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When discussing design and architecture of the pyramids, one must look at how the pyramids were built. It seems likely that the Pyramids of Giza were not built by slaves but by paid laborers motivated by a faith in the divinity and immortality of their kings. The first pyramid was the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (refer to page 11). This first application of large-scale technology was the first pyramid built for King Zoser in 2750BC. It was this feat that heralded the short age of the gigantic stone pyramids of ancient Egypt. The superstructure of the pyramid was made of small limestone blocks and desert clay. The original structure was an underground burial chamber. This chamber was rare in that it was square; most mastabas were rectangular. The royal tomb is 28m underground with a vertical shaft leading to it. The entrance was sealed with a 3 ton piece of granite. It was then enlarged all around with ten feet of additional limestone and then again with an extension on the eastern side. The extension was twenty-five feet of limestone to make the mastaba rectangular. Again, it was enlarged and a two-tiered structure was made. A series of corridors and a tomb chamber was dug. After the third stage was finished, the process to make it a true step pyramid had begun. Over 200,000 tons of stone was used to make the additional two tiers that went above the existing two-tiered structure (Lepre, J.P. The Egyptian Pyramids). An additional two tiers were added above the existing four to make it into the six-tiered pyramid, which is there today. A Tura limestone face was added on.
It was only 150 years later, in the fourth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, that King Khufu commissioned the building of the largest pyramid of all, the Great Pyramid, which is the last remaining wonder of the Seven Wonders of the World. About 2,550 B.C., King Khufu , the secong pharaoh of the fourth dynasty , commissioned the building of his tomb at Giza.
