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.