1

2

3

This paper will teach you about construction of the pyramids. What’s

inside of the pyramids? What are the pyramids made of and what is the design

of the pyramids? This paper will answer your questions and more so, sit back,

relax, and enjoy my paper.

Have you ever wondered about the construction of the pyramids? The

pyramids of Giza sit by the Nile and are 4,500 years old. They are HUGE. The

pyramids were built on the west side of the Nile, and there were 80 of them.

The sides of the great pyramid are angled at 56 degrees. The Great Pyramid is

made of more than 2 million blocks in it. The workers moved blocks by

dragging them up a ramp and putting them in place with a saw, chisel, and

mallet. The tools they used are much different than the tools we use. Farmers

built them because they thought if they helped their king go to heaven he

would help them. They also helped because their land was flooded and they

needed a job. Also, the finest sculptors, masons, and engineers spent lots of

time working on one tomb. The laborers helped, too. For construction they

split up into groups of 2,000 to do specific tasks. Villages near the construction

site were designed to help the builders. Don’t you think the building of the

pyramids is cool?!!

www.khanelkhalili.com.br

4

Don’t you wonder what pyramids are made of? The materials are fairly

rough. They had a lot of stone in Egypt. Great pyramids are made of 2.3 billion

blocks of stone weighing 2.5 to 15 tons each. That’s about as much as a hippo.

The core was made of soft lime stone, and on the outside it was made out of

hard lime stone although the rest was made from mud brick. They made mud

bricks by taking wet mud and a little straw. They mixed it then formed the

brick. After that they set it aside and let it dry. The inside walls were often

made of limestone and pink granite. They used stone from nearby quarries.

Laborers used wooden rollers, coated with mud, attached to a rope to move

the heavy blocks. The inside walls were polished so the artists could paint

hieroglyphics on them. Now you know what pyramids are made of!

5

Have you ever wondered the layout and design of the pyramids? There

are three types of pyramids: the step, bent, and great pyramids. The step

pyramid starts with a square base, then they put another slightly smaller one

on the other one and so on. They usually have 6 layers. Djoser had the first

pyramid; the tomb was in the center of the pyramid. The base was 103 feet

and it was 409 feet in total. Khufu’s pyramid was the largest and is 485 feet

tall. The sides of the great pyramid are facing the four different directions of

the compass. The pharaoh’s and queen’s tomb were in the same pyramid

often along with the rest of the family. The king’s tomb was above the queen’s

tomb in the center of the pyramid. The king’s tomb is the only one completed

in the pyramid Giza. The queen’s tomb is unfinished and smaller. They put

rooms under the pyramid for boats and forms of transportation. Wow, the

design of the pyramids is cool.

aceflashman.wordpress.com

6

Do you ever wonder what’s inside a pyramid? There are around

500,000 items inside a pyramid. The items inside a pyramid vary between

people and what they were like. They put things in your pyramid that you

would use every day. They thought that the pharaoh’s soul would live in the

pyramid, so they put food, toiletries, clothing, and much more in the pyramid.

They also put jewelry and Statues of his or her servants inside the tomb. They

had false shafts, extra passages, huge plugs of stone, dead ends, dummy

chambers, false doors, pits, booby traps, and magical spells to prevent tomb

robbers. They had hieroglyphics on the wall to remind the pharaoh who he

was and what he did. The tomb was protected with a big mass of stone and

there was a statue of the person so if the body was destroyed the Ba and Ka

could live in the statue. Next to Khufu’s pyramid there was a boat that had

carried his body across the Nile to his pyramid. Now you know what’s inside a

pyramid.

faculty.ashrosary.org

Aren’t the pyramids interesting!!!I loved learning about how they were

built, what they were made, what the design was, and what is inside of them.

It was so much fun writing this paper!

These are some vases and dishes that

they would put in a pyramid

7

Ba - An aspect of the soul

Chisel - A wedge like tool with a cutting edge used to cut the stone

Hieroglyphics - The writing of the ancient Egyptians. Each sound has its own symbol

Ka - a spiritual entity

Laborers - A person engaged in work that requires bodily strength rather than skill or training

Mallet - A hammer like tool used for striking a surface.

Nile - A River in Africa, the longest in the world, flowing from north to south 3,473 miles long, this river kept the Egyptians alive

Pharaoh – An Egyptian king

Tomb - A burial chamber like a grave only it’s a huge room where they stored all the things they would need for the afterlife.

Tomb Robbers – Robbers that broke into pyramids to steal the treasure.

8

Bibliography

Boyer, C. (n.d.). Everything Ancient Egypt. New York: Scholastic.

crystalink.com/pharough

ehow.com/pyramid. (n.d.).

genius, p. (2012). Ancient Egypt. New York: Andrew Macintyre.

Hart, G. (2008). Ancient Egypt. New York: DK pubisher.

Hyman, T. (2003). Pyramid. Broudway: scholastic.

Krensky, S. (2001). Egypt. Broudway: sholastic inc.

MacDonald, F. (2009). Solving The Mystery of The Pyramids. New York: Marshall Cavendish

Corps.

Punam, J. (1994). Pyramid. New York: Andrew Macintyre.

Simon, S. (2003). Pyramid and Mummy. Broudway: Scholastic.

Tyldersley, J. (2007). Egypt. Sydney: Sheena.