# Something I just realized I never understood about building the Pyramids: How did they prevent their ending up lopsided? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2023, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-i-never-understood-about-building-the-pyramids-how-did-they-prevent-their-ending-up-lopsided/979246 "2023-02-03T09:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 18
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-i-never-understood-about-building-the-pyramids-how-did-they-prevent-their-ending-up-lopsided/979246/18 "2023-02-04T07:29:37Z")
> [@How did they build brick skyscrapers so straight and square before things like computerized laser levels?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-build-brick-skyscrapers-so-straight-and-square-before-things-like-computerized-laser-levels/979118/1): > > you’ll see lots of very tall buildings made with bricks. These buildings seem to be very straight and square even though they are dozens of stories high. You can’t have “dozens of stories” with just bricks as the load bearing material, well I guess you could, but the lower level walls would have to be much thicker than those above and you’d end up with something like a pyramid. The tallest brick skyscraper is considered to be Chicago’s Monadnock building, at 16 stories. The vertical load bearing structure is all bricks, bur there is also steel wind bracing. Any taller brick buildings you are thinking of have steel girders or some other kind onternal support, and the bricks are just for looks. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-i-never-understood-about-building-the-pyramids-how-did-they-prevent-their-ending-up-lopsided/979246)._