Egypt’s oldest pyramid was constructed using hydraulic lifts nearly 5,000 years ago

Nearly 5,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians revolutionised the way in which humans shape the world around them.

A new paper published in the PLOS ONE journal explains that ancient Egyptians probably became the world’s first hydraulics engineers to do this.

The research centres on the oldest of Egypt’s iconic pyramids: the funerary complex of King Djoser.

The Pyramid of Djoser was built around 2680 BCE. At this time, hunter-gatherers had only just begun erecting Stonehenge and the last population of woolly mammoths was still at large on Siberia’s Wrangel Island.

It remains standing today at Saqqara, about 15km southwest of the Pyramids of Giza.

King Djoser’s tomb “is considered a significant milestone in monumental architecture”, the authors of the study write.

“It is the first to disclose two crucial innovations: a pyramid shape for the pharaoh’s grave and the exclusive use of fully dressed stones for masonry. In practice, it is also revolutionary in the ability to extract and raise stones by millions before stacking them with precision,” they add.

Djoser’s complex is made up of about 2.3 million limestone blocks, each weighing about 300kg. The step pyramid has 6 tiers making it rise 62.5 metres and with a base 121m across.

Over about 150 years, ancient Egyptians built 6 other monumental pyramids, moving more than 20 million tonnes of stone. The authors calculate that nearly 50 tonnes of stone blocks would have to be cut, moved and fitted every hour during this span of time.

“Even if one admits that not every pyramid’s blocks are fitted with millimetre precision, the amount of work accomplished is truly remarkable,” they write. “Interestingly, the pyramids later built in Egypt tended to be smaller with time and never reached the volume of the Old Kingdom’s monumental structures again.”

How did they do it?

“As authentic sources from the working sphere of pyramid architects are currently lacking, no generally accepted wholistic model for pyramid construction exists yet,” the authors say.

More recent builds in ancient Egypt have offered clues to archaeologists and engineers.

A new multidisciplinary analysis seems to show how Egypt’s oldest pyramid was built. But it comes from looking at a structure a few hundred metres west of Djoser’s Pyramid.

Gisr el-Mudir, also known as the Great Enclosure, is a previously unexplained structure. The new study suggests that it may have functioned as a “check dam” to capture water and sediment.

Water may even have been treated in compartments dug outside the pyramid where sediment was allowed to settle. The water could have been allowed to flow into the pyramid’s shafts, helping carry the building stones as it rose.

“Based on a transdisciplinary analysis, this study provides for the first time an explanation of the function and building process of several colossal structures found at the Saqqara site,” the authors write.

They say the structures “form a unified hydraulic system that enhances water purity and regulates flow for practical uses and vital needs. Among the possible uses, our analysis shows that this sediment free water could be used to build the pyramid by a hydraulic elevator system.”

It is possible, they write, that methods developed by ancient Egyptians for water treatment may have extended beyond construction to consumption, irrigation, navigation and transportation.