A 4500-year-old lesson in product designPyramids of Giza, photo by Wikimedia Commons

The tales of great success suffer from survivorship bias. We often get to see great creations of the human mind and endeavor only in their final form. We get to marvel at the perfection of artistic and engineering perfection without actually thinking about the design process that leads to its creation. Even if the process itself is known to the general public it is often presented as a narrative of inevitable success, a relentless journey forward in which each step is an improvement to the one that preceded it.

The reality though is quite different. The evolution of every design is convoluted. It often follows a path full of dead ends, backtracking, and abject failures.

Take the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt for example. The image that without a doubt has instantly sprung in your mind is that of the three giant Pyramids of Giza, that of Menkaure (Mykerinos), of Khefre (Chephren), and of course that Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops). Indeed these three are by far the largest and most iconic of all constructions of ancient Egyptian civilization. They are also one of the most famous buildings that humanity has ever constructed. Their elegant, minimalist geometric shape is a marvel of design in its simplicity and mathematical precision. They are so imposing that to some people it is easier to assume that they have been built by some alien superhuman creatures than by mere mortals.

Of course, if you were paying attention to history lessons in school you will remember that the well-known design of a four-sided pyramid with the 45° slope did not appear out of nothing to Ancient Egyptians. You will remember that the evolution of the design started with a much more ancient type of pharaonic tomb known as Mastaba.

An example of a mastaba. It’s not that the top of the building is missing. That is the building! Photo by Wikimedia Commons

These squat squarish buildings were much less impressive and interesting to behold. So pharaohs and their architects ever searching for a more majestic design arrived at the idea of stacking several of those Mastaba-type tombs on top of each other and created something known as the Step Pyramid. This transition in the design happened during the reign of Djoser, ruler of the 3rd dynasty who lived in the 27th century BC.

The step pyramid of Djoser, photo by Wikimedia Commons

You don’t have to be an expert to realize that the step pyramid is a link in the evolutionary chain starting with mastaba and ending with the great pyramid. I mean, just look at it. All that was left to do was polish up the sides a bit and start building taller. There are even two smaller step pyramids nested in front of the three famous great pyramids on each photo of Giza!

Well, things did not go so smoothly in reality. Enter the pharaoh named Sneferu. He was the founder of the 4th dynasty of Egypt and ruled the country for at least a quarter of a century. At some point, he without a doubt realized that he was not getting any younger and that it would be time for him to start thinking about his afterlife. Ambitious as he was he wanted a royal tomb that would rival the one built for the aforementioned Djoser, his predecessor on the throne. No pyramids were built in the decades between their two reigns. Somehow the pharaoh managed to get himself talked into something he without a doubt come to regret. Instead of a tried and safe design of mastaba or even a step pyramid, his architects convinced him to try something even more bold and daring, the first pyramid with smooth sides. Now, that would be something that the world has never seen!

The first attempt was a total failure. The technology was too new. The surveyors chose a bad spot. Foundations were laid partially on solid rock and partially on soft sandy soil. The architect was too ambitious and his grasp of mathematics was shaky. They wanted to build high, higher than anyone has ever built before. The slopes were too steep and consequently too heavy to bear the load of its own weight. The whole construction collapsed. It was never finished. Its abandoned broken hulk is still standing to this day at Meidum, a testament to an engineering fuckup of colossal proportions.

The ruins of Meidum pyramid, photo via Wikimedia Commons

Not deterred the architects took another attempt. They picked a better spot to lay the foundations, some 50km downstream from the site of the previous failure. Their ambitions when it come to height were not curbed a bit so they started building again with slopes at 54° angle. Not surprisingly, somewhere half the way up the pyramid once again started to crack under the weight of its own stones. Still, lessons were learned. They thought they knew how to fix things. The architects decided to abruptly change the inclination of the slope and continued to build at 43° angle. The result was a pyramid that didn’t collapse. In fact, it is still standing. However, it is far from architectural perfection. It is rightfully known as Bent Pyramid.

Bent Pyramid photo by Wikimedia Commons.

Now, I don’t know what the thought process here was. Did they really think that the aging pharaoh would not notice the odd bump at each side of the pyramid? Did they think he wouldn’t be bothered by this minor deviation from the original design proposal? And what did he say when he saw it? Did he even say anything? Was he really pissed off at this second pyramidal fuckup? Did he say anything at all? Did he throw someone to the crocodiles? Was he worried about the mounting cost of the project? Was he worried about the schedule? He was not young anymore. What if he died before this thing was finished? Was he supposed to spend his eternal afterlife in this bent house? Would his deceased predecessors laugh at him for all eternity?

I don’t know what happened. All I know is they took the third attempt!

This time they decided to play it safe. Obviously, they could celebrate failure and incorporate learnings into the new version. They started building at the safe inclination of 43° degrees. Granted the result was not perfect. It still looks a bit squat, but it was not another fuckup. In fact, it was the first smooth-sided pyramid ever built. It is known as Red Pyramid and is located just a couple of kilometers from the Bent Pyramid.

Red pyramid with the view of Bent pyramid in the background photo via Wikimedia Commons.

There are several conclusions that can be drawn from this story. The design process is messy. Even world experts don’t get things always right. Sometimes they are winging it as they go along. Pyramids are not the work of aliens or gods. They were created by real flesh and blood humans who sometimes fuck things up. And even the pharaohs had the patience to let their teams fuck things up two times before pulling a plug on a concept.

Addendum

The Bent Pyramid was not a total failure. Its design hides a bug that is actually a feature. Before abandoning it its builders actually finished it. They even gave it an outer casing of polished limestone. However, the stone-cutting technique that they employed was inferior to the one used on later pyramids, leaving bigger gaps between blocks of stone. As a result, there was more space to accommodate the thermal expansion of the material. As a consequence much more of the outer casing of this pyramid survived compared to later more precise designs.