PBS - This Old Pyramid (1992)

This Old Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built by the pharaoh Khufu in approximately 2600 BC, the structure covers an area of seven city blocks and weighs an estimated six and a half million tons. But how was it built? The construction of the pyramids was an extraordinary feat of engineering, craftsmanship, and cooperative effort. For the oldest and largest of the three main pyramids at Giza, the pyramid of Khufu, the workers had to raise more than two million blocks to a height of forty storeys, an amazing achievement, given that the ancient Egyptians possessed only the simplest technology. Without modern surveying equipment, pulleys, or even the wheel, how did they lift stone blocks weighing two and a half tons, position them correctly, and control the shape of the rising pyramid? Many theories have been put forward over the centuries, but nobody has come up with a definitive answer. Dr Mark Lehner of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute and Roger Hopkins, a Massachusetts stonemason, set out to cast some light on the problem by building their own pyramid, a much reduced version of the original, alongside Khufu’s massive structure. In order to reproduce the original construction as accurately as possible, they are restricting themselves to working with the tools and materials that were available 4,000 years ago.

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