How did they do it?

The Great Pyramid of Giza – Collective Human Potential - Built in Flow?

Re-published on request (thanks Jo)

I was once asked to work out a build-tempo for the great pyramid of Khufu at Giza – I include it here to stimulate thoughts for further discussions. It is now agreed by experts that the great Pyramid of Giza was built over a twenty-year period between 2560 and 2540 BCE. It was the world’s tallest building for more than three thousand years until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral (UK) in 1311 CE. Unlike today the great pyramid was originally clothed in brightly polished limestone with a gold covered cap at the top so would have reflected the sunlight spectacularly. Archaeological analysis shows that the site preparation to clear and level lasted approximately 10 years. This was likely done by using squares or by building an enclosure which was flooded with water from the Nile and then drained slowly in a controlled manner so that the natural undulations could be worked as they became exposed and removed to create a perfectly flat plateau. Note: the plateau is level within +/- 2cms, and exactly square within +/- 5cm corner to corner. Modern accurate dating studies have shown the main build of the great Pyramid was a 10-year feat. Analysis by the firm Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendehall in association with American Archaeologist Mark Lehner showed that the long-suggested average of 2.4 million stone blocks believed to have been used were likely a more accurate 2 million blocks when accounting for the various internal chambers of the construction. The inner blocks are not as uniform as one would imagine and the most recent work of Yukinori Kawae who is studying the pyramids with a multi-disciplinary team and the latest 3D imaging points to a core of less accurate blocks with sand as infill for the inevitable gaps. We now also know that the build itself was not an evenly spread workload over the 10 years period of construction. Modern archaeology suggests the bulk of the work only took place during the 6 months of the year when the Nile flooded. The archaeological work in the workers town has put the workforce at some 20-30,000 people but many of those numbers were people supporting feeding and the surrounding family structures of the hands-on workers.

Its the tempo that should lead us to the ‘how’.

So, with only 1825 days to work over the decade, even if working could be done around the clock, that gives 43,800 potential working hours available. With 2 million blocks it would mean an average of 46 major stones quarried, transported, moved into position and worked to the fit of their final position in every hour of a 24-hour period.

So, the Takt Time for each of the average 2,000KG stones of the great pyramid?

Every 31mins

No wonder we have found that the Pyramids builders were not slaves, as was the theory for many years. They are now believed to have been highly skilled, well-paid and valued workers who farmed for half of the year and built the great pyramids and temples when not able to farm. I believe that given the workload we know and the layout of the site itself, it is unthinkable that most of that work was done without some kind of material-flow-based division of labour approach where the materials were quarried, transported and moved through a progressive production-line type flow arrangement of workers each doing a small portion of the work and / or the movement. The central hypothesis of my book - Work 5.0 is that humans have long had the ability to perform work at a level of collective competence and productivity that far exceeds the way we work today and deployed it many times before. Centuries later the Venetian Arsenal, at the height of its power, could sell you a fully equipped warship (Galeazze) in the morning, build it whilst you were being fed and served wine alongside, and have it rigged for you to sail out of the lagoon that evening - That however is another story…

The fact that we seem to achieve and then lose these abilities as a species is the far greater mystery than a single building. Those of us who know how to make such leaps are vanishingly few in number...

If you would like a copy of Work 5.0 send me a PM if you wish to discuss further lets talk.