the vast monuments that are symbols of kingship, of building the pyramids and, in particular, The site of the workers' village at Giza

[05:10] It is rather closer to the cultivation, While our estimates of the number of people are wildly variable,

[05:24] it is clear that the workers' village could have supported The town that has been uncovered since the 1980s types of evidence.

[05:39] the place where they were baking the bread for the construction crews who are working on the pyramids. as sleeping places, as barracks for seasonal workers.

[05:55] at the pyramid construction site. for the population here lived. of most Egyptians, but the level of animal keeping

[06:12] who were building the pyramids absolutely needed that people here are doing an incredible amount of labor. is we have these enormous silos for storing grain.

[06:27] but another thing you make is beer. and it is even given as part of payment to people. because money hadn't been invented yet.

[06:42] but they're being paid in food, in bread and beer, would have consumed. to be a patron yourself and hire others.

[06:58] We do have questions about the labor status, It's a really normal question to ask. as to whether or not they made the choice

[07:13] There's a lot of room in between. In 2013, archeologists working at the site of Wadi el-Jarf,

[07:25] discovered a cache of papyri The papyri at Wadi el-Jarf included the diary and a day-by-day account of activities directly

[07:40] This is the earliest known inscribed papyrus Papyrus is a material that is made by splitting the stocks The papyri that have been translated

[07:56] about the activities of the official Merer. that was quarrying stone for the outer parts of the pyramid.

[08:08] about the activities of quarrying, and he gives us, particularly, the itineraries So, at the top of every column here,

[08:23] He is recording exactly what's happening on any given date, who are responsible for transporting the blocks. from the site called Tura,

[08:38] to the pyramid site at Giza, on the West Bank. large blocks of stone took two days round trip, to the quarry as soon as they had dropped off the blocks.

[08:54] the name of Khufu is present. It's usually because Merer is referring to places

[09:06] and the places themselves are named So, it's calling Giza "Khufuville," for instance. Discovery five: the early pyramids.

[09:21] that came into being with no precedent, But, in fact, Giza was built at the end, not the beginning,

[09:33] of a process of discovering how to build large buildings. which was built at the site of Saqqara, before Khufu built his pyramid.

[09:45] in a very different way. are smaller than the blocks of the Great Pyramid. It's rectangular.

[09:59] with the layers of diminishing size, because it's stepped. rather than being laid flat, We can see here that they're figuring out

[10:15] in stone in Egypt here. and they changed their minds and their techniques is the reign of King Sneferu, the father of Khufu.

[10:32] The first pyramid was built much like with leaning courses and a stepped structure.

[10:44] to have run into engineering difficulties, probably because of structural weaknesses It's now called the bent pyramid because it's bent.

[10:58] in the bottom half of the pyramid Sneferu, when he builds the bent pyramid, he's going for a true pyramid structure, but it fails.

[11:11] for what the ground can accommodate. which we call the red pyramid, is of a much shallower angle. of messing up with the bent pyramid that a steeper angle

[11:27] By the time Khufu comes to build his pyramid he has all of the lessons that he was able to learn

[11:39] So, if you ask me how the Great Pyramid of Giza after an enormous amount of trial and error. And that trial and error over previous generations was trial

[11:53] It was trial and error figuring out how to recruit development of writing and record keeping, It is the exploitation of sites far afield

[12:10] on a construction and engineering front: and trial and error on keeping and feeding so that they're ready to perform their labor.

[12:25] The Great Pyramid is an awe-inspiring, amazing monument. But, as generations of scholarship have taught us, something that was built by people,

[12:38] how to do the engineering, We continue to learn more through new discoveries of the people who built it.

[12:53] [gentle jingle]