Building In Egypt

People who had a chance to look at the great Egyptian constructions including the legendary pyramids of Egypt are completely awestruck by the masonry skills that has been displayed by those masons who were working during the construction of those projects. Not only the design of the structures, but also the precision and the skills displayed by the masons in that Neolithic period, is difficult to match even in the current high technology environment. They used a combination of science and simple mathematical geometrical calculations to arrive at those great structures.

One of the most amazing structures built during that period is the limestone plateau, popularly called the Giza plateau, which acts as the foundation for the great Egyptian pyramids, which is the only ancient wonder of the world that still exists.

This limestone platform has withstood the test of time. It has withstood many earthquakes over the last several centuries. Initially built as a.5 cm thick platform, even today after so many centuries, it retains the same thickness around the plateau. Some of the stones that have been excavated in the Giza plateau have been astounding in its size and weight. The weight of one such stone found in the Giza plateau went up to 400 tones. These stones were primarily made out of basalt and limestone. One such stone discovered has been the temple east of Khafres pyramid, which weighed around 468 tones. The Mortuary temple of Menkaure is another great stone structure that has been built of a huge stone weighing 220 tones.

The valley temple in Egypt is another marvel that is built of granite blocks. One great thing about the valley temple is that the entire granite structure is enclosed in larger limestone blocks. This requires a lot of skill and precision and those qualities have been displayed to a great extent by the masons of that period.

The king's chamber in the granite pyramid is another astounding granite stone construction. This structure requires a lot of joint work wherein the masons need to join hundreds of different sized granite blocks to arrive at the structure. The great pyramids were totally covered by limestone casting stones and the masons made this covering possible by using a kind of cement and aluminum to bond the limestone casting stones to the pyramid.

Even today, some of the seam joints between the basalt and the limestone pavements remain a mystery to the civil engineers of the current generation.

By: Claire Jefferies

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Claire Jefferies is writing on behalf of Heritage Masonry, who have over 18 years worth of experience in the Stonemasonry and Hard Landscapes trade. They offer a number of services, including masonry company and masonry construction