Introduction

The Great Pyramid of ancient Egypt is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  It demonstrates the remarkable character of its placement on the face of the earth.  The construction operation took twenty years to be completed. It contains 2.5 million tons of stone; each stone weighs an average of 2.5 tons. The pyramid stands 450 feet high and with a base covers 13.6 acres. According to Napoleon, its cubic content is enough to build a wall 10 feet high and a foot thick entirely around France.  To put it in American terms, this means that the base of  Khufu’s pyramid covers the same area as the seven blocks of downtown Washington D.C.
 The great pyramid is still the largest and most massive stone structure in the world.  The stones, put together without mortar, are fitted so perfectly that not even a razor blade can be passed between them. The Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu of the fourth dynasty around the year BC 2560 built the moment to serve as a tomb when he dies. Also, there are religious purposes for the pyramid’s shape will be discussed later in the research.
Thousands of people participated in building the great pyramid, engineers, artists, supervisors, skilful craftsmen, stone cutters and workers. Old and recent discoveries around the great pyramid show about the teamwork that many people participated in constructing the pyramid during the time of the flood of the Nile.

Statement of the problem

The following questions will highlight the research problem, which is about the human resources utilized in building the great pyramid in Egypt. How the human resources were organized to work in teams during the operation of the construction, which lasted for twenty years? What did motivate all these people to work so long in such single project? What kind of teamwork involved in building the pyramid? Was the construction operation all years long?  Were all the people working permanents, or some of them temporary workers? Are there any archaeological evidences regarding these team workers and the nature of their work? Who were the workers? Who build the pyramid? Were they creatures from out of space, Jews or Egyptians? How did they accomplish such magnificent work with such limited resources if we compare that to what is available to us now?

Purpose of the research

The purpose of this research is to investigate the nature of the teamwork that produced the most famous wonders of the ancient world. Tracing the archaeological evidences for the groups who worked in the pyramid will help to clarify how did they do their work.
In addition, This research is to investigate the payment methods for these workers. How they use to get pay for their work and how fair was it?  Were the authorities taking advantage of people, and how the workers were treated? What kind of life style each group lived? Also, this research is to answer the question of who built the pyramid, and how?  Egyptologists and historians have long debated this question.

Literature review

The researcher’s undergraduate degree was in Egyptology. References, books and articles about the pyramids were reviewed. Also, Internet web sites were looked at, especially the sites of the Egyptology Departments of some universities, here in the United States and other countries. Reports and articles about recent discoveries will be very helpful to be updated of what has been discovered and written about the pyramid and the work involved constructing it.

Methodology

The researcher is triangulating. Content analysis will be the main method of data collection. Using the latest references, books and articles written will be more reliable than using the old ones. A new discovery through archaeological excavations could change information was known in the past.
In addition, the researcher interviewed Egyptologists who are working in the academic field and archaeologists who are participating in excavations around the pyramid in Egypt. They might have information even is not published yet. The third method is that the researcher is getting use of his participant observation during his Egyptology study (1978-1981) and during his work as an archeologist of the pyramid (1983-1985).
 

Results/findings

  Through the content analysis method, the researcher found that there are many theories analyzed the way that the pyramid was built.  Since the main topic of this research is about the teamwork involving in constructing the pyramid.  So, let’s answer the question of who built the pyramids and how?
    Rational scholars challenged the notion of slave labor, since managing such huge numbers of slaves, gathered in one small area, would have been a potentially explosive task.  Herodotus, the Greek historian who wrote in the fifth century BC, 500 years before Christ, is the earliest known historian of the Egyptian pyramid age.  By his accounts, the labor forces that built Khufu totaled more than 100,000 people.  Modern Egyptologists believe the real number is closer to 20,000.
  Mark Lehner, archaeologist, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and Harvard Semitic museum, he has worked at the Giza plateau for many years, an experience which has given him an unrivaled insight into the construction of the pyramids and the lives of the workers who built them.  Zahi Hawass, he is well known Egyptologist and director general of the pyramids area, both Lehner and Hawass confirmed that the Egyptians built the pyramid.  There are archaeological evidences show that 4,600 years ago, the great pyramid of Egypt was built for King Khufu by the Egyptians.
   Lehner and Hawass have been trying to solve the puzzle of where the 20,000 – 30,000 laborers who built the pyramids lived. Once they find the workers living area, they can learn more about the workforce, their daily lives, and perhaps where they came from.  Mark has been excavating the bakeries that presumably fed this army of workers, and Zahi has been excavating the cemetery for this grand labor force.  It is believed that Giza housed a crew of workers who labored on the pyramids year round.  During the late summer and early autumn months, the annual flooding of the Nile covers the fields with water. A large labor force would be without work in farming and would appear at Giza to put in time on the pyramid.
   The workmen who were involved in building the Great Pyramid were divided into gangs, groups, and each group had a name, and an overseer.  They wrote the names of the gangs, such as “friends of Khufu”, “ the drunks of Menkaura”, “Endurance”, “Perfection” and “Strong”.  None of this sounds like slavery.
Permanent workmen were working for the King.  They were paid by the King and these are the technicians, who cut the stones, and workmen who moved the stones. They came and worked in rotation.  In the cemetery around the pyramid, the archaeologists found 600 skeletons for Egyptians some of them had accidents during the pyramid construction. Twelve skeletons were found had accidents with their hands. They supported their two sides of the hand with wood. So, there were working teams who cut the stones and moved these huge blocks to their locations at the pyramid.
Let’s go back before starting the construction operation.  How did the Egyptians choose the location of the pyramid?   Larry Pahl, a pyramidologist, argues that the pyramid is at the earth’s center. A flat solid granite mountain happens to be located just beneath the surface of the ground directly under the pyramid.
  In his book pyramid illusions: A journey to the truth, Moustafa Gadalla introduced some proof of the astronomical significance in the pyramid.  The bases of pyramid are set along meridians, so that each of its square bases face one of the four cardinal points (North, South, East and West).  The entrance to the pyramid is on its north face, and the passageways are always like a telescope, aiming your towards the celestial pole.
   John Taylor, a gifted astronomer and mathematician, he had studied the Great pyramid of Khufu and came to conclusion.  The builders, he decided “knew the earth was a sphere; and by observing the motion of the heavenly bodies of the earth’s surface, had ascertained its circumference, the acceleration of gravity and the speed light.”
  So, probably teams were very knowledgeable about the true nature of the earth and the stars.

