Who was forced to build the pyramids?

But there is another misconception about pyramid construction that's plagued Egyptian scholars for centuries: Slaves did not build the pyramids. The best evidence suggests that pyramid workers were locals who were paid for their services and ate extremely well.



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Pharaoh Khufu began the first Giza pyramid project, circa 2550 B.C. His Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza and towers some 481 feet (147 meters) above the plateau. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons.

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Pyramids today stand as a reminder of the ancient Egyptian glorification of life after death, and in fact, the pyramids were built as monuments to house the tombs of the pharaohs. Death was seen as merely the beginning of a journey to the other world.

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Archaeologists now tell us that the workers who built the pyramids were recruited from poor communities in Egypt, and worked in three-month shifts. There were 10,000 of them (considerably fewer than the 100,000 reported by Herodotus) and they ate relatively well.

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To build such a pyramid today (using modern technology and equipment such as cranes and helicopters), it would take 1,500 to 2,000 workers around five years, and cost around $5 billion.

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Military slaves were used by Egypt's rulers for ten centuries, from Ahmad Ibn Tulun (r. 868–84) to the late nineteenth century.

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Many people have said that the pyramids would last 1 million years or even until the world ended, but I'd say around 10,000 to 100,000 years based on current observations.

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In 2014 a small raptor skeleton was uncovered in a small section deep within The Great Pyramid of Giza. The skeleton is presumed to have been unearthed in the building process by the ancient Egyptians and placed into the pyramid due to it being an interesting find (4). All in all the Pyramids were built by people.

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Attempted demolition In AD 1196, Al-Aziz Uthman, Saladin's son and the Sultan of Egypt, attempted to demolish the pyramids, starting with that of Menkaure. Workmen recruited to demolish the pyramid stayed at their job for eight months, but found it almost as expensive to destroy as to build.

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Archaeologists believe that the Great Sphinx was built during Egypt's Old Kingdom (circa 2575–2150 B.C.) by the fourth-dynasty pharaoh Khafre. It is one of the world's oldest works of monumental sculpture and one of the largest.

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Peasants and enslaved people would, of course, eat a limited diet, including the staples of bread and beer, complemented by dates, vegetables, and pickled and salted fish, but the wealthy had a much larger range to choose from.

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Sumeria wasn't the only ancient region where hours worked meant beers earned. In ancient Egypt, there are also records of people being paid with beer. According to the Smithsonian, workers who built the pyramids were paid roughly four to five liters a day.

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Pyramids weren't constructed to contain mummies; tombs were. There were a variety of tombs: simple pit-graves, mastabas, burial chambers beneath pyramids, and rock-cut cliff tombs were the chief ones.

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Considering the pyramids were built more than four thousand years ago, the exact technique of construction remains a mystery and modern-day equipment was not available at the time. It is believed that ancient Egyptians ferried the huge stone blocks on the Nile river.

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The circumstances surrounding the Sphinx's nose being broken off are uncertain, but close inspection suggests a deliberate act using rods or chisels. Contrary to a popular myth, it was not broken off by cannonfire from Napoleon's troops during his 1798 Egyptian campaign.

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But what the Egyptians lacked in tools, they made up for with science and engineering precision. Smith explains that they developed and used the cubit rod to measure and lay out the dimensions of the pyramid; a square level to level horizontal surfaces, and a 3:4:5 framing square to create precision 90-degree angles.

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