Dr. Hawass’ statement that “These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves” (source) was widely repeated in the press under headlines announcing that the belief that slaves had built the pyramids could now be retired.  But Egyptologists have long known that the Slave Hypothesis was pure Hollywood. 

Along with Hawass, Egyptologist Mark Lehner began uncovering the truth of the pyramid builders more than 20 years ago.  Lehner was consumed with the question of where such a large workforce could have lived.  After conducting the first detailed “to scale” survey of the Giza Plateau, he narrowed his focus to the area around the enigmatic Wall of the Crow, a colossal wall with no apparent related structures.

Lehner hit pay dirt, and his dogged pursuit of these ancient builders led to the excavation of the very city where they lived and worked—a large complex of barracks and permanent housing, distribution centers, industrial sites, and scribal workshops.  The recently discovered tombs tell us something of the status of the workers, but the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders gives us the everyday details of their lives.

Most of Em Hotep’s readers will be familiar with Dr. Lehner and his work.  But if you are not, then his total absence from the recent news stories may have left you with an incomplete picture of just how strong the case against the Slavery Hypothesis really is.  In this three-part series we will take a look at what Lehner discovered about the pyramid builders.  We will examine the evidence that the workforce had a surprisingly modern division of labor, followed by a tour of the city itself.

The headlines said it all

“Egyptian Tomb Find Suggests Pyramid Builders Weren’t Slaves” (Bloomberg).  “Egypt tombs suggest free men built pyramids, not slaves” (BBC).  The Times Live snarkily distinguished that “Great pyramid builders were wage slaves.” And speaking with sonorous authority, Al-Ahram Weekly declared “Building on facts:  A new discovery at Giza plateau has finally debunked Herodotus’ assertion that the Pyramids were built by slaves.”

Some sources at least acknowledged that this news wasn’t so new after all.  Discover Magazine announced “Egypt Finds Tombs of Pyramid Builders, And More Evidence They Were Free Men.”  The Canadian Press stated “Egypt says newly discovered tombs provide more evidence slaves did not build pyramids” [article no longer online].  JWeekly.com summarized “Egypt unveils more proof that Jews did not build pyramids.”

The headlines said it all, but the articles, unfortunately, did not.    

Egyptologist Dr. Mark Lehner (Courtesy of PBS, from the documentary “This Old Pyramid”)

Thanks to an oversight, Mark Lehner’s name was excluded from the original press release and official blog report by Zahi Hawass regarding the recent discovery.  To be clear, Dr. Lehner was not directly involved in the discovery of the new tombs.  But to leave him out of any discussion of the debunking of the Slave Hypothesis is like a history of the Theory of Evolution that fails to mention Charles Darwin.

Tombs of the workers overlooking Pyramid City (Photo by Jon Bodsworth)

Fortunately Dr. Hawass has amended his blog entry to mention Dr. Lehner by name, but the presses have rolled on to new headlines.  Again to be clear, the importance of the tombs of the overseers cannot be overstated.  They provide corroborative evidence of how the labor was organized, and their proximity to the king’s final resting place removes any question of their status—they were not slaves.

But this discovery is hardly the straw that broke the Slave Hypothesis’ back, as suggested by the media coverage.  It could be argued that while the overseers themselves were not slaves, the laborers were.  After all, not all of the workers who toiled on the pyramids were buried in cemeteries surrounding the pharaohs.  A feasible alternative hypothesis is that this privilege was reserved for freemen, while the rest of the laborers were slaves.

To really know about the pyramid builders we have to look beyond where they were buried to where they lived.  Does the archaeological record point to the presence of a large slave population on the Giza Plateau? 

First let’s set the parameters of the discussion:  what constitutes slave labor and what does not?

The Slave Hypothesis

The Slave Hypothesis is actually pretty simple:  the pyramids and other structures were built by slaves, usually depicted as being Semitic.  This latter part is easily dismissed.  Semitic people do not begin to appear in Egypt in great numbers until the Middle Kingdom Period, particularly during the Twelfth Dynasty. Of this much we can be certain—whether the pyramids were built by slaves or freemen, they were not built by Israelites, or proto-Israelites, or anyone else connected with the Moses of the Bible.  It just didn’t happen.

We owe this myth in part to a loose reading of the Book of Exodus, which gives the account of Moses leading the Children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage.  Although there have been Semitic slaves and kings alike in Egypt (see the Hyksos Dynasty), there is no actual archaeological or historical evidence for the Exodus accounts, even when stripped of its more supernatural elements.

Charlton Heston as Moses

But the Exodus account doesn’t even name the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and makes no mention of the pyramids.  For this we can blame Hollywood.  Movies such as Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” burned the image of Hebrew slaves into the pop culture psyche.  In large part, the Slave Hypothesis is based on a Hollywood fiction.

