Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

60 Chapter 3 EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS

Goddesses of Egypt,” page 54). The Great Pyramids are symbols of
the sun. The Pyramid Texts, inscribed on the burial chamber walls of
many royal tombs beginning with the Fifth Dynasty Pyramid of
Unas (r. 2356–2323 BCE), refer to the sun’s rays as the ramp the
pharaoh uses to ascend to the heavens. Djoser’s Stepped Pyramid
(FIG. 3-5) may also have been conceived as a giant stairway. The
pyramids were where Egyptian kings were reborn in the afterlife, just
as the sun is reborn each day at dawn. As with Djoser’s pyramid, the
four sides of each of the Great Pyramids are oriented to the cardinal
points of the compass. But the funerary temples associated with
the three Gizeh pyramids are not placed on the north side, facing

the stars of the northern sky, as was Djoser’s temple. The temples

sit on the east side, facing the rising sun and underscoring their con-

nection with Re.

From the remains surrounding the Pyramid of Khafre at Gizeh,

archaeologists have been able to reconstruct an entire funerary com-

plex (FIG. 3-10). The complex included the pyramid itself with the

pharaoh’s burial chamber; the mortuary temple adjoining the pyra-

mid on the east side, where offerings were made to the dead king,

ceremonies performed, and cloth, food, and ceremonial vessels

stored; the roofed causeway leading to the mortuary temple; and the

valley temple at the edge of the floodplain. According to one theory,

T

he Great Pyramids (FIG. 3-8) across the Nile from modern Cairo
attest to the extraordinary engineering and mathematical ex-
pertise of the Egyptians of the mid-third millennium BCE. They also
are testaments to the Old Kingdom builders’ mastery of stone masonry
and ability to mobilize, direct, house, and feed a huge workforce
engaged in one of the most labor-intensive enterprises ever under-
taken. Like all building projects of this type, the process of erecting
the pyramids began with the quarrying of stone, in this case primar-
ily the limestone of the Gizeh plateau itself. Teams of skilled workers
had to cut into the rock and remove large blocks of roughly equal size
using stone or copper chisels and wooden mallets and wedges. Often,
the artisans had to cut deep tunnels to find high-quality stone free of
cracks and other flaws. To remove a block, the workers cut channels
on all sides and partly underneath. Then they pried the stones free
from the bedrock with wooden levers.
After workers liberated the stones, the rough blocks had to be
transported to the building site and dressed (shaped to the exact di-
mensions required, with smooth faces for a perfect fit). Small blocks
could be carried on a man’s shoulders or on the back of a donkey, but
the massive blocks used to construct the Great Pyramids were moved
using wooden rollers and sleds. The artisans dressed the blocks by
chiseling and pounding the surfaces and, in the last stage, by rubbing
and grinding the surfaces with fine polishing stones. This kind of con-
struction, in which carefully cut and regularly shaped blocks of stone
are piled in successive rows, or courses,is called ashlar masonry.
To set the ashlar blocks in place, workers erected great rubble
ramps against the core of the pyramid. Their size and slope were ad-
justed as work progressed and the tomb grew in height. Scholars de-
bate whether the Egyptians used simple linear ramps inclined at a
right angle to one face of the pyramid or zigzag or spiral ramps akin
to staircases. Linear ramps would have had the advantage of simplic-
ity and would have left three sides of the pyramid unobstructed. But
zigzag ramps placed against one side of the structure or spiral ramps
winding around the pyramid would have greatly reduced the slope of
the incline and would have made the dragging of the blocks easier.
Some scholars also have suggested a combination of straight and spi-
ral ramps.
The Egyptians used ropes, pulleys, and levers both to lift and to
lower the stones, guiding each block into its designated place. Finally,
the pyramid received a casing of white limestone blocks (FIG. 3-9,
no. 1), cut so precisely that the eye could scarcely detect the joints.
The reflection of sunlight on the facing would have been dazzling,

underscoring the pyramid’s solar symbolism. A few casing stones still

can be seen in the cap that covers the Pyramid of Khafre (FIGS. 3-8,

center,and 3-11,left).

Of the three Fourth Dynasty pyramids at Gizeh, the tomb of

Khufu (FIGS. 3-9and 3-10,no. 7) is the oldest and largest. Except for

the galleries and burial chamber, it is an almost solid mass of lime-

stone masonry. Some dimensions will suggest the immensity of the

Gizeh pyramids: At the base, the length of one side of Khufu’s tomb is

approximately 775 feet, and its area is some 13 acres. Its present height

is about 450 feet (originally 480 feet). The structure contains roughly

2.3 million blocks of stone, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons. Some

of the stones at the base weigh about 15 tons. Napoleon’s scholars

calculated that the blocks in the three Great Pyramids were sufficient

to build a wall 1 foot wide and 10 feet high around France.

❚ARCHITECTURAL BASICS:Building the Great Pyramids

ARCHITECTURAL BASICS

3-9Section of the Pyramid of Khufu, Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty,

ca.2551–2528 bce.

Khufu’s pyramid is the largest at Gizeh. Constructed of roughly 2.3 mil-

lion blocks of stone weighing an average of 2.5 tons, the structure is an

almost solid mass of stone quarried from the Gizeh plateau itself.

0 100 2 00 feet

0 30 60 meters

Silhouette with original facing stone

Thieves’ tunnels

Entrance

Grand gallery

King’s chamber

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

So-called Queen’s chamber

False tomb chamber

Relieving blocks

Airshafts(?)

6.

7.

8.

9.

(^72)
1
8
99
5
4
6 2 3