What we actually know about Giza

The Great Pyramid at Giza was built for the pharaoh Khufu, in the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, around 2560 BCE (chronologies differ by a few decades). It is one of the most studied buildings on Earth, and it is also the subject of a great deal of nonsense. In this lesson you will learn to sort the two: what do we know, what do experts debate, and what is only a hypothesis?

The numbers. These are the standard figures. The builders left no blueprint, so each one is a measurement of the monument as it is today, or an estimate from it.

• Original height: about 146.6 m. Today it is about 138.5 m, because the smooth outer casing was stripped away over the centuries and the very top is missing.
• Base: each side is about 230.3 m long.
• Volume: about 2.6 million m³. You can check this with the volume of a pyramid, V = ⅓ × base² × height: ⅓ × 230.3² × 146.6 ≈ 2.59 million m³.
• Blocks: about 2.3 million, an estimate (published figures vary). The average block is about 2.5 t. Check: 2.6 million m³ ÷ 2.3 million ≈ 1.1 m³ per block, and limestone weighs about 2.2 to 2.7 t per m³, so the numbers agree.

Where the stone came from.

• The core is mostly local limestone, quarried close to the pyramid on the Giza plateau.
• The fine white casing was limestone from Tura, on the far bank of the Nile.
• The huge granite beams over the King's Chamber came from Aswan, roughly 800 km upriver.

Notice what this tells you about the job: the stone had to be cut, hauled, floated, unloaded and lifted, over and over, for years.

The evidence we have. Here are the kinds of proof, from strongest to the most open to interpretation.

1. Merer's diary (papyri). In 2013 archaeologists found papyri at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient harbour on the Red Sea. They are the logbook of an inspector named Merer, who led a crew of about 40 men. It records trips carrying limestone blocks from the Tura quarries to Giza by boat, along the Nile and canals, during the later years of Khufu's reign. It is among the oldest inscribed papyri ever found, and it shows the river was the highway.
2. The workers' town. Just south of the pyramids, excavators led by Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass found the remains of a settlement with bakeries, breweries and large amounts of cattle, sheep and fish bones. People were being fed by the state.
3. The workers' cemeteries. Nearby tombs of ordinary workers and overseers hold skeletons with healed injuries, which suggests treatment and care.
4. Quarries and tool marks. The quarries, unfinished blocks and tool marks show how the stone was cut.
5. Work-gang graffiti. Painted crew names in hidden chambers, such as 'Friends of Khufu', point to organised teams.

Who built it? The picture from the evidence is of organised, fed and housed work crews, with skilled specialists such as masons, surveyors, bakers and scribes, backed by a state that could gather food and materials. A common claim is that the pyramids were built by slaves driven with whips. The Giza evidence does not support that picture. Careful writing is needed here: historians still debate exactly how the labour was recruited and rewarded, and how many people worked at one time. Most estimates for the peak are of the order of tens of thousands of people, including support staff.