Methods of construction
"There has been considerable speculation concerning the means used to construct the pyramids. No textual records outlining such methods have survived, presumably as a result of the accident of preservation (or perhaps even a proscription on the description of such a sacred task) ; the suggestion is occasionally made that no records were kept because pyramid construction was regarded as a comparatively prosaic activity not worthy of record, but this is surely unlikely given the vast resources and amounts of labour involved in such projects.
The careful survey work begun by Petrie, and extended in recent times by Mark Lehner, has shown that the Giza site was carefully levelled probably by cutting a series of trenches as a grid and flooding them with water, then reducing the surrounding stone 'islands' to the desired level.
The cardinal points would subsequently have been determined astronomically. Much of the required stone was obtained from sources immediately adjacent to the complexes themselves, with only the fine limestone for the outer casing being brought from Tura across the river. When granite was needed, for such purposes as the lining of burial chambers or, in the case of Menkaura, part of the casing, it was brought up the Nile from Aswan (and indeed reliefs in the causeway of Unas show granite columns being conveyed by boat from the quarries to the temple). The final stage of transporting the stone would probably not have been as difficult as it now appears, since the flood waters of the annual inundation would have allowed the boats to bring the stone close to the pyramid itself. Since the flood also produced a slack period in the agricultural year, the king was able to employ large bodies of seasonally available labour.
The methods by which the stone blocks were raised into position remains a contentious issue. A variety of techniques have been suggested, from the use of simple cranes (based on the shaduf style of irrigation) to elaborate systems of levers and rockers, which would certainly have been used in positioning the blocks. What seems certain, from the archaeological evidence, is that ramps were used. These would have grown longer and higher as the pyramid became larger, and would no doubt have been major feats of engineering in themselves. There are only surviving traces of long, straight ramps, but it has been suggested that the terraced nature of the pyramid core would have often made it more convenient to use a series of much smaller ramps built along the sides of the pyramid from step to step ; the remains of these would no doubt have been lost when the outer casing was applied.
The casing would have been smoothed from top to bottom while the scaffolding or ramps were gradually cleared away. Once the debris had been cleared from the site, the mortuary temple and subsidiary pyramids would no doubt have been completed. It is also possible that the causeways from pyramid to valley temple originally served as construction ramps from quay to building site, and the valley temple would have been built beside a quay connected with the Nile by canal."
