Who really built the pyramids? It wasn't slaves

Sources

Sources

• Herodotus, Histories 2.124-125 (trans. G. C. Macaulay, 1890); Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2.9.1 (trans. W. Whiston); Exodus 1:11; Associated Press, "New find shows slaves didn't build pyramids" (11 Jan 2010, Zahi Hawass); NOVA, "Who Built the Pyramids?" (Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner); Discover, "The Lost City of the Pyramids"; Ancient Egypt Research Associates, "The Lost City of the Pyramids"; Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard on the Wadi al-Jarf papyri (the Diary of Merer); Victorian Web on Edward Poynter's Israel in Egypt (1867) and The Illustrated London News, 11 May 1867; Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections (2016) on the 1923 Ten Commandments sets; Howard Vyse, Operations Carried On at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837 (1840); Jason Colavito on the relieving-chamber marks, quoting Graham Hancock (1998).

Pictures

• Edward Poynter, Israel in Egypt (1867) and a 1913 halftone of it; Poynter photographed by Alexander Bassano; The Ten Commandments (1923, Cecil B. DeMille), its sets in Screenland (1923), DeMille in 1923, and the 1920 trade-press notice of Paramount hiring Paul Iribe; the Lumière company's 1897 film of the Sphinx; Zahi Hawass at Giza (White House photographs, public domain); Old Kingdom objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Louvre and the Museo Egizio (CC0); Herodotus, Josephus and Exodus in old printed editions; Lepsius's copy of a Khufu gang mark and Vyse's plates of the Great Pyramid; Vyse's portrait. Egyptian mud-brick walls photographed in 1904 by Underwood & Underwood (CC BY-SA 2.5). The horse, the cemetery dig, the grave, the injured worker and the builders' town are illustrations, because no free photographs of the builders' cemetery or town exist. The papyrus shown is an Old Kingdom work papyrus from Gebelein (Museo Egizio), the same kind of record as Merer's logbook.

Credits

• Giza, the Sphinx, Philae, the Nile and the Red Sea coast by Ahmed Dawn; the Great Pyramid by Kickstart Rebel and Vova's Trips; the Giza plateau by Medulla Oblongata; horses at Giza by the Al Fursan stable channel; Menkaure's pyramid by Free Stock Footage (all YouTube, CC BY 3.0). The Pyramids of Giza and the Nile at Old Cairo, 1925, by Camille Sauvageot, Albert Kahn Archives (CC BY-SA 4.0). Egypt, 1930, ISU Library Special Collections (CC BY 3.0). Mastaba of Ti by Sailko (CC BY 3.0) and Einsamer Schütze (CC BY-SA 3.0); Mastaba of Mereruka by LBM1948 (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Flop Eared Mule (CC BY 2.0). Khufu's statuette by Richard Mortel (CC BY 2.0). Ankhhaf by Marcus Cyron (CC BY 3.0). Great Pyramid casing stones by Rigelus (CC BY-SA 3.0) and Jon Bodsworth (copyrighted free use). The Edfu temple gateway by Olaf Tausch (CC BY 3.0). The King's Chamber by Mike McBey and Andrew Currie (CC BY 2.0). A Giza craftsman and his wife by Djehouty (CC BY-SA 4.0). Old Kingdom ploughing relief, Wellcome Collection (CC BY 4.0). Graham Hancock by Cpt.Muji (CC BY 3.0). Via Wikimedia Commons and YouTube.