Pyramids: how and why they were built
History · Key Stage 2 · The School
A tomb built to last forever
A PYRAMID was a tomb for a pharaoh. Egyptians believed the body had to survive for the afterlife. A strong stone tomb protected it. The largest pyramid ever built is at Giza. It was built for the pharaoh Khufu, around 2560 BCE. It is still one of the biggest structures on Earth.
Moving stone without machines
Each block could weigh over two tonnes. Workers had no cranes or engines. They dragged blocks on wooden sledges. Wetting the sand ahead of the sledge made it slide more easily. Long ramps, built from mud brick and rubble, let workers haul blocks up as the pyramid grew taller. The work was slow, hot and exhausting.
A whole town, built to build it
Thousands of workers were needed. Archaeologists found their town right next to the pyramids. It had bakeries, kitchens, and a brewery. Workers were fed bread and beer. Skeletons show healed broken bones, meaning injured workers were cared for, not left to die.
The Great Pyramid has around 2.3 million blocks. It took about twenty years to build. That works out to roughly one block placed every few minutes, for two decades, without a single modern machine. Just ropes, sledges, ramps, levers, and thousands of organised people working together.