Ancient Supply Chain on the Nile

Building the Pyramids would be a challenge in this day and age, so how did the
ancient Egyptians cope? The following is an excerpt from Issa Baluch’s book
Transport Logistics: Past, Present and Predictions

The great pyramid likely required two million blocks of limestone and granite, weighing
from two to six tons each

Barber estimated that it would take a force of 900 men harnessed in double rank on four draft ropes to drag a 60-ton monolith….

Barber says that such a force would have no trouble dragging the stone, especially if they were drilled to pull together; he concludes that for this reason men and not animals are pictured hauling wrought stones: men could be drilled to march in absolute cadence to a song or time-keeping instrument. A ‘one-two-three surge’, says Barber, produces a momentary force represented by nearly the weight of the whole mass of men, or several times their ordinary pulling force.” -Peter Tompkins in his book Secrets of the Great Pyramid.

Central transport logistics challenge: quarrying, transporting, lifting, and placing two million blocks of granite, some of them weighing as much as 50 tons.

The Great Pyramid and its two siblings at Giza have attracted travellers of all
kinds in their 4,500-year history. Today, archaeologists, Egyptologists and engineers all over the world study its construction and attempt to understand the manner in which granite and limestone blocks weighing 50 tons were transported to the site and raised to such a great height. Whatever the answers to their technical questions, the evidence of a tremendous transport logistics operation remains. The Egyptians responsible for building the Great Pyramid coordinated the quarrying and movement of two million blocks of stone, the pyramid’s construction, and the hiring, feeding, clothing, and housing of a 30,000-man workforce (and perhaps their families as well). This was a project that most likely took 20 to 25 years to complete, meaning that it called for thorough planning at the outset and careful project management as it progressed. The Great Pyramid at Giza, then, provides our oldest conclusive example of a major transport logistics project. While the facts of its construction remain shrouded by the passage of a few thousand years, its complexity, size and technical accomplishment merit closer examination.

The Great Pyramid was built around the year 2600 BCE by Khufu, also known as Cheops, Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2680-2565 BCE). Standing 146 metres high and covering 13 acres, it is two-thirds the size of the Hoover Dam. Two million blocks of limestone and granite, weighing from two to six tons each, were used to build it. Some of the granite beams quarried at Aswan and brought down the river on barges weighed more than 50 tons. Building the interior King’s Chamber required that granite blocks of 40 to 60 tons be raised to a height of 70 metres.

Many scholars have offered estimates as to how many men worked on Cheops’ pyramid. The Greek historian Herodotus, who travelled to Egypt in the 400s
BCE, is the first known person to have written about the pyramids. Herodotus writes that 100,000 men worked for three months at a time. Egyptologist Miroslav Verner calls this estimate “fantastic.” Ludwig Borchardt and Louis Croon, who assume that work went on throughout the year, estimate that 36,000 men worked at Giza, a number that fits within the 20,000-30,000-man range proposed by most Egyptologists.

What is clear is that the Egyptians patterned their work-force after their highly organised society. In addition to the massive human resources operation necessary for organising so many workers, pyramid builders also had to exercise strategic site selection. Giza was chosen as a pyramid site for a number of reasons, one of them being its proximity to the Nile, which would be convenient for transport. This is a classic case of the relationship between engineering and transport logistics. While the pyramid builders may have used marvelous engineering techniques to erect the 2.3 million blocks, the entire project depended on the efficient transport of these blocks from quarry to construction site.

The pyramid builders made good use of the Nile, bringing massive blocks on barges from quarries at Aswan and Tura. Planners took advantage of the annual floods, when the Nile was so full that it could carry the barges all the way to the foot of the plateau construction site. They also created artificial canals for the barges — because of the weight and size of the blocks, the logisticians’ goal was to get the barges as close to the construction site as possible. The next task was unloading the slabs. It is possible that an earthen embankment was built up as high as the barges’ decks so that the slabs could simply be slid off. Another possibility is that the barges were brought into a narrow canal where beams resting on the banks were put under the obelisk/ block to lift it. The ship would then be weighted down and slipped out from under the heavy rock.

Once the slabs were unloaded at Giza, there remained the task of transporting them up the hill to the pyramid. For this purpose, workers constructed a long causeway. The causeway leading up the hill from the Sphinx to the pyramid of Khafre (built c.2555-2532 BCE) can still be seen at Giza today. According to Herodotus, workers spent 10 years building the causeway to the Great Pyramid. According to Peter Tompkins, men, not oxen, probably pulled the stones, because men could be better trained to work together than could a team of livestock. Grease was then put under the sleds to reduce friction as they were pulled up the hard hauling tracks. Labourers might have used alluvial mud as a lubricant underneath the heavy blocks, or they might have slid the blocks over rolling logs. Harvard University archaeologist Mark Lehner learned from a pyramid construction experiment that 12 men could easily pull a 1.5-ton block over a slick surface. Therefore pulling a block weighing 50 tons would require the labour of 400 men.

The magnitude of the Great Pyramid’s transport logistics challenges should be very clear, especially to those who have visited Giza (or any other pyramid) and have seen its breathtaking size with their own eyes. Logisticians responded to these challenges by utilising resources like the annual flooding of the Nile, their strategic proximity to quarries, and a large labour force that seemed to be dedicated to the project for religious reasons as well as duty to State. When it came to hoisting these heavy blocks into place, logisticians relied on the most high-tech cranes possible at that time: pulleys, sandbag weights, levers and greased beams.

In addition to clothing, feeding, and housing a work-force of thousands, project managers had to mobilise experts in many fields and encourage cooperation among many different players. As noted earlier, it is interesting that in some cases, human labourers were preferred over animals because it was easier to train them to work together. While animals can provide only brute strength, human workers can provide brute strength as well as the mental determination necessary for such a project.

A 20-year project of this magnitude required not only the mental determination of labourers pushing stones up ramps, but also dedication by the entire workforce. Because few construction projects today last as long, it may be difficult to imagine the dedication required to complete the Great Pyramid. However, Egyptian pyramid builders were not working on a mere commercial endeavour—they were working for the purpose of honouring their gods. Perhaps this religious commitment bound the builders to the Great Pyramid throughout the project, from vision to reality.

Baluch is Chairman and CEO of Dubai-based Swift Group and Past President of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations (FIATA)