Contrary
to popular belief, scholars do not believe
that the pyramids of Egypt were built
by Hebrew slaves or that they were built
by slaves at all. The Hebrews came probably
during the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom
and by then pyramid building was a thing
of the far past. Recently-found worker
tombs have shown how pyramids were made
and how important workers were: the pyramid
workers were paid craftsmen, not slaves,
and they had their own city at Giza. During
the earliest period, in the Third and
Fourth Dynasties, pyramids were constructed
wholly of stone. Granite (quarried in
Aswan and transported downstream by barge)
was usually the material of choice for
the main body of these pyramids, while
limestone was used as the outer casing.
In early pyramids, the courses of stone
forming the pyramid body were laid sloping
inwards; however, this configuration was
found to be less stable than simply stacking
horizontal courses on top of each other.
Contrary
to popular belief, scholars do not believe
that the pyramids of Egypt were built
by Hebrew slaves or that they were built
by slaves at all. The Hebrews came probably
during the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom
and by then pyramid building was a thing
of the far past. Recently-found worker
tombs have shown how pyramids were made
and how important workers were: the pyramid
workers were paid craftsmen, not slaves,
and they had their own city at Giza. During
the earliest period, in the Third and
Fourth Dynasties, pyramids were constructed
wholly of stone. Granite (quarried in
Aswan and transported downstream by barge)
was usually the material of choice for
the main body of these pyramids, while
limestone was used as the outer casing.
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