Conclusion

 Hundreds of books and articles were written about the pyramid and its secrets, to the extent that a branch of study was created.  They called it pyramidology, some of these people claimed that the pyramid was built by space aliens or lost civilization. However, the Great pyramid of the ancient Egyptian King Khufu was not the only Pyramid. It is one of one hundred and four pyramids in Egypt with Superstructure.  There are fifty-four pyramids with substructure.  There is support that the builders of the pyramids were Egyptians.
There were teams of technicians and workmen.  The pyramid is evidence that its architects were very knowledgeable in the architectural field.  From a management point of view, the overseers were very skillful in managing the thousands of workers and sitting plans in rotating them from all over Egypt to come and participate in constructing the pyramid for the King.  These thousands of workers needed food to eat to stay strong to work, so, there were teams of people who prepare food for the workers. In the tombs around the pyramid, there are descriptions of how much grain were dedicated to feed the workers.
The ancient Egyptian priests were able to convince thousands of Egyptians to participate in constructing the pyramid for the King, because the King would be their guardian in the after life.  The pyramid was a symbol of centralization and powerful socializing force gathered thousands of Egyptians to work together in teams in one location.

Recommendations/ suggestions

  The Egyptologists and the archaeologists who studied ancient Egypt agree that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramid.  There was no lost civilization there and no space aliens arrived to the earth to build the pyramid. Many people from different fields and backgrounds that are interested in the pyramid and its secrets, everyone has his own theory in the way the pyramid was built, and who built it.
 I would recommend that these people who claim that the pyramid was built by space aliens or by lost civilization or these people who claim that slavery was involved, they should study the ancient Egyptian civilization.  They should read the translation of the inscriptions that the overseers left in their tombs about how they were promoted during their careers.  The architect Nekhebu  who lived during the fourth dynasty, the pyramids construction era. He described on the walls of his tomb how he was promoted from a common builder, journey man builder, Master builder, muster of a craft, Royal constructor and builder, Royal attaché, Royal constructor and then finally he became an architect. This shows how highly regarded this type of work during the time of building the pyramids. Another foreman described his team workers toiled “ without a single man getting exhausted, without a man thirsting” and at last “came home in good spirits, sated with bread, drunk with beer, as if it were the beautiful festival of a God.”  This indicates the way that the workers were treated from their Overseers.
  In addition, I would recommend that whoever claim that the pyramid was built by slaves, they should learn about the traditions of the Egyptian Society.  Visiting the south of Egypt, or any village in the middle or north of the country,   They’ll find the traditions and the customs of the modern Egyptians not much different from the customs and traditions of the ancient Egyptians.  For example, if a mosque or a church is being built  many people will come to work free.  Participating in building a mosque or a church, the Egyptian is expecting rewards in the after life.  Even if someone is building a house for himself, his neighbors, relatives and friends will come and work free.
For the ancient Egyptians 4,600 years ago participating in building a pyramid for the King who was sacred. They guarantee that the King will be their guardian in the after life.  Knowing that the ancient Egyptians were very religious, that explains why thousands of Egyptians had participated in building the pyramid with their own will.

Bibliography/references

( 1 ) Alaa Ashmawy, the Great pyramid of Giza, Internet
( 2 ) Edwards, the pyramids of Egypt, London, 1988, pp. 97-149
( 3 ) Lionel Casson, Ancient Egypt, New York, 1965, pp.129-139
( 4 ) Moustafa Gadalla, pyramid illusions: a journey to the truth, Internet
( 5 ) Sir Alan Gardner, Egypt of the pharaohs, Cairo, 1973, pp. 96-99
( 6 ) Zahi Hawass, Who Built the Pyramids, Nova, Internet
( 7 ) Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Translated by G. C. Macaulay, New York, 1939,
       pp.7-90
 ( 8 ) Mark Lehner, the complete pyramids, Thames Hudson, 1997
 ( 9 ) Milkovich, Boudreau, Human Resource Management, Eighth Edition, Chicago,
        1997, pp. 74-78, 268,269,589
( 10 ) Jaromir Malek, Egypt Cradles of civilization, 1993, p. 31
( 11 ) Terrance Nevin, the pyramid, Internet
( 12 ) Larry Pahl, the Great pyramid, Internet
( 13 ) Delia Pemberton, ancient Egypt, San Francisco, 1992, pp. 48-54
( 14 ) Abd El Aziz Saleh, Ancient Egypt, Cairo, 1976, pp. 105-112
( 15 ) Alberto Siliotti, Egypt, temples, men and gods, Luxor—Egypt, 1996, pp.126-131
( 16 ) John A. Wilson, the Culture of Ancient Egypt, Chicago, 1971, pp.69-103
( 17 ) John Zajac, the Great pyramid a dreamland report, Internet