The act of laying out buildings was literally done religiously-with an elaborate ceremony. Sacred geometry, where all figures can be drawn or created using a straight line and a compass, was used to produce harmonic proportion, and the practitioners of this geometry were surveyors. The use of geometry allowed humans to determine and incorporate this pre-existing divine order into their structures. The inherent harmony in geometry was accepted by the ancient Egyptians as evidence of the divine plan that upholds the entire world. Hatshepsut with Seshat founding the Red Chapel Derstroff It was the key to practicing sacred geometry, the purview of priests and royalty. This tool was more than just a knotted rope. A commonly-used rope was made up of 12 royal cubits (a cubit is the length from the bent elbow to the tips of the fingers, or approximately 20.59 inches). They were graduated by 13 knots tied at equal intervals (small or large, depending on the intended use). These ropes were specially-treated to hold their length by being stretched out taut between stakes and then rubbed with a mixture of beeswax and resin.

They earned that name because one of the tools used in surveying was a calibrated rope. It makes me wonder how difficult things were for surveyors of the past to complete their jobs! However they did it, they sure knew what they were doing.Īs most surveyors know, Egypt likely produced the first known surveyors, known as “Rope-Stretchers”. Every year our field bags get increasingly loaded with technology-total stations, GPS units, lidar, drones, apps, and software-tools that make things easier, allow us to generate more data, and expand our reach.

Egyptian plumb bob