New discoveries about the Great Pyramid at Giza still leave unanswered questions. Why do the pyramids at Giza appear to align with the stars? How were pyramids built and who built them? Why were they built?
Many sources claim the Great Pyramid took 20 years to construct. Consider for a moment, that the workers were organized and supervised and the materials of construction were quarried and shaped and transported. Imagine that work stopped when it was too dark to see and that supplies of tools, materials, food and water for the workers had to be delivered on time to keep the construction moving forward. According to the Smithsonian, “To construct the Great Pyramid, workers had to cut, haul and assemble 2.3 million limestone blocks, weighing on average more than two tons”.
Modern construction faces similar challenges of logistics, supervision, quality control, workplace lighting, procurement and construction safety. It’s hard to sort fact from fiction when reading about the pyramids, as some believe they were built by aliens and others claim tunnels beneath the pyramids connected to the Nile and the pyramids were designed to generate electricity. The Egyptians built the pyramids without the help of aliens, but instead by a skilled workforce of masons and architects, stone cutters and master riggers, dock workers and farmers, bakers, brewers and well diggers, butchers and first aid workers, barbers, garment makers and designers, food handlers, maintenance and repair teams and planners. Could the pyramids have been built without standards?
Modern crews observe standards for high visibility clothing, protection from dust, noise and vibration. Was construction of the pyramids delayed because people were injured on the job, fell from inadequate scaffolding, deafened by the hammering and shaping of stone, blinded by thirst and dehydration or poisoned by unsanitary food? Evidence shows there were injuries on the job and first aid too.
Is it so hard to imagine the bakers followed guidelines for temperatures, weights and volumes and the builders in ancient Egypt made use of standards for measures and weights, inspections of ladders and scaffolding, proportions of mixing mortar and testing the quality of workmanship?