So what about the first part of the Slave Hypothesis?  Could the pyramids have been built by slaves if we toss out the Moses part?

Slaves in Egypt

There were many forms of servitude in ancient Egypt, and to a certain extent everyone was owned by the Pharaoh.  As we shall see below, there was also a type of feudalism which bound all Egyptians to a debt of labor to their superiors.  But what about an army of whip-driven state-owned slaves, as often depicted dragging blocks up the pyramid ramps?

To be sure, there were slaves in ancient Egypt.  Most slaves were a product of warfare, with victorious Egyptian armies returning from foreign campaigns with hundreds, or even thousands, of slaves in tow.  Such human booty became the property of the pharaoh to use and distribute as he saw fit.

Some of the slaves would serve directly as a part of the king’s estate, while others would be distributed to temples and work camps.  The king might also grant slaves to individuals as rewards for service or loyalty.  Slave labor was considered to be a resource which, like any other, was sent where it was needed.

Nubian Slaves at Abu Simbel

Most of the slaves would have been civilians who were captured, but many would also have been soldiers who had surrendered.  Some of these individuals would have been highly skilled and their talents were put to use.  Slaves could be found performing service ranging from grunt labor to any vocation not restricted to freemen.

Not all slaves were foreigners.  An Egyptian who was caught in criminal activity could find himself, and his entire family, enslaved as punishment.  Egyptians could also sell themselves into slavery to settle a debt.  Others sold themselves simply to improve their lot in life, finding the life of a slave more stable and secure than trying to get by on their own.  

At least some slaves were clearly treated as property in ancient Egypt.  The pharaoh might grant slaves, land, and cattle to a temple or an individual.  Wealthy Egyptians also included slaves in transactions among themselves. These contracts seem to have been conducted between individuals or with the state, but there were no slave markets as we see in other times and places.

So the question is, how common were such slaves in the Old Kingdom Period?  Could the pharaoh have mobilized an army of slaves to build the monumental structures of the Giza Plateau?  Obviously there were huge workforces of some sort involved, and this undoubtedly involved servitude, but what was the nature of that service?  In his article Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Egypt, writer Jimmy Dunn observes:

For ancient Egypt, a better, or at least more precise definition of a slave might be a “person owned by a master, as was any other chattel, used as the master pleased, to the extent of being disposed of by inheritance, gift sale and so forth”. In reality, such slavery seems to have been fairly rare in Egypt prior to the Greek Period, progressing over time.

Dunn goes on to point out that huge slave populations do not really begin to appear in Egypt’s history until the great conquests of the New Kingdom Period.  As noted above, even when the pharaoh acquired slaves they tended to be distributed throughout the kingdom.  Egypt simply did not have the means to control a huge population of thousands of slaves in one location.

There were slave work camps, but these were smaller localized projects.  Slaves were used in the construction of some temples and other structures, but a project the scale of the Giza Pyramids required thousands of workers.  The archaeological evidence from the Giza Plateau simply does not support the notion of a slave camp of that size. 

But there were thousands of somebodies working on the plateau. 

The Bak Hypothesis

One way or another, pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure were able to mobilize huge workforces numbering in the thousands to build the pyramids.  At least 2,000 and as many as 4,000 workers were fed, housed, managed and motivated within an easy walk of these great monuments (the 10,000 figure postulated by Hawass in his blog post is generally considered to be way too high).  Regardless of how you cut it, these were clearly very expensive undertakings.  How could such a project be funded if not performed by slave labor?

One type of organizational structure that could generate a large free-but-obligated workforce would be feudalism.  In a feudal system everybody owes some sort of service to the social rank immediately above them.  Kings appoint nobles, nobles appoint vassals, vassals organize knights, knights build armies, and armies conscript soldiers.  By requiring goods and service in exchange for land, status, and other privileges, the king could mobilize his entire kingdom through delegation.

Lehner proposes that the pyramids, as well as other national construction projects, were organized the same way.  The Egyptian system of vassalage was called bak, and everybody owed bak to somebody above them (not to be confused with baksheesh, which is what tourists and travelers seem to owe to every Egyptian!). 

Priests owed bak.  Scribes owed bak.  Potters owed bak.  Farmers owed bak.  Through this system of obligatory servitude every citizen of the Old Kingdom could be called upon to do his or her shift of work on the pyramid projects.  Simply put, the Bak Hypothesis says that the pyramids were built by a rotating workforce of laborers who were serving their allotted shift to their lords.  (See Harvard Magazine:  “Who Built the Pyramids,” by Jonathan Shaw)

The bak system solves several problems involved in pyramid building.  First, it keeps the overhead low because the labor is essentially free.  Unskilled labor requires little training and the workers are interchangeable.  Similarly, skilled labor is easily rotated because the workers are assigned to duties that take best advantage of their skill set.  By obliging every citizen to invest their skills for a certain amount of time, a huge workforce of skilled and unskilled labor could be employed for very little cost.

