![]() They became more important than the pyramid itself and set Egyptian civilization off on a course for the next two or three millennia.” They transformed the landscape, and in doing so, also created a new society which archeologist Mark Lehner says is the real achievement, “Once they had put all these systems and all this infrastructure in place there was no going back. Thousands of men, working together for over 20 years, succeeded in building the tallest, heaviest structure on earth. Each team has specific roles in the construction of the pyramid or the transportation of materials to the work site. Merer’s phyle was called “The Followers of the Boat named after the Snake on its Figurehead.”įour phyles formed a gang of elite labourers. He divided the workforce into ‘phyles’ teams of 40 men - of which someone like Merer oversaw.Īrtifacts with team names on them have been discovered by archeologist Pierre Tallet at a remote desert outpost in Wadi Al-Jarf about 250 kilometres away. Workers belonged to teamsĪnkhhaf, Pharoah Khufu’s half-brother is mentioned in Merer's diary and is thought to have been in charge of the operation. ![]() SCENE FROM THE FILM: Ancient Egyptians who worked on the pyramid were living for the weekend too. With 1,000 holes and five kilometres of rope the new boat was assembled and Abd El-Maguid and in Secrets of the Pyramid, attempts to re-create every step of Merer’s journey down the Nile with a two-tonne limestone rock. Instead of nails or wood pegs, these boats were sewn together with rope like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Using ancient tomb carvings and the remains of an ancient dismantled ship as a guide, archeologist Mohamed Abd El-Maguid has recreated one Egyptian boat from scratch.ģD scans of the ship planks revealed that the boats were full of holes that lined up perfectly with each other. The limestone was carried along the River Nile in wooden boats built with planks and rope that were capable of hauling two-and-a-half tonne stones. Wooden boats built with rope instead of nails. The construction of artificial ports was a huge turning point for Egyptians, opening up trade and new relationships with people from distant lands. Visit A Mysterious Chamber Underneath Giza’s Great Pyramidįly Over Giza’s Great Pyramid With A Drone Water was harnessed to transport the huge stones.Įvery summer, when the Nile flooded, giant dykes were opened to divert water from the river and channel it to the pyramid through a manmade canal system creating an inland port which allowed boats to dock very close to the work site - just a few hundred metres away from the growing pyramid.Ī recreation of the port from the documentary Lost Secrets of the Pyramid Here are some of the findings uncovered in Nature of Things documentary Lost Secrets of the Pyramid. In the last few years, the papyrus and other archeological excavations have revealed new information about how the pyramids were constructed. ![]() In it, Merer (which means beloved) describes how he and a crew of 40 elite workmen shipped the stones downstream from Tura to Giza along the Nile River. The 4,500-year-old papyrus is the oldest in the world and describes how wooden boats and ingenious system of waterworks transported blocks of limestones and granite weighing up to 15 tonnes from 13 kilometres away. In what is considered by some to be one of the greatest discoveries in Egypt in the 21st century, archaeologists have unearthed the diary of Merer, an official involved in the construction of Giza’s great pyramid. For centuries it has been one of the world’s greatest enigmas: how did a primitive society with little technology build the Great Pyramid of Giza - the oldest and only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? At 146 metres high, it was for nearly 4,000 years, the tallest man-made structure of Earth. ![]()
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