diff --git a/docs/Makefile b/docs/Makefile
index 51285967a7d..8b64b1e99ec 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 # You can set these variables from the command line.
 SPHINXOPTS    =
-SPHINXBUILD   = sphinx-build
+SPHINXBUILD   = python3 -m sphinx
 SOURCEDIR     = .
 BUILDDIR      = _build
 
diff --git a/docs/building_the_docs.md b/docs/building_the_docs.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7f0405cc877
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/building_the_docs.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+(building_the_docs)=
+# Building the docs
+
+From the directory ``docs``, first install the python dependencies with ``pip install -r requirements-doc.txt``. 
+Then build to build the docs run ``make html``.
+The built documentation will be in the subdirectory ``docs/_build/html``. To view them, cd into ``_build/html`` and start a file server, 
+for instance ``http-server``.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index 8da41898ed7..a3d8da52c58 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ information about the project's organization.
    :caption: Development
 
    building_from_sources.md
+   building_the_docs.md 
    new_packages.md
    contributing.md
    testing.md
diff --git a/docs/requirements-doc.txt b/docs/requirements-doc.txt
index 70163aec0a3..99530508915 100644
--- a/docs/requirements-doc.txt
+++ b/docs/requirements-doc.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
-# Temporarly commented as a workaround for pypa/pip#9031
-# sphinx
+sphinx
 sphinx_rtd_theme
 myst-parser
 sphinxcontrib-napoleon
-distlib   # required by micropip
+distlib   # required by micropip
\ No newline at end of file