The three pyramids of Giza, near Cairo, Egypt. 4th Dynasty (circa 2670 - 2450 BC) • ISTOCK The three great pyramids built during the IV th dynasty (c. 2670-2450 BC) in the plain of Giza are spectacular. However, four and a half millennia after their construction, many mysteries still surround them, starting with the names of the architects who designed them. Either the pyramid of Cheops:no positive indication in the available documentation; Egyptologists had to rely on guesswork. Very quickly, a character caught their attention:the vizier Hemiounou. Two candidates for the Cheops pyramid This nephew of Cheops and grandson of Snefru (c. 2561-2538 BC), the founder of the IV th dynasty, had a monumental mastaba at Giza, to the west of the Great Pyramid. A statue was found there, strongly emphasizing his obesity, a sign of social success according to the symbolism specific to pharaonic iconography. Hemiounou was notably "director of all works". Some indications seem to suggest a particular skill in bookish knowledge:thus, a papyrus is represented on the knees. Among his many titles, he is "great of the five of Thoth", the god of Scripture and Knowledge. The inscriptions of his statue are inlaid with colored paste, a rare technique. However, Néfermaât, his father, whose mastaba illustrates this technique, boasts of having himself implemented it to create a writing "that cannot be erased". There would therefore be an "intellectual" vocation of the father which, after all, could have aroused a vocation of architect in the son. From these meager clues, it has been suggested that the latter was responsible for the design of the Great Pyramid. And by a propensity specific to the Egyptian vulgate, what was only a hypothesis turned into a proven fact. It is not uncommon to read in books for the general public that Hemiounou was the architect of the great pyramid, without the slightest reservation. It's going very quickly, as shown by a recent discovery. Indeed, in a port of the Red Sea, we found archives relating to the construction of this pyramid. There is mentioned Ankhhaef, very probably the half-brother of Kheops, well known elsewhere. Like Hemiounou, he was vizier and "director of all the works of the king". But the archives also give him the more precise title of "director of the entrance to the basin of Kheops", that is to say the port where men and materials destined for the great pyramid flowed. If therefore Hemiounou probably had to know more or less its construction, Ankhhaef is clearly designated as a person in charge – even the person in charge – major of the construction site of this construction. A heavy task, certainly, but above all a manager's task. However, did it imply that he designed the monument himself and planned its architecture? Nothing indicates it, even if nothing excludes it either. Alas, therefore, in the current state of our knowledge, the most reasonable thing is to resign ourselves:we cannot designate with certainty the very talented designer of one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Near the great pyramids of Giza was found a building that could accommodate at least 1,600 people:probably the workers who worked on the huge construction sites. On the other hand, new data, whether archaeological or philological, have thrown some light, not on those who had conceived the project of the three great pyramids, but on those who executed it. 400m south of the Great Sphinx of Giza, excavations have revealed a vast complex associated with the workings of the pyramids of Chephren and Mykerinos, and possibly earlier Cheops. Its heart consisted of four groups of mud-brick galleries which were separated by three streets. Inside these galleries were small dwellings. In front of each gallery was a colonnade with inclined planes fit to serve as sleeping quarters for about forty people. The complex was likely to accommodate at least 1,600 people, probably more if the roofs were fitted out. The space around this block of galleries was devoted to bakeries, silos, stores, and, at the southern end, separated by a small outcrop from a lake, a vast enclosure for cattle. Rudimentary dwellings, intended for the most junior personnel in charge of bread-making and the preparation of subsistence goods, contrasted with other more luxurious ones, obviously dedicated to the chiefs. Organized like sailors Through these remains, one can perceive a complex and highly hierarchical distribution of the workers of the great pyramids. The hard core was made up of young men recruited from different provinces. They were organized into formations according to the long-established system of economic or military expeditions – the Egyptian term is the same. These formations were divided into teams, themselves subdivided into "phyles" (from the Greek phylè , “tribe”) of 40 people. The terminology designating this hierarchy referred to navigation, because, on the one hand, transport by water played a crucial role, and, on the other hand, this transport often involved the hauling of barges, a task of the same nature ultimately as the hauling of stone blocks on land. Careful analysis of the remains revealed that these recruits, however arduous their task, were well fed and well treated, with a relative abundance of meat food. Should we then revoke the image of Épinal thus formulated by Sully Prudhomme in his sonnet Lost Cry :“He was a worker from the high pyramids, / adolescent lost in these timid crowds:what crushed the granite for the piled up Cheops”? Certainly not completely. Because, in addition to this hard core, there were many other workers involved in tasks considered subordinate – preparation of food and consumer goods, work ancillary to transport, preparation of materials – and certainly much worse treated. It is possible that they were largely common law convicts and foreign prisoners. Archeology offers a very recent contribution to our knowledge:for a long time Egyptologists postulated the use of ramps for the construction of the pyramids. However, a ramp, apparently contemporaneous with the great pyramids, has just been excavated in a quarry in Middle Egypt. It was lined on each side with wooden posts around which the