Customer Reviews

How the Great Pyramid Was Built

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4 star:		(1)
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The reader will have one question in mind after finishing "How the Great Pyramid Was Built": is this a book about Ancient Egypt, utilizing the tools of project management? Or a book about project management, using the Great Pyramid as an extended example? However, the answer is probably moot. Both project managers and Egyptophiles will gain excellent insights from reading Craig Smith's book. Dr. Zahi Hawass, the director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, provides the foreword. The analysis of the necessary infrastructure and the organization of the workforce is throrough and engrossing.

This book is not for the alternative theorist, but rather for the historically- and archaeologically-minded reader. One minor quibble: Smith appears to assume that the Egyptians knew that a triangle with sides of unit length 3, 4, and 5 would form a right triangle, whereas Richard Gillings (Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs) firmly rejects this notion. Still, they would seem to have had some sort of square or carpenter's ell. The first chapter, a general historical survey of ancient Egypt, does not add anything new, but is a good reminder for the casual reader and serves to anchor the building of the Great Pyramid in its historical era. All in all, a fascinating analysis that belongs on the shelves of both project managers and those interested in Egypt's most famous monument.

This is a great book! It is well written, covers a fascinating subject in an interesting manner, and is clear enough for non-engineers and scientists to enjoy.
Using modern engineering systems and concepts, Mr. Smith explores,in depth,the many issues involved in building the Great Pyramid at Giza. He covers the design, the materials and their transport, the actual construction, and the labor. As an added bonus, the author provides substantial information about ancient Egyptian life and death and explains how their culture affected the design and construction of the Great Pyramid.
Throughout the book, Mr. Smith lays out the known facts (with attributions), the conclusions he draws from those facts, and, most importantly, the reasoning that leads him to his conclusions.
For anyone who has ever wondered how an ancient society, lacking most modern tools and knowledge, was able to build a structure on this grand scale and have it last for 4,000 years, this is the book for you.

This is a very interesting and thoughtful book. In large
part, it is engaging and well written, and the author has
done a lot of background research, analysis, and careful
thinking. The book presents very interesting material, and
carefully justified speculations.

In the end, I find the ramp scenario implausible, at least
as the major method of lifting most of the stones. There are
several reasons for my skepticism, but one is this: the
author's ramp scenario involves, for example (cf. p. 182) at
course 9, 34 teams side by side, 12 teams in sequence, and
42 laborers per team, for a total of 34x12x42=17,136 men on
the ramp at one time ... this sounds rather impractical.

Unless I've misunderstood, there is also an important
technical error in the analysis: On p. 211 it is mentioned
parenthetically that the author assumed friction increased the
required force by 50%, and a footnote explains that
this arises from assuming a friction coefficient 0.5. But
this friction coefficient would mean that the friction force
is half the normal force, which for the assumed slope of 1:6
is close to the weight of the block. So the friction force
is about half the weight, whereas the tangential component
of the gravitational force is around 1/6 the weight.
That is, rather than 50 percent more work, friction adds
300 percent more work.

While this book has descriptive dialog and accompanying graphs and pictures, the author's opinions on how the Great Pyramid of Khufu was built remains like a poor pyramid; unstable. A lot of what he talks about in the book have already been written about and he in fact tells you about these books through internal citations within the text, some of which he fails to mention by name, only citing the author and the words 'his great work'. Which work is that exactly? I haven't a clue. Could possibly be one of a dozen, or a singular volume; the reader should not have to fight through the footnote at the back of the book to discover which work this is.

One aspect of the book that I do not agree with is his reliance on the idea that the Egyptians used ramps to construct the Great Pyramid. There is evidence of ramps at the site, but they could not have been used to reach the massive heights that the Great Pyramid reached, rendering this theory which the author purports as fact, to be misleading and/or false.

The book, with a foreword by Zahi Hawass, who is (to put it lightly) rather controversial in himself, is not tremendously interesting, exciting, or needed. If you are interested in the pyramids and all opinions on the table, by all means, purchase this book. It does give a fairly decent overview of the Pyramid building King's of Ancient Egypt. But this book is not written by a historian or an archaeologist. It is written by an engineer. I am sure that Mr. Craig B. Smith is a nice enough guy, but I'll leave the Pyramids to further scrutiny from others knowledgable in the field.

I ordered this book as a Christmas present for my daughter. She is a big Egypt fan and Zawi Hawass is her favorite. For a used book this was in excellent, new book condition. I cannot wait until Christmas morning.

I have asked many people and read diferent versions of just how the pyrqmids were build. This seems to be the most plausable one and one I can relate to. Having climbed around on them and wondered just how many hands had been involved, I now have some answers to my questions.

Craig B. Smith is not only an amazing man, but an excellent writer! I was fascinated by this book and the exceptional information it contained. I highly recommend it!