HISTORY OF ART AND DESIGN: Architectural composition of a pyramid

THE CORE AND THE NUCLEUS

The pyramid of king Khafra. Tarek Swelim 1985.

The great pyramid of Khufu was built of 2.6 million blocks of limestone each of an average volume of One Cubic Meter, weighing 2.5 metric tons.

Large blocks of limestone masonry. Nabil Swelim 2005.

This figure comes from the volume of the pyramid being 2,600,000 cubic meters.

By the equation (230 x 230 x 148/3) The Area Of The Base Times One Third Of The Height.

The Turin king list tells us that Khufu reigned for 23 years.

Assuming that the pyramid was built every day of the 23 years of his reign,

and then we have 8395 days of building.

Working hours should be 10 hours a day,

and then we have 83,950 hours or 5,037,000 minutes.

To install 2,600,000 blocks in 5,037,000 minutes at a regular rate means:

that every block has to be set in less than two minutes. (1.94 min)

The building never followed that rate:

it had to be much, much faster at the beginning and slower towards the end.

At the very end of the building project

comes the difficult task of placing the pyramidion at the apex of a pyramid.

This pyramidion was prefabricated in 2 parts of diorite

weighing 4 and 7.15 = total 11.15 tons.

They were placed on the uppermost course of the outer facing, which created a platform.

The pyramidion had to fit precisely on the platform.

This is at the top of a pyramid,

at a height of 144 meters, with very limited space to maneuver.

When such a task was completed, we would be looking at a very beautiful monument:

Well oriented, well stabilized, the first course of rose granite, a whitish gold outer facing

HISTORY OF ART AND DESIGN