hauling ropes probably passed. Thus, the weight of the blocks to be hoisted was divided, those who hoisted them following a downward slope. Imhotep, the “great of the seers” There is a pyramid whose designer is known to us. Admittedly, it is not the great pyramid, but it nevertheless has its merits since it is the first of its kind, the "step pyramid" erected for the pharaoh Djoser (c. 2617-2599 BC). -C.) at Saqqara. Far from being based on a later tradition, the association of Imhotep – Imouthès in its Hellenized form – with the complex of the step pyramid is attested on a statue of the king originally placed in the entrance colonnade. On the basis of this statue, Imhotep was mentioned, which in itself is already an exceptional honor. He was endowed with a series of real or honorary titles, the most important of which is that of "great of the seers", that is to say high priest of Heliopolis, the conservatory city of religious knowledge. This is not anecdotal:the construction of a pyramid brings into play not only technical knowledge specific to the profession of architect, but also this religious knowledge which determines its symbolic meanings. To these titles were added, as an appendix, designations emphasizing Imhotep's skill in sculpture, masonry, and stone vessel work. Under Ramses II, a canonical enumeration of the pharaohs completes the evocation of the sovereigns of the III th dynasty by the exceptional mention of a private individual, Imhotep, qualified as “builder, who directs […]”. The rest of the text is destroyed, but it nevertheless remains significant. A huge stone tomb It is almost certain, therefore, that Imhotep was the designer of the step pyramid and its complex. In addition to the architectural performance and religious knowledge brought into play by this monument, there was a technical innovation:the monumental use of stone. Breaking with tradition, which only knew wood or raw brick, Imhotep had already resorted to it during the reign of Nebka (c. 2635-2617 BC), Djoser's predecessor. Perhaps he had even intervened in the construction at Abydos of the red granite and stone tomb of Khâsekhemouy, the last sovereign of the II th dynasty, died around 2635 BC. But never before has this material been used on such a large scale. The ancient Egyptians had a special admiration for those who had discovered new materials. More than a millennium later, Amenhotep, son of Hâpu, to whom Pharaoh Amenhotep III (v. 1391-1353 BC) had entrusted the supervision of his buildings in Thebes, of which nothing less than the temple of Luxor, had known a posthumous glory largely for having innovated by massively using quartzite, a stone hitherto neglected. Moreover, in the Theban region, popular devotion, always in search of great men capable of playing intercessors with the gods, systematically paired him with Imhotep. However, his reputation remained rather limited geographically, while that of Imhotep extended to the whole kingdom. In Antiquity, the Egyptians revered the architect Imhotep almost like a god, attributing to him skills in writing, medicine, even magic... Imhotep was arguably the most famous man in ancient Egypt. He was credited with great skill in astronomy and philology. He was made the author of a “wisdom”, a collection of prescriptions and prohibitions aimed at regulating behavior. His mastery of the language, going hand in hand with that of Hordjedef, a son of Kheops, was set up as a model. With Hordjedef, he formed the first couple of the eight writers constituting the “Parnassus” of the Ramesside period. Moreover, each scribe was required to pour a libation in his honor before going to work. A late false priesthood depicts him unraveling through his skill in consulting ancient writings a crisis situation in which Djoser was plunged due to a long period of insufficient flooding. Considered a skilled physician, he was associated with Asclepius in Greco-Roman times. Hence his reputation as a magician, whose iconographic manifestations lasted until the V th century AD. In Memphis, a great temple was built to him, and an area of the city bore his name. Six days of celebration per year were dedicated to him. He was supposed to deliver oracles. Many faithful dedicated bronze or stone statues to him in his effigy. Some asked for his intercession with the gods in order to obtain children. Exceptional fact:he was credited with divine ancestry, as the son of a mortal, Kherdouankh, and of the god Ptah, more rarely of Khnum. The temple of Edfu, built more than two millennia after his death, claimed him as its architect! Find out more The Pyramids of Egypt, I. E. S. Edwards, The Paperback, 1992.The Mystery of the Pyramids, J.-P. Lauer, Presses de la Cité, 1988.Egypt restored. Volume 3, S. Aufrère and J.-C. Golvin, Errance, 1997. Timeline 2635-2561 BC. Imhotep designs for Pharaoh Djoser the first pyramid, a stepped building.2561-2538 BC. AD The first pharaoh of the IV th dynasty, Snefru, erects pyramids at Dahshur and Meidum.2538-2516 BC. Construction of the pyramid of Cheops, in Giza, the site of which is directed by Ankhhaef.2509-2484 BC. Khephren had his pyramid built, the second in size, near that of his father, Cheops.2480-2462 BC. Construction of the pyramid of Mykerinos, son of Chephren and grandson of Cheops. From career to top of the pyramid The main material used in the great pyramids was stone. It was necessary to bring the granite from the quarries of Aswan, near the first cataract of the Nile, more than 700 km from Memphis. It was transported in large barges that reached the port near the site. As for the limestone, which was cut into blocks to build most of these monuments, its quarry was on their very site. It was still necessary to haul these blocks higher and higher as the works rose. To do this, ramps were built of raw bricks which led to each side of the pyramid. Pulling the blocks up the slope was obviously not an easy task, but an ingenious system made it possible to relieve the work somewhat:the sides of the ramp were lined at regular intervals with posts around which the hauling ropes were passed. Thus, not only was the weight to be pulled divided, but the workers could also work on the downward slope.
