Was the Great Pyramid Built with Simple Machines?

Recently one of the authors challenged her third-grade students to use their imagination and travel with her to Egypt. As they were exploring the Great Pyramid, she encouraged the students to speculate how ancient people could have built such a massive structure without the sophisticated machinery they have at our disposal today. This article briefly describes a unit one of the authors prepared on simple machines and the country of Egypt. A brief list of resources concludes the article.