This is a clearly written account of explorations, chiefly of Old Kingdom pyramids, with some attention to Middle Kingdom and Sudanese pyramids. A notable feature is the consideration given to the unfinished pyramids at Zawiet el Aryan and other places. Though not up to date, this is still a valuable book, and is readily available in reprints. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975. Macaulay takes us though all the steps of building an unnamed, generic' pyramid which draws on aspects of the buildings of Khufu and Sahure.
Fine drawings give one a sense of the human scale of the work involved.
Macaulay begins with the choice of a site and the sighting of the stars to accurately orient the pyramid, and continues through the construction of the pyramid and valley temple, to the royal funeral. A small glossary is included. A splendid beginning book. The Riddle of the Pyramids . Mendelssohn, a physicist, was interested in construction methods, and examined Egyptian and Mexican pyramids from an engineering point of view.