Engineering and Construction in Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period

Throughout history people have marvelled at the pyramids, from the

elemental beauty of the Step Pyramid of Djoser to the monumental scale

and engineering achievement of the Great Pyramid in Giza. The knowledge

needed to build such grand monuments was vast, but not acquired

overnight. The precursors to the pyramids, the massive mud brick tombs

of the First and Second Dynasties, reveal a high degree of proficiency,

ingenuity and capability by the architects, engineers and builders of

that time. These mud brick structures, built almost five centuries

before the Giza pyramids, reveal a structured and well organised society

with well developed construction and management skills. In fact, the

construction time and labour force requirements in these earlier

structures were efficient and small in comparison to ventures in the

proceeding Dynasties. It is through these structures - and the

development of the skills and diversity of industries required to

sustain the building of them - that the foundation for the economic and

social development of future generations and the dawn of large scale

stone construction was laid.