How the Great Pyramid was built remains one of the greatest unanswered engineering questions in human history. Although countless theories exist, new research and rediscovered ideas challenge everything we thought we knew about how this ancient wonder came to be.
The Last Standing Wonder Still Holds Its Secrets
The Great Pyramid of Giza has stood for over 4,500 years, weathering centuries of earthquakes, desert storms, and the rise and fall of empires. Known in antiquity as “Khufu’s Horizon,” it remains the only surviving member of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. For nearly 4,000 years, it was the tallest human-made structure on Earth.
Despite being one of the most studied monuments on the planet, we still don’t fully understand how the Great Pyramid was built. The deeper researchers dig—both metaphorically and literally—the more questions seem to emerge.
Was It Really Just a Tomb?
Mainstream Egyptology holds that the pyramid was commissioned by Pharaoh Khufu of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty as a grand royal tomb. But unlike many other pharaonic tombs, no inscriptions naming Khufu have been found inside the main chambers, and no mummy has ever been discovered within its vast interior. The architect is believed to have been Khufu’s vizier, a man named Hemiunu, though this remains speculative.
Three internal chambers are known today: the King’s Chamber, the Queen’s Chamber, and an unfinished subterranean chamber. Yet numerous experts believe that more hidden voids could still lie within the structure’s enormous mass.
A Construction Project Without Parallel
In her book The Great Pyramid of Giza: Measuring Length, Area, Volume, and Angles, Janey Levy outlines just how massive the project was. Originally rising 146.5 meters (480.6 feet), erosion has reduced its height to 138.8 meters. Each base side stretches roughly 230 meters (755 feet). The estimated total mass: nearly 6 million tons.
Most of the estimated 2.3 million stone blocks came from nearby quarries. But the largest—and heaviest—blocks in the King’s Chamber were transported from Aswan, over 800 kilometers to the south. These granite beams weigh between 25 and 80 tons each.
So… How Did They Do It?
That’s the mystery. Egyptologists generally propose that the blocks were cut using wooden wedges soaked in water. As the wood expanded inside the rock’s natural cracks, it split the stone apart. The blocks were then moved—possibly on sleds—across the desert and transported via the Nile.
Estimates suggest that building the pyramid required 5.5 million tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite, and about 500,000 tons of mortar. The logistics are staggering, even by modern standards.
But here’s the problem: we still don’t know exactly how the Great Pyramid was built.
Were ramps used to drag the blocks upward? If so, where are the remains of these massive ramps? Could wooden rollers and mudbrick paths withstand the crushing weight of 50-ton stones? How was alignment achieved with near-millimeter precision over hundreds of meters?
The Water Shaft Theory: A Radical Alternative?
A growing number of independent researchers have suggested that conventional theories don’t fully explain the pyramid’s construction. One documentary, freely available online, explores a lesser-known idea: the water shaft theory.
This proposal suggests that the pyramid was not built solely from the outside up, but partly from the inside out—using a series of internal water-filled shafts and buoyancy-assisted lifts to float blocks into position. According to the theory’s proponents, these shafts could have acted as a kind of primitive lock system, similar to what we see in modern canals.
While no hard archaeological evidence currently confirms this approach, the theory raises an important point: the tools and strategies we expect may not have been the ones used. The absence of clear ramp remains and the extreme precision of the construction suggest that either we’ve misunderstood ancient methods—or lost track of knowledge that once existed.
Not Slaves, but Skilled Labor
Ancient Greek historians famously claimed the pyramids were built by slaves. Modern archaeology paints a different picture. Excavations near the Giza plateau suggest that tens of thousands of well-fed, skilled workers lived in nearby workers’ villages, rotating in and out on a seasonal basis. Bread ovens, fish remains, and ample shelter paint a picture not of slave labor, but of an organized and respected workforce.
But even this doesn’t fully explain how the Great Pyramid was built with such architectural precision and logistical mastery.
