Alabaster appears as flooring in the Pyramid and Valley Temple of the Pyramid of Khafre. However, there are no direct references to this quarry until the Middle Kingdom. Fine limestone, used for the exterior casing stones, and for lining the passages and chambers, appears to have mainly come from the region around Tura, southeast of Cairo. Quarries have been located at Giza around the Sphinx, southeast of the Pyramid of Menkaure, and south-east of the Pyramid of Khafre. (See Ancient Egyptian Stone Technology).Ĭoarse limestone, used for the core masonry, appears to have been quarried from the immediate vicinity of each pyramid. However, there is visible evidence on some of the stones and statues of the use of saws, tube drills and lathes. Of all these tools, only one plumb rule, one square, and a number of dolorite pounders have actually been found. The following tools and techniques are generally thought to have been used by builders during the old Kingdom: copper chisels, transporting causeways, ramps, sledges, roller, mud brick construction embankments, levers, plumb rules, set squares, ropes, saws, dolorite pounders, tubular drills, and wooden molds. A number of old texts and tomb inscriptions refer to builders and artists of the Old Kingdom, but do not specifically refer to work on the Pyramids. The names of the builders of Giza are as yet uncertain. It is believed that Imhotep was the architect of the Pyramid of Djoser, but none of the discovered texts reveal any details of the work done. There is little extant evidence of who the builders and architects of the Old Kingdom Pyramids were, the methods they employed or the tools which were used. "Limestone Quarry" from Egyptian Pyramids, "Pyramids and Quarries of the Old and Middle Kingdom" (detail)įrom Egyptian Pyramids, © 1947, Leslie Grinsell