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How Did The Great Pyramid Get There?
Background: For centuries, people have wondered how the ancient Egyptians were able to build the Great Pyramid.
Remember, the Great Pyramid is over 450 feet tall, and it is constructed of more than 2 million huge stone blocks,
many of which weigh 3 tons or more. Yes most social scientists agree that it was likely built in just 20 years.
There have been several hypotheses put forth to explain how the Great Pyramid was built
Read the 3 most accepted hypotheses below and determine honestly which one you think best explains how the Great
Pyramid was built. BE PREPARED TO EXPLAIN why you made this choice.
1. Which hypothesis did you choose? Explain your reasoning (3-5 sentences)
2. Your Turn: Thinking as a social scientist, create your own hypothesis as to how you think the Ancient Egyptians
created the Great Pyramid keeping in mind the hard facts; (size of structure, time it took to build, size/weight of blocks,
technology available to them at that time.) (3-5 sentences)
Piecing Together The White Chapel
1. Read the station directions and background.
The White Chapel was built for Senusret I’s first jubilee festival, which was a celebration of the pharaoh’s 30th year as
ruler. On both sides, ramps and stairs led up to the small rectangular building. Senusret I himself may have sat inside the
chapel during part of the festival.
Six hundred years later, another pharaoh tore down this beautiful monument. He used the pieces to fill in one of the
pylons, or sloped walls, of a monument he was building. Modern-day archaeologists would have never known about the
White Chapel if not for an incredible stroke of luck.
In 1924, Egyptian archaeologists decided to repair the monument in which the pieces of the White Chapel had been
buried. While working at the site, archaeologists discovered the blocks of the White Chapel. Even though the blocks had
been buried for thousands of years, the intricate carvings on them were generally in excellent condition. Using the broken
sections of carvings like puzzle pieces, archaeologists were able to slowly reconstruct the White Chapel.
2. Assemble the broken carving back together.
3. Answer the following question: What does this carving represent? (3-5 sentences)
Carving from Hatshepsut’s Temple
1. Read the station directions and background.
As you have learned, one of Hatshepsut’s greatest accomplishments was the trade expedition she sent to the African
kingdom of Punt. But what did the expedition bring back to Egypt? Here, in the temple at Dayr al-Bahri, Hatshepsut left
visual clues to help us answer that question.
2. Examine the carving from the temple.
3. Make a list of as many different “objects” that you can identify in the carving.
4. Explain how the Ancient Egyptians might have used these new exotic things.
The Great Temple of Ramses II
1. Read the station directions and background
The Great Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel was one of the most incredible architectural achievements of the New
Kingdom. Probably the most outstanding features of the temple are the four enormous statues of Ramses, some of which
are more than six stories tall. This monument survived for over 3,000 years.
Then, in the 1940,s the Egyptian government decided to build a new dam on the Nile River to generate electricity. Once
the dam was built, water would back up behind the dam and bury the temple under hundreds of feet of water. The
Egyptian government considered several different options for dealing with this problem.
Option A) Abandon the project and do without the electricity that would have been provided to the Egyptian
people.
Option B) Find a new location for the dam, one that would not threaten to flood the Great Temple.
Option C) Continue with the project, even if it meant flooding the Great Temple.
Option D) Cut the entire temple away from the cliff side and move it to a higher location that would not be in the
flood zone created by the dam.
2. Read over the options to the solution to their dam problem.
3. Answer the following question: Which option would you have recommended to the Egyptian government
and why? (3-5 sentences)
4. Come up with an entirely new option to present to the Egyptian government that could potentially solve
both preserving the monument as well as providing the much needed electricity to Egyptian people. (3-5
sentences)