The ancient engineering feats at Giza were so impressive that even today scientists and engineers can't be sure exactly how the pyramids were built. Yet they he learned much about the people who built them and the political power necessary to make it happen.
Archaeological sites across Egypt and records written on ancient papyri show that boatmen used the Nile River and a network of artificial waterways to bring materials to the Giza Plateau, including granite from Aswan quarries, copper cutting tools from the Sinai Peninsula, and timber from Lebanon. To sustain the workers, they also delivered cattle from farms near the Nile Delta.
(What it’s like to scuba dive under pyramids)
It’s likely that communities across Egypt contributed workers, as well as food and other essentials, for what became in some ways a national project to display the wealth and control of the ancient pharaohs.
It’s generally believed that the Egyptians moved massive stone blocks to the heights along large ramps, greased by water or wet clay, using a system of sledges, ropes, rollers, and levers. Some suggest exterior ramps either zig-zagged or spiraled around each pyramid, while a more controversial theory suggests internal ramps were used.