The Great Pyramid of Giza: How Egypt Moved 2.3 Million Blocks With Boats, Sledges and Bread

The Great Pyramid of Giza was raised from about 2.3 million blocks over roughly two decades, and the evidence that survives points to a supply chain rather than a secret machine.

The first job was flattening down. Builders cut a strip around the perimeter into the bedrock and brought it level to within 21 millimetres; the four sides of roughly 230 metres came out with an average error of 58 millimetres, and the corners were squared to a mean error of 12 seconds of arc. 1

Rough limestone was quarried on the Giza plateau itself. The fine white casing stone came from Tura, across the Nile, and the granite — slabs of up to 80 tonnes for the ceilings of the King's Chamber — was hauled from Aswan, more than 900 kilometres upstream. 1

The shipments were written down. Found at Wadi al-Jarf in 2013, the Diary of Merer is the oldest inscribed papyrus known: the logbook of an inspector recording, in the 27th year of Khufu's reign, boatloads of Tura limestone sailing to Akhet Khufu — the Horizon of Khufu. 23

The papyri also name Ankhhaf, Khufu's half-brother, as overseer of a harbour at Giza — the port Mark Lehner had argued must have existed so that boats could unload at the foot of the plateau. 23

The crews were fed by the state. Graffiti at the site groups the haulers into gangs of 40 men, each with an overseer of ten, and excavations in the workers' town at Giza found bakeries turning out bread in bell-shaped pots up to 12 kilograms, part of the bread-and-beer ration system that supplied royal labour projects. 14

How the blocks went up the face is the part that remains open. A ramp system found at Hatnub in 2018 and dated to Khufu's reign shows the method in use elsewhere: a central ramp flanked by two staircases and dozens of post holes, with a sled roped to wooden posts pulled up slopes of 20 per cent or more. No such ramp has been found at Giza itself, and Egyptologists still disagree about what was used there. 5