How did the pyramids built step by step?

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">Shortly after coming to

the throne the Pharaoh commanded his architects to prepare a burial

place in keeping with his status as a god-king. A site was chosen

west of the Nile in one of the existing pyramid sites. The royal

survey team set to work marking out the site. Great care was taken

in orientating the site to the four points of the compass and in

levelling the site to provide a foundation for Khufu's Great

Pyramid. When the slaves had cleared away the sand and cut the site

roughly to shape highly skilled masons were called in to level the

foundations. This was done by cutting a grid of channels and

filling them with water. The rock was then cut back to the water

level to make it perfectly flat. Finally the water was drained away

and the channels filled with rubble.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">On the Great Pyramid,

for example, as many as 20,000 workers may have been involved. Some

of them were free men doing particular tasks such as masons, tool

makers, carpenters, scribes and slave overseers. The remainder and

by far the majority were slaves, naked slaves too low in status to

wear clothes.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">Through Khufu's reign,

the construction site teemed with workers of all kinds hard pressed

to complete the monument before the king's death. Day after day,

year after year, the quarries buzzed with activity. Through the

dust the bodies of the quarry slaves stand out dark against the

yellow coloured stone. Gangs of slaves bore holes using primitive

drill bits and sand which acted as an abrasive. After they had

drilled cores deep enough to define a block on one side, they

packed the holes with pieces of porous wood and then doused it with

water. The wood expands so fast that the block splits out with a

crack. After the stone blocks are extracted from the quarry face

they are strapped onto sledges. A mark is made on the stone by a

scribe.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">From dawn to dusk,

gangs of slaves drag the sledges loaded with stones each weighing

about 2.5 tons along roadways laid with wooden planks to staging

areas at the base of the pyramid. Water or oil is poured under the

runners of the sledges to ease their passage. Most of the stone

blocks proceed up the ramp without future handling. Only a fraction

of the stone blocks needed to be cut to precise dimensions by the

masons to retain the accurate alignment of the pyramid. The slaves

begin hauling the loaded sledges slowly up a long clay and rubble

ramp. By the time the pyramid is complete this ramp will nearly a

mile long. The noise here was one of chanting slaves and the rumble

of heavy sledges.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">At the working level

teams of slaves called setters using simple levers and brute

strength shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated

positions. Once the stones had been delivered the hauling gang

would make their way down the ramp carrying their sledge, in order

to make the same back breaking journey up as they would several

times a day. Their only substantial respite from this round of toil

in the hot sun was when they stopped for food, a meal of bread and

onions.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">A number of slaves are

employed in maintaining and extending the ramp as the pyramid grew.

The ramp is made of rubble, bound together with desert tafla (a

type of clay) and laid with planks to ease the passage of the

ramps.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">Rows of slave labourers

are seen breaking up waste material from the quarries, mixing them

with the desert tafla clay and loading the finished mixture into

baskets. Individual baskets are loaded onto the shoulders of slaves

for delivery to the ramp builders on the pyramid.

"margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;">Boats made from reeds

deliver brilliant white limestone from Tura just across the river.

Here the slaves, in light provided by primitive lamps, toil in

manmade caves to obtain the best stone. This stone will be used for

the outer case of the pyramid. Once put in place and polished the

effect will be dazzling.

Granite often used

to line the burial chambers and on some pyramids the bottom course

was brought from Aswan over 400 miles (640 km) upriver on giant

barges made from reeds. Some of the granite stones from Aswan weigh

up to 70 tons. Copper chisels and drills used for quarrying

limestone could not be used on granite. Balls of dolerite, a hard,

black igneous rock, are used in the quarries of Aswan to extract

the hard granite. These dolerite "pounders" were used to pulverize

the stone around the edge of the granite block that needed to be

extracted. Teams of naked slaves would pound out the stone toiling

for hours on end in the blazing sun. At the bottom, they rammed

wooden pegs into slots they had cut, and filled the slots with

water. The pegs would expand, splitting the rock. Slaves would then

lower the blocks onto sledges. Long lines of straining slaves,

their naked bodies gleaming with sweat, drag the loaded sledges

along a causeway to the river where they will be loaded onto barges

and floated down the river.