Imaginary letters - Building the Great Pyramid

Em Hotep!

Thanks to Shemsu Sesen for another excellent post, stuffed full of information, photographs, diagrams and maps.

Building the Great Pyramid Year 1: Six Letters from Hemienu

If the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, what were the first steps Hemienu took when starting the construction of the Great Pyramid? Six letters from Hemienu is a work of epistolary historical fiction, with a very heavy emphasis on historical, which explores the sort of details that would have required his attention immediately after choosing a building site for Khufu’s Pyramid.

The purpose of these imaginary missives from the desk of the Overseer of All the King’s Works is to give the reader an idea of the amount of planning, materials, and manpower involved not only in building the Great Pyramid, but in preparation for the work itself. There were mines and quarries to be opened, a fully functional workers’ city to be constructed, and an entire nation to be mobilized.