CAIRO — A video recently went viral on social media showing giants carrying massive stone blocks to be used in the construction of Egypt’s pyramids famed Giza Pyramids. The AI-generated video plays out one of the myths surrounding the pyramids’ construction. And it highlights the fine line between the age of science, with logical explanations that are closer to the truth, and the previous ages, where myths were the main means of explaining the unknown — including how the pyramids were built.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
In The Egyptian Pyramids, Egyptologist Abdel Halim Nour El Din explained that “people’s difficulty in believing what they saw on the ground pushed them to go beyond the framework of reason and logic. People circulated stories and myths about the pyramids: how they were built, their functional role and who built them.”
Those myths continued until the unlocking of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. As the secrets of the ancient Egyptian language were unveiled, facts began to emerge, supported by reliable sources, such as papyri, inscriptions and tools used by the ancient Egyptians to build the pyramids.
But what are the reasons behind the continued spread of myths despite scientific progress? And how were the pyramids built based on what we know now?
Why the continued myths?
Hussein Abdel Basir, former director of the Giza Pyramids and current director of the Antiquities Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, attributes giants in the AI-generated video, for example, to “an attraction to mystery and the power of popular imagination.”
He said the pyramids represent a huge achievement that challenges the traditional understanding of how an ancient civilization built structures of such precision and magnitude. As a result, he said, some seek unconventional explanations to transcend known scientific boundaries, relying on myths and cultural symbols that provide a sense of wonder and strangeness.
“The spread of these stories through popular media reinforces these false beliefs, and gives them a strong resonance among people who may find it difficult to accept complex scientific explanations,” he said.
The West has pushed to attribute ancient Egypt to European civilization through Greek civilization.
Monica Hanna, assistant professor at the Faculty of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, suggested another explanation for the phenomenon, nothing that “there has always been an attempt to separate modern Egypt from the history of ancient Egypt since the French campaign on Egypt (1798-1801). Since the 19 century, the West has pushed to attribute ancient Egypt to European civilization through Greek civilization, which is known as the European centrality of ancient Egypt.“
“Then came the Afrocentric movement, which also tried to attribute Egyptian civilization to the people of Africa, which adopts narratives that the current Egyptians are the product of various occupations of the land of Egypt,” said Hanna. Ancient Egypt has strong African connections, but this interpretation is merely a reflection of European centrality and its view of ancient Egypt, she said.
These mythical stories about the construction of the pyramids arise to go along with these ideas that claim that it is impossible for the ancestors of modern Egyptians to build this great structure, she said.
Purely Egyptian
Mustafa Nour el-Din, chief archaeologist at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, said that the development of tomb construction in ancient Egypt proves that the pyramids are a purely Egyptian model.
“The tomb was a shaft in the early dynasties era. Then in the Old Kingdom era it developed into a shaft topped by a mastaba [a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides], and at the end of the Third Dynasty the mastaba was transformed into a step pyramid. And finally the complete pyramid appeared in its known form in the Fourth Dynasty during the reign of Sneferu, until his King Khufu came and built the Great Pyramid,” Nour el-Din said.
As for the method of transporting the huge stones, Nour el-Din points to the “many illustrated scenes that show the transport of giant statues and obelisks that weigh dozens of times more than the stones of the pyramids.” The common method for dragging huge stones was to place them on sleds. Then workers in front would pour, what is likely to be milk, to reduce the sleds’ friction with the ground, he explained.
Simply, the ancient Egyptians used the available natural resources, and the power of men.
“For the pyramids, most of the stones were brought from the area of the pyramid plateau itself, while the stones for the outer casing were brought via the Nile from the Tura area east of the Nile, and then the stones were lifted by ascending roads,” he said.
The ascent roads are long ramps of brick and mud, to lift the huge stones to the heights of the pyramids. Workers would pull the stones on wooden sleds over these roads using ropes and pulleys. As the pyramid grew taller, the ascent road was lengthened to reach the upper levels. These roads were wide and sturdy to provide a stable base for pulling the heavy stones, allowing them to be lifted safely and efficiently.
There is relatively recent physical evidence of the construction of the pyramids, Nour el-Din said: Most of this knowledge comes from another discovery.
The Merer Papyrus
The Wadi al-Jarf Papyrus, discovered in 2013 on the western Red Sea coast, is a logbook kept by Merer, a middle-ranking official, that outlines the daily activities of the pyramids’ construction. Merer describes his team’s work and how the huge limestone blocks were transported from the Tura quarries to the construction site at Giza.
The papyrus reveals the amazing administrative and logistical organization of the project — how a huge workforce was managed, fed and transported — as well as the engineering techniques used in building the pyramids — how these huge blocks of stone were cut, transported and lifted with extreme precision. It also includes information about the number of workers, the tools they used, the methods they used for transportation and even the workers’ diet.
“The Merer Papyrus provides compelling evidence of how the pyramids were built, and debunks mythological claims that giants built the Egyptian pyramids,” Nour el-Din said, adding that it shows that the pyramids were built by tough Egyptian workers who also worked in mining.
“Simply, the ancient Egyptians used the available natural resources, and the power of men,” he said.
Digging deeper
With the tremendous scientific advances, scientists repeatedly attempted to deepen their understanding of the process of building the pyramids, and to remove the mystery surrounding some of its details.
Among these are several attempts to simulate the pyramids’ construction. The most prominent attempt was in 1978, when a team of 24 Japanese scientists tried to build a miniature pyramid next to the Giza Pyramids using ancient methods. But they faced great challenges in cutting and transporting the stones, which indicates the skill of the ancient Egyptians.
Recent attempts have failed, Hussein Abdel Basir said, due to several factors. First, the ancient Egyptians possessing distinctive engineering techniques and knowledge — all of these techniques were clearly preserved. Second, construction processes depended on intensive human labor, which is a challenge that is difficult to repeat today.
Part of the importance of these unique monuments is that they continue to inspire everyone.
The third factor, he said, is that the natural stone materials used in building the pyramids were available in large quantities in ancient Egypt. Modern attempts may face difficulty in finding these materials in the same quality or quantity, “which makes simulating the pyramids a difficult challenge,” he said.
Meanwhile, some studies adopted other theories that attempt to explore the world of these buildings: Last August, a study published in the journal PLOS One, suggested that Egyptians used a hydraulic lift system in the construction of the Djoser Pyramid, citing to the presence of possible water structures around the pyramid.
“Interest in this idea is growing. But conclusive evidence is still limited,” Basir said. “It has not yet been proven that the Great Pyramids used the hydraulic lift method, as there are no clear indications of hydraulic systems there.”
Monica Hanna also said that there is no scientific evidence for the hydraulic lift theory, and the majority of archaeologists do not tend towards this theory. “Part of the importance of these unique monuments is that they continue to inspire everyone to think scientifically and metaphysically,” she said.
