There was a time when giant cranes did not dot the city skyline and when bulldozers, backhoes, and excavators did not yet exist. But even before these pieces of seemingly critical technology were invented, we had palatial estates, temples, churches, pyramids, and the like, all of which were built with none other than human ingenuity.
But how were these mega-structures of yesteryear built? Let’s take a closer look.
1. The Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most iconic statues in the world. It likely dates back to the reign of Khafre between 2558 and 2532 B.C.E., and it was constructed from a large block of limestone on site, meaning no equipment was needed to hull in from somewhere else.
It’s a protruding piece of limestone bedrock that used the basic technology of the time, says Josef Wegner, an Egyptologist, archaeologist, and professor in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania.
“The Egyptians were masters of limestone masonry, and their sculptors would have easily been able to carve at this scale,” says Wegner.
They likely carved right out of the bedrock that existed on the site, so it wouldn’t have required any additional technology to hull the rock into place. After the sculpture was complete, it would have been painted as most statues of the time normally were, with yellow and blue alternating stripes on the headdress and a golden mask. Although the paint, exposed over centuries to wind and rain, has long since faded away.
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2. Petra
Founded over 2,000 years ago along the ancient Arabian trade routes, Petra was at one time home to a community of over 10,000 nomads that achieved great success in the construction of this engineering marvel.
Workers fashioned the carved city by building giant steps into the sandstone that served both to ensure that the quality of the rock was good enough to last through the harsh desert sun and so that sculptors and masons could work without ropes and the risk of falling.
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3. The Great Pyramid of Giza
There’s some things that we can’t know about the pyramid construction because we don’t have original sources. Researchers have to look at what’s there and make inferences about such engineering feats, says Aidan Dodson, an Egyptologist and historian at the University of Bristol.
“Apart from a couple of papyri that discuss the geometry of ramps, there’s no manual left behind of how to build a pyramid,” says Dodson.
We know more about the logistics than the engineering. For example, we have a log book of the boats that were being used to ferry the fine quality casing limestone to the construction site, says Dodson. Again, like the Great Sphinx, the majority of the lesser quality limestone — filler, if you will — would have been available onsite and didn’t need to be hulled in from anywhere else.
The engineering of the pyramids is more of a mystery, and researchers have to look at unfinished pyramids in order to infer how the more complete pyramids were constructed. Ramps left behind at the unfinished sites show that they were likely used to put one stone on top of another to build these massive structures that have stood the test of time.
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4. The Parthenon
The Parthenon was built in Athens, Greece, between 447 and 438 B.C.E. to honor the goddess Athena, and it still stands in all its glory today. The enormous project was directed by Pericles, an Athenian statesman with the architects Ictinus and Callicrates designing the building. The sculptures were designed and supervised by the great sculptor Phidias.
Marble was transported from nearby quarries via wagons, and each block was carved right at the building site. While we don’t know for sure, it’s suggested that a system of pulleys, ropes, and wooden cranes was used to move heavy blocks of marble to the top of the hill where the Parthenon still stands today.
Either way, it was an engineering feat to move such heavy stones, and unlike the pyramids, the building materials had to be transported to the site of construction.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Egyptologist, archaeologist, and professor in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania. Josef Wegner
Egyptologist and historian at the University of Bristol. Aidan Dodson
Britannica. How was the Parthenon built?
Sara Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work appears in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and many more. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She's also a candidate for a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University, (expected graduation 2023).
