The Pyramids are one of the greatest wonders of the world and have been the topic of many questions and debates. Probably the biggest question is how these awesome architectural feats were constructed, especially since they date back to 3200 BC.

Although earlier estimates were much larger, modern Egyptologists believe that the labour force that built the pyramid of Khufu was close to 20,000. Giza is thought to have housed a skeleton crew of workers who laboured on the pyramids all year round, with a large seasonal labour force arriving during the late summer and early autumn months. The seasonal workers were farmers and local villagers unable to work on their own flooded fields and happy to contribute to the massive monuments for their god kings.

To be completed in the 20 – 40 years they are estimated to have been built in, the pyramids needed 340 x 1.5 tonne blocks delivered from a stone quarry to a building site per day. Recent experiments have proven that 12 (burly!) men can pull one of these blocks, equivalent to the weight of 25 refrigerators, over a slick surface with great ease. Given the distance from the quarries to the building sites, it is thought that a gang of 20 men could be a reasonable estimate of the actual working teams.

Ancient graffiti on the stones themselves have shown that the gangs, obviously not slaves, had given their groups nicknames like ‘Friends of the Khufu’ and the ‘Drunks of Menkaura’ etc. It appears that normal everyday men were responsible for the construction of these 481ft high structures consisting of over 6 million tons of stone.

The burial chambers of the pyramids are approximately 66ft under the ground and the base of the Great Pyramid is the size of nearly 10 football fields! What is even more amazing is that each side rises at an angle of 51.5º and each side is almost exactly aligned with true north, south, east and west. The builders had to construct the pyramids layer by layer starting from the bottom and had to check their work constantly to ensure that no errors — no matter how tiny — were made. The pyramids truly are an amazing example of accuracy and exceptional architecture.