SOURCE2 The pyramids at Giza are the only surviving wonder of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
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A Daily work: Set 200 to 300 granite blocks each day. B Transport methods: Dragged blocks over soft sand. • Moved on rolling logs on hard surfaces. C Management: Architects and overseers controlled the work, with scribes documenting details. Craftsmen included stonemasons and carpenters. D Outer layer: Originally had polished white limestone, mostly removed for buildings in Cairo. E Materials source: • Granite from Aswan; limestone from eastern quarries. • Transported via barges on the Nile. F Labour force: About 100 000 men (not slaves) worked for 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. G Construction ramps: Sand ramps may have been built to lift blocks. H Precision cutting: Blocks were cut so precisely that a knife blade barely ýts between them. Wood stakes may have been used to split the rock. I Edge squaring: Workers ensured block edges were square. Pyramid mysteries Some say the technology of the pyramids is so astonishing that they must have been built by an alien intelligence. Another view is that those who built the pyramids at Giza, and the Great Sphinx that guards them, used knowledge and skills passed down from an old but highly advanced civilisation that existed long before the Old Kingdom in Egypt. But archaeologists and historians prefer more scientiýc explanations. Heavenly sails One treasure that robbers missed in the Great Pyramid was a 43-metre-long boat for Khufu’s afterlife. Found in 1954, it was in 1224 pieces inside a sealed cavity. When opened, archaeologists could still smell the cedar oil after 4500 years!
98 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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