Building the Great Pyramid

by Kevin Jackson, Jonathan Stamp

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the oldest and sole-surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and has inspired more speculation than any other building on Earth. Using state-of-the-art computer graphics, Building the Great Pyramid brings the world of Fourth Dynasty Egypt to life and shows how and why this most extraordinary of all human monuments was built. Equipped only with the most basic tools, how were ancient Egyptians able to achieve such an extraordinary degree of accuracy in its construction? How were stones, some weighing as much as 40 tons, hauled into position so precisely? What was life like for the conscripted laborers who built it, and how long did it take them to complete their task? Only now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is it possible to provide answers. The authors trace the history of the exploration of the Giza site, from the earliest Greek and Roman travelers, through to Jean-François Champollion's cracking of the hieroglyphic code; and the work of scholars such as Auguste Mariette and Sir William Flinders Petrie in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The final chapter covers less orthodox theories and looks at how the Great Pyramid has become a magnet for all manner of charlatans, heretics, and cranks.

Genres: Egypt, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2003

About the author

There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Kevin Jackson's childhood ambition was to be a vampire but instead he became the last living polymath. His colossal expertise ranged from Seneca to Sugababes, with a special interest in the occult, Ruskin, take-away food, Dante's Inferno and the moose. He was the author of numerous books on numerous subjects, including Fast: Feasting on the Streets of London (Portobello 2006), and reviewed regularly for the Sunday Times.
From: http://portobellobooks.com/3014/Kevin...

Kevin Jackson was an English writer, broadcaster and filmmaker.

He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he joined the BBC, first as a producer in radio and then as a director of short documentaries for television. In 1987 he was recruited to the Arts pages of The Independent. He was a freelance writer from the early 1990s and was a regular contributor to BBC radio discussion programmes.

Jackson often collaborated on projects in various media: with, among others, the film-maker Kevin Macdonald, with the cartoonist Hunt Emerson, with the musician and composer Colin Minchin (with whom he wrote lyrics for the rock opera Bite); and with the songwriter Peter Blegvad.

Jackson appears, under his own name, as a semi-fictional character in Iain Sinclair's account of a pedestrian journey around the M25, London Orbital.

Adapted from Wikipedia

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a popular book about the pyramid of Khufu, its construction and subsequent history, with a sketch of the development of Egyptology and a bit too much about the crank theories. It is very highly illustrated with simple text; it was designed to accompany a BBC television program on pyramids. The authors are a freelance writer and the producer of the show, neither of whom are professional Egyptologists. It lists a handful of books for further reading, but has no real bibliography or footnotes; as Wikipedia would say, Needs sources.

[Ela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had picked out this book for a writing project in class, only intending for it to be another source. To my surprise, the book was really interesting! I loved the amount of detail about the Ancient Egyptian society and how their world worked! Although it wasn't the best thing I've read for entertainment, it is certainly one of the best books about the Ancient Egyptians and makes the research interesting.

[Ariel Paiement · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was informative and comprehensive. I enjoyed it and I learned many interesting things that I did not know about Khufu's Pyramid and the pyramids in general. I also learned a great deal about Egyptology and its beginnings through this book. It was highly interesting, and it is something I highly recommend to those interested in Egypt at nearly any level. I would say, however, that it is probably something that those who are beginning to learn about Egypt or who do not have extensive knowledge in the field will enjoy more since they'd be most likely to learn something new.

[Tamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes along with a BBC documentary of roughly the same title.

This book isn't a suspenseful action-packed book on how they built the pyramid. No scandals here. No intrigue or political squabbling. But it's full of great history, general Egyptology, and theories on how the pyramids were likely built. And I think that's absolutely fascinating.

Plus, it includes a chapter called "Pyramidology, Heretics, Mystics and Cranks", that's sure to delight. Who doesn't love mystics and cranks?!

[Tim]

Good general summary of the building of the Great Pyramid, which doesn't restrict itself to the details of the pyramid itself but also provides a good overview of the surrounding historical and social context, together with an introduction to the development of the discipline of egyptology during the 19th century.