Second, the bak system absorbs the cost of supplying the workforce.  Raw materials such as grain and livestock are supplied through taxes and bak, and the workforce required to turn them into hot meals is at least partly composed of citizens serving their bak debt.  We shall see in Part 2 that the Pyramid City included a permanent workforce who made their living off of the building projects.  But even their wages would have come from the bak supplied by others.

Third, the bak system of conscription was actually good for morale.  As we have seen in the wars of the last century, a drafted soldier may not like the idea of going to war, but the esprit de corps he forms with his fellow draftees compel him to give 100% to the effort.  Dr. Lehner and others have found archaeological evidence of this sort of camaraderie around the building projects of the Giza Plateau, which we will look at in Part 2.

So the Bak Hypothesis gives an alternate model of how the pyramids may have been built.  Unlike the Slavery Hypothesis, for which we have no archaeological evidence, Lehner has been able to paint a very detailed picture of the lives of the permanent and rotating citizens of the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders.

In Part 2:  Pyramid City, Inc., we will look at the evidence for how the workforce was organized, and how the evidence supports Lehner’s hypothesis while contradicting the Slave Hypothesis.  We will close the series with Part 3:  A Guided Tour of the Pyramid City, a trip through the Great Western Gate of the Wall of the Crow for a street-level look at how the denizens of the Pyramid City worked and lived.

The Great Western Gate of the Wall of the Crow (Photo by Jon Bodsworth)

Note:  Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), the organization founded by Dr. Lehner to excavate and analyze the Pyramid City, refers to the site in its official literature as the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders.  For the sake of brevity, these articles will simply refer to the site as the Pyramid City, but we are talking about the same place.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2010.  All rights reserved.

Photograph “mark.png” from “This Old Pyramid,” courtesy of PBS.org, all rights reserved.  Photographs “plateau_14.png” and “plateau_16” by Jon Bodsworth, are copyright free.  Photograph “Nubian Slaves” is in the public domain and is copyright free.  Still from the movie “The Ten Commandments” courtesy of Paramount Pictures, all rights reserved.

With timing that could be considered an example of instant karma, the November 16, 2009, issue of The New Yorker hit newsstands with a ten-page article by Ian Parker that asks “Is Zahi Hawass bad for Egyptology?”

So in case you haven’t heard, Zahi Hawass called Beyonce a “stupid person.” 

While on a recent visit to the Giza Pyramids the pop-star failed to show a sufficient level of interest, treating the occasion as a mere photo opportunity.  Not previously noted for her interest in Egyptology, Beyonce rather shallowly treated the Giza monuments as a backdrop to highlight her own celebrity.  Ignoring for the moment any benefit he may have gained from having Beyonce as a backdrop to his own celebrity, Dr. Hawass (not previously noted for his interest in R&B music) became offended.

“She’s a stupid person and she doesn’t understand a thing and she doesn’t want to understand” Hawass reportedly said (Source:  Bikya Masr – Egypt’s Zahi Hawass calls Beyonce “stupid person”).

But the real story in the Bikya Masr article doesn’t start until the third paragraph from the end.  “He insults and is so controlling that it has become extremely difficult to work in this country,” was the response of one archaeologist, speaking under condition of anonymity. 

Further down, another anonymous archaeologist voiced her/his own disdain for the General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities—and now Vice Minister of Culture—also asking for his/her identity to be protected.  Celebrity tabloids aside, the real story beneath the story is the extent of Dr. Hawass’ control and why professionals in the field are afraid to speak out.

The New Yorker article, “Letter from Cairo – The Pharaoh:  The man who controls Egyptology” pretty much sums up its content with its title.  Although Dr. Hawass might disagree, the article is not a hatchet-piece.  Writer Ian Parker does an admirable job of treating the complex subject of the man who stands “at the intersection of archaeology, show business, and national politics” with fairness.  Parker gives a just account of Dr. Hawass’ efforts to “Egyptianize Egyptology” and concedes that Hawass has decolonialized Egyptology largely by force of his own personality.

But Parker doesn’t shy away from showing Zahi Hawass as a despot, benevolent or otherwise.  He quotes Dr. Hawass’ long-time friend and colleague, Salima Ikram of the American University of Cairo, as describing his tenure at the SCA as a “dictatorship,” noting that SCA press releases often announce discoveries while neglecting to name who made the discovery (p. 54).

