Ancient diaries reveal the construction process of the Great Pyramid.

Egyptian diaries from 4,500 years ago, written by a captain involved in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, detail the daily activities, wages, and meals of the workers under his command.

The arid conditions in Wadi al-Jarf helped preserve Merer's papyrus scrolls. Photo: The Past

Located on Egypt's Red Sea coast, Wadi al-Jarf was once a bustling center more than 4,000 years ago. Its historical importance was further solidified in 2013 when researchers discovered the world's 30 oldest papyrus scrolls hidden in a man-made limestone cave there. These Red Sea scrolls are particularly significant in terms of their content. Not only do they reveal Wadi al-Jarf's past as a busy seaport, but they also contain eyewitness accounts from a man named Merer, who participated in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, according to National Geographic .

The Wadi al-Jarf site was first discovered in 1823 by the British traveler and antiquities scholar John Gardner Wilkinson. In 2008, French Egyptologist Pierre Tallet led a series of excavations that helped identify Wadi al-Jarf as an important seaport dating back 4,500 years to the reign of Pharaoh Khufu and the construction of the Great Pyramid. Tallet's team discovered Wadi al-Jarf was a vibrant economic center with trade in materials used to build the pyramids up to 241 km away. Archaeological evidence comes from Merer's diary, found among papyrus scrolls.

Wadi al-Jarf comprises several different areas, spanning several kilometers between the Nile River and the Red Sea. From the Nile direction, the first area, about 4.8 km from the coast, contains 30 large limestone caves used for storage. This is where the papyrus scrolls were discovered. Continuing 457 meters eastward is a series of camps, followed by a large stone building divided into 13 parallel chambers. The archaeological team speculates that the building served as a residence. Finally, on the coast is a harbor with living quarters and storage space. Based on pottery and inscriptions found at the site, researchers were able to date the harbor complex to the 4th Dynasty of Egypt, 4,500 years ago. They believe the harbor opened during the reign of Pharaoh Sneferu and was abandoned at the end of his son Khufu's reign. Although short-lived, the harbor contributed to the construction of Pharaoh Khufu's tomb.

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Along with the papyrus scrolls, many other important archaeological discoveries there reveal the importance of the port. Large structures such as the 183-meter-long pier show a significant investment in materials in the area. Tallet and his colleagues also found 130 anchors, proving that the port was very busy. From the port, the pharaoh's ships sailed across the Red Sea to the Sinai Peninsula carrying large quantities of copper. Copper was the hardest metal available at the time, and the Egyptians needed it to cut the stone for building the pharaoh's colossal pyramids. When returning to port, the Egyptian ships were loaded with copper. Between voyages, the ships were stored in limestone caves.

After the Wadi al-Jarf port ceased operations around the time of Pharaoh Khufu's death, a team from Giza sealed off a chamber carved from limestone. During the sealing of the limestone cave, Merer's papyrus manuscripts likely became trapped between the rocks. They lay in the desert for 4.5 millennia until their discovery during an excavation by Tallet in 2013. The Red Sea Scrolls were found on March 24 of the same year near the entrance to chamber G2. Tellet's team recovered the second and largest collection of papyrus manuscripts trapped between the rocks in chamber G1.

The Red Sea Scrolls contain several types of documents, but Merer's notes have attracted the most attention. As the team leader, Merer kept a diary of his team's activities. It contained daily records of the work his team performed during the three months of the Great Pyramid's construction.

Merer's team consisted of approximately 200 workers who traveled throughout Egypt and were responsible for all the work related to the construction of the Great Pyramid. Most notably, they handled the limestone blocks used to clad the pyramid. Merer meticulously documented how they collected the stones from the Tura quarry and transported them to Giza by ship.

The workers in Merer's group would load the limestone blocks onto boats, transport them along the Nile River, and monitor and count them at the management site before moving them to Giza. A fragment from the logbook describes the three-day journey from the quarry to the pyramid. The following day, Merer and his team returned to the quarry to transport another load.

Merer's diary even reveals that one of the pyramid's architects, Ankhhaf Khufu, Khufu's half-brother, held the position of "commander of all the king's works." Merer also carefully tracked the wages of the entire team. Because there was no currency under the Egyptian pharaohs, wages were paid in grain with the basic unit being the ration. Workers received more or less depending on their rank. According to the papyrus, the workers' basic meals consisted of yeast bread, flatbread, various meats, dates, honey, beans, and beer.

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Historians have long debated the status of the large workforce that built the Great Pyramid. Many believe the workers were slaves, but the Red Sea Scrolls provide contradictory information. Merer's detailed records of wages demonstrate that the pyramid builders were skilled laborers paid for their work.

An Khang (According to National Geographic )

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