One of the great questions of field archaeology: how did the Egyptians of the Old KingdomOld KingdomThe first great period of unified pharaonic Egypt (c. 2700-2200 BC, 3rd-6th Dynasties), the golden age of the great pyramids and of a strongly centralised state.→ build monuments weighing millions of tonnes with the means available to them? The answer, less mysterious than one might think, is documented, nuanced and fascinating. That is what Nota Bonus sets out to show in this extended interview with Franck Monnier, associate researcher at the CNRS.
Note: the interview is in French.
Nota Bonus: Nota Bene's expert interview channel
Nota Bonus is the secondary channel of Nota Bene, the French-language YouTube reference for history (over 2 million subscribers). While Nota Bene publishes accessible videos for general audiences, Nota Bonus hosts longer, more technical interviews aimed at viewers who want to go beyond the headlines. It is precisely the right format for a subject as dense as ancient Egyptian construction techniques.
Franck Monnier: from the laboratory to the pyramids
Franck Monnier is an associate researcher at the CNRS, UMR 7041 ArScAn (Archaeology and Sciences of Antiquity, Nanterre). He is one of France's most active specialists in ancient Egyptian architecture, combining the study of built structures with digital 3D reconstruction.2
He is co-founder of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Architecture (JAEA), a peer-reviewed scientific journal dedicated to pharaonic architecture.6 He is the author of two recent books:
- Dans le secret des bâtisseurs égyptiens (Errance/Picard, Actes Sud, 2023)4, a popular synthesis of current knowledge on construction techniques.
- La science face aux dossiers mystérieux de l'Égypte ancienne (Actes Sud, 2025)5, a documented refutation of the alternative theories circulating about the pyramids.
He is also a member of the Inside the Great Pyramid mission, alongside Zahi Hawass, Aurore Ciavatti, Bertrand Chazaly and Emmanuel Laroze, which aims to explore the interior spaces of the Great Pyramid using non-invasive imaging techniques. He also leads the Pharaonic Palace 3D project3, a digital reconstruction of the palace of Amenhotep III at Malqata.
What science knows, and what it still does not
The interview sweeps through the great questions the pyramids have raised for two centuries.
Moving the stones
The limestone blocks came from the Tura and Maasara quarries on the Nile's east bank. Papyri found at Wadi al-Jarf, dated to the reign of Khufu, describe the daily lives of quarrying and transport teams. Archaeological traces of access ramps have been identified at several sites, though their exact form, straight, spiral, or stepped, remains debated. Recent analyses suggest a system combining several ramp types depending on the height reached.
The builders: neither slaves nor mystery
The slave thesis, popularised by the Bible and certain ancient accounts, is now disproved by excavations. The workers were paid craftsmen, often well fed (beer, bread, fish, meat), cared for by physicians, and working in rotating teams. The workers' villages discovered at Giza by Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass since the 1990s attest to this directly.
Alternative theories
Franck Monnier revisits the extravagant theories, the role of extraterrestrials, lost technology, the Atlantean civilisation, and analyses them with precision. Not to ridicule them, but to show how each claim runs up against the existing archaeological data. This is the subject of his second book, which follows the tradition of sceptical inquiry applied to archaeology.
What science still does not know
Despite progress, gaps remain. The precise mechanics of hoisting blocks above 50 metres is still debated. Not all of the Great Pyramid's interior spaces have been mapped, the ScanPyramids mission revealed an unknown void in 2017 through muography. And the administrative workings of a site mobilising perhaps 20,000 people remain partly obscure.
Why this documentary also belongs here
The architecture of the Old Kingdom is not prehistoryPrehistoryThe span of human history before the invention of writing, from the Palaeolithic to the Metal Ages, known mainly through material remains.→ in the strict sense: the pyramids of Giza were built around 2600–2500 BCE, centuries after the appearance of writingWritingA system of conventional signs used to fix language or information durably; its appearance (c. 3300 BC) marks, by convention, the end of prehistory.→ in Egypt. But the technical gestures underlying this construction, stone-cutting, collective organisation, mastery of engineering without metals, belong to the long history of human know-how that Mondes Préhistoriques is dedicated to documenting. The megalithMegalithA large stone raised or assembled by humans (menhir, dolmen, stone circle), typical of the Neolithic and Bronze Age.→ builders of Carnac, Newgrange or Ggantija would have recognised in Khufu's quarrymen a kindred craft.
L'approche expérimentale et ethnoarchéologique développée par Franck Monnier pour comprendre les techniques de construction égyptiennes est exemplaire. En reproduisant à l'identique des outils et des méthodes de l'Ancien Empire, on peut tester des hypothèses que les seules sources textuelles et iconographiques ne permettent pas de valider. C'est la démarche scientifique appliquée à l'archéologie.
Les travaux de Franck Monnier sur les techniques de construction égyptiennes sont une référence incontournable. La question de comment les Egyptiens ont construit les pyramides reste l'une des plus débattues et des plus fascinantes de l'archéologie. Les expériences de reconstruction à petite échelle ont montré que les techniques disponibles à l'époque étaient largement suffisantes, sans nécessiter d'hypothèses exotiques.