• The great pyramids of Egypt where built with simple tools and many hands.pyramid image by christine dedman from Fotolia.com
  
  Imagine building the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty with nothing more than a few simple tools and manual labor. It is a wonder to consider how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids without today's technological advances. There were no bulldozers, backhoes or excavators, and the only fuel available to them was human and animal power.
  
  

Hammer and Chisel

• To chip away at the enormous pieces of granite and limestone that make up the pyramids, workers used hammers and chisels.
  
  

Trowels

• Workers used trowels to smooth and shape mud into bricks, which they allowed to bake in the sun. When the bricks fully hardened, workers arranged them and used the trowels to smooth more mud between them as mortar.
  
  

Copper Drills and Saws

• Copper drills and saws were available to the ancient Egyptians, and researchers theorize that they used such tools to manipulate the soft limestone.
  
  

Squares

• The Cairo Museum contains ancient wooden squaring tools crafted by early Egyptians. These include a square level with a plumb bob, a set square and a vertical plumb rod.
  
  

Inclined Planes

• Workers used mud to create inclined planes, or ramps, that were used to move material from level to level within the pyramids.
  
  

Dolerite Pounding Stone

• The Egyptians used large, hand-held stones of dolerite to pound stone blocks in place and shape large pieces of granite. Dolerite is a fine-grained, volcanic rock that was hard enough to provide leverage against the other building materials.