Zahi Hawass wears his power as comfortably and casually as his trademark Stetson.  “To control all of this,” Parker quotes him as saying, “you have to make them fear you and make them love you at the same time” (p. 61).  Whether professionals working in Egypt are feeling the love is an open question, but the fear of Zahi has clearly been instilled.

In addition to the two archaeologists quoted in Bikya Masr, Ian Parker spoke with several people who felt a need to protect their identities.  Again, Dr. Hawass’ power and how he wields it was at issue.  One cited the case of Joann Fletcher, who was made persona non grata for allegedly going public with her work without first submitting her findings to the SCA, a charge her team denies (p. 54). 

Another source went so far as to say that Egyptologists fear making the sort of discovery that would attract Hawass’ attention.  The implication is clear—angering Zahi, or even finding something he would have rather found himself, can be fatal for your career.

Which brings us back to the real story beneath the Zahi/Beyonce dust up. 

In the case of both articles—Bikya Masr and The New Yorker—archaeologists and others working in the field in Egypt do not feel free to speak out about what they perceive as unprofessional, and on occasion unethical, behavior by Dr. Hawass because they fear retribution.   In one particularly telling example, Duncan Lee, a 3D imaging specialist with a production crew filming Dr. Hawass in 2004, made the mistake of raising the Good Doctor’s ire.

“You’ll never work in Egypt again,” Zahi Hawass allegedly threatened, “You’ll never get home.  Your equipment will disappear” (Parker, p. 54).

One can’t help but wonder how things will change with Dr. Hawass as Vice Minister of Culture, especially now that he has decided to retain his position with the SCA as well.  What is that old saying about absolute power?

See Also:

• Squelching Scholarship? The Case of Ahmed Saleh
• Zahi Hawass to the Terrible God Set: Silence!
• Nefertiti, the Life and Death of King Tut, and KV64: The October Checklist

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2009.  All rights reserved.

Dr. Hawass’ plans for the near future..  Additional sites about to open to the public..  The secrets of the Great Pyramid..  Repatriation of stolen artifacts.. 

Read it here:  Exclusive Interview with Dr. Zahi Hawass in Indianapolis

Photograph “Zahi_Hawass.jpg” is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license

The theory accounts for some anomalies in a microgravemetric survey couducted by French researchers in the 1980′s, and includes his trip up the side of the pyramid to explore the “niche”.  He discovered an unexplored chamber right where you would expect one if his theory of an internal ramp was correct…

Archaeology was kind enough to put the entire article online.  Read it here -  Update: Return to the Great Pyramid.

Pharaoh Khufu

Pharaoh Khufu (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Pharaoh Khufu was known as Cheops to the Greeks, and was also called Suphis by the Ptolemaic-Era Egyptian historian Manetho.  His actual name was Khnum-Khufwy, which means “the god Khnum protects me.” 

Khufu reigned from 2589 to 2566 BC and was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, the son of Pharaoh Snefru and father of kings Djedefre and Khafre.  He was coroneted in his early twenties, although sources vary regarding the length of his reign.  The earliest source, the Turin King List, has him ruling for 23 years, the Ptolemaic Era Egyptian historian Manetho has him ruling for 63 years, and the Greek Historian Herodotus puts his reign at 50 years.

Although he had a reputation for cruelty to friend and foe alike, he was worshipped until well into the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, nearly 2000 years, although this may have something to do with his rather impressive pyramid.  Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, has recently postulated that the reason for Khufu’s bad reputation may have to do with his declaration during his lifetime that he was the god Ra.  Its one thing for a pharaoh to be a living god, quite another to declare oneself to be the living god.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu

Also known as the Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Cheops, the Pyramid of Khufu is the oldest of the three pyramids which dominate the Giza Plateau.  It is also the largest, although the Pyramid of Khafre appears taller due to being built on a higher part of the plateau.  The pyramid was believed to have been completed during Khufu’s lifetime. 

The architect of the Great Pyramid was Hemienu, Khufu’s Vizier and Master of Works.  Hemienu was either the son of Nefermaat, the architect who built King Snefru’s pyramids, or was a son of Snefru himself, and brother to Khufu.  Either way, the perfecting of the pyramidal form, from the step pyramid design to the flat-sided Red Pyramid, occurred during Hemienu’s lifetime. He would have observed firsthand the failure of the collapsed pyramid at Meidum and the tough lessons of the Bent Pyramid, which owes its odd shape to a decision to change the angle after construction was well underway.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Photo by Keith Payne)

At an original height of about 481 feet, the Pyramid of Khufu was the tallest building on Earth for more than 3,800 years, until the completion of the Lincoln Cathