What the evidence says
The most useful clues about who built the pyramids come not from the monuments but from the settlements and cemeteries beside them. Since the late twentieth century, excavations at Giza, especially in the area known as Heit el-Ghurab, “Wall of the Crow,” south-east of the pyramids, have uncovered the remains of an organised community. Taken together with cemetery finds and written records, they point to a workforce that was managed by the state, supplied with food and generally treated as an essential part of a royal project.
This article focuses on the people. The question of how the blocks were lifted is covered in the article on construction debates.
Crews and organisation
Graffiti left inside the Great Pyramid in spaces that were meant to be sealed give names of work gangs, with titles such as “Friends of Khufu.” Similar gang names were found at Menkaure’s pyramid. These suggest that labour was divided into crews, and sub-divided into smaller groups, with a name and a pride of identity. Hieroglyphic writing was used to mark blocks and record tasks, so a degree of literacy among overseers was important. Scholars often compare the organisation to a rotating system, in which groups worked for a period and were replaced, but exact details of the rotations are not known.
A core of permanent specialists probably included quarrymen, masons, carpenters, boat crews, surveyors and scribes. Beyond that were larger numbers of seasonal workers. Many scholars suggest that farmers were drawn into royal service during the Nile flood, when fields were underwater, although this is an inference rather than a documented rule. Work of this kind was likely a form of obligatory service to the state, called corvée, which is not the same as chattel slavery. Contemporary Egyptian texts distinguish between the two, and the evidence at Giza does not match what we would expect for enslaved workers.
Housing and food
The excavated town at the site has long galleries, which may have been dormitories for crews, as well as houses of different sizes. Larger houses probably belonged to overseers and craft specialists. Industrial areas include bakeries with large numbers of bread moulds, breweries and fish-processing areas. Animal bones are dominated by cattle, sheep and goats, which suggests that meat was supplied regularly, probably from estates elsewhere in Egypt. A diet based on bread and beer, with protein from meat and fish, would have been a good supply for hard work. Some of the supplies were provided through the state, a practice that fits the picture of rations in kind. Beer in this period was a nutritious, low-alcohol staple, not just a drink for celebration.
Estimates of the town’s population vary because they rely on assumptions about how many people lived in each building. Some figures run into the thousands, but they remain estimates.
Tools and skills
The toolkit was simple, but effective. Copper chisels and adzes cut limestone. Pounding stones of harder material, such as dolerite, were used on granite. Wooden mallets, levers, sledges, ropes and wet-sand surfaces helped move loads. Workers also needed boat builders and sailors, because Nile river boats carried stone and supplies. Potters, weavers and toolmakers supported the settlement. The skills involved were not unusual for Egyptian craftsmen, but the scale was.
Health and burial
Cemeteries on the slope south of the plateau contain the tombs of workers and overseers. Some have small mudbrick and stone superstructures, and some contain bread and beer jars, a reflection of Egyptian afterlife beliefs and the idea of providing for the dead. People who could be buried near the king’s monument were not social outcasts. Skeletons show signs of heavy physical labour, including arthritis and strain on the spine. They also include healed fractures and, in some cases, amputations from which people recovered, which indicates a level of medical care. This is consistent with what is known about Egyptian medical knowledge, in which practitioners treated wounds and broken bones. Organised care for injured workers was also in the interest of the state, since it kept skilled people productive.
A diary from the logistics side
A papyrus logbook found at the Red Sea site of Wadi al-Jarf records the work of an official called Merer and his crew, who transported limestone by boat for Khufu’s monument. It shows crews moving stone along canals and the Nile, and it confirms that the pyramid project drew on a system of institutions, harbours and supply lines. The article on pyramid myths discusses this text more fully.
What we do not know
Many questions remain. The exact size of the workforce, how workers were recruited, what they were paid, and what social status individuals held are all debated. The cemetery and town evidence is from Giza in the Fourth Dynasty, so it does not necessarily describe other projects. Still, the main point is secure: the pyramids were built by Egyptian people supported by an organised state, and the evidence for their daily lives is more detailed than for most ancient construction workers.