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The builders of the pyramid of Khufu were not slaves but workmen and farmers drafted during the time of inundation. They received accommodation, food and some payment in kind. The following is an account which was told to Herodotus by the Kememou and was entered into his 'Histories.'
I have taken the liberty of replacing his Greek terms with those from the Mdu Ntr:
"Down to the time when Rameses (Senofru?) was king, they told me there was in Kemet nothing but orderly rule, and Kemet prospered greatly; but after him Khufu became king over them and brought them to every kind of evil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them from sacrifices there, he then bade all the Kememou work for him.
KHUFU AS DESCRIBED BY THE KEMEMOU
So some were appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the Arabian mountains to the Nile, and others he ordered to receive the stones after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to those which are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually. Of this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the length of it is five furlongs and the breadth ten fathoms and the height, where it is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone smoothed and with figures carved upon it. For this they said, the ten years were spent, and for the underground he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile. For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundred feet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones being less than thirty feet in length. This pyramid was made after the manner of steps which some called "rows" and others "bases": and when they had first made it thus, they raised the remaining stones with machines made of short pieces of timber, raising them first from the ground to the first stage of the steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to the second upon another machine; for as many as were the courses of the steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they transferred one and the same machine, made so as easily to be carried, to each stage successively, in order that they might take up the stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as it is reported. However that may be the highest parts of it were finished first, and afterward they proceeded to finish that which came next to them, and lastly they finished the parts of it near the ground and the lowest ranges.
On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if I rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this inscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver was spent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have been expended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread and clothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works for the time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small time besides, as I suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and in working at the excavation under the ground?
Khufu moreover came, they said, to such a pitch of wickedness, that being in want of money he caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and ordered her to obtain from those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was they did not tell me): and she not only obtained the sum appointed by her father, but also she formed a design for herself privately to leave behind her a memorial, and she requested each man who came in to give her one stone upon her building: and of these stones, they told me, the pyramid was built which stands in front of the great pyramid in the middle of the three, each side being one hundred and fifty feet in length.
This Khufu, the Kememou said, reigned fifty years; and after he was dead his brother Khafra succeeded to the kingdom. "Posts: 3344 | From: Berkeley | Registered: Oct 2003
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I've always kind of kept this account in the back of my mind as I work on trying to figure out how the great pyramids were built. I'm not sure why since I don't really give it a lot of credence but I trust Herodotus' ability to record it correctly and even after thousands of years I'd expect the priests to know something of the construction since it would be a topic of immense interest and not easily lost.
I think the "bases" were actually steps and G1 was a five step pyramid with each step of 80' and an 81' pyramid atop the 5th step. Stones were lifted straight up the side 80' or 160' at a time and had to be lifted multiple times to get higher.
It most probably was cladded from the top down and several bits of data suggest this including the fact that only the cladding atop G2 survives.
The "short timbers" are far enigmatic but I believe this is the one part that was garbled in a translation. I believe the stones were lifted with water filled counterweights and the "short timbers" really should be "short pieces of wood" in answer to the question of how was the counterweight made water tight.
This counterweight might have been a 35' long boat like stucture that was flared and bifurcated vertically on the bottom. I believe it was described in the Pyramid Texts as resembling the back end of a bull. This "boat" would have been heavily timber framed and then "short pieces of wood" placed across the framing and the inside tarred. These "short pieces of wood" may have even been made in panels for quick repair if one sprang a leak. I wonder if the temples might have been closed because this was the only means of escaping corvee labor. Too many men joined the temples so he closed them.
Of course I don't get a lot of support but I am very very patient.
-------------------- Men fear the pyramid, time fears man. Posts: 393 | From: NW Indiana, US of A | Registered: Aug 2006
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