The Pyramids

Pyramids were magnificent feats of organization and engineering. A large pyramid could take longer than twenty years to build.

The first Egyptian pyramid was built at Saqqara for King Zosar. It was called a step pyramid because of its shape.
Stonemasons used special rods to check that a stone block was accurately cut. Copper chisels and hard wooden mallets were used on limestone blocks and plumb lines made sure that the sides were straight.
The blocks stayed in the quarry until the flood season. Thanks to the floodwaters the barges with the stones were able to get close to the building site.
The Egyptians were highly skilled at fitting and polishing the casing stone blocks which were put in place once the pyramid had reached its designed height.
The Great Pyramid at Giza , 482 feet high (147 meters), built for King Khufu about 4,500 years ago was a straight-sided pyramid with casing blocks of limestone.
On the American continents about 150 BC the Mayan civilization built their version of the pyramids followed by the Aztecs 1200 AD and the Incas 1438 - 1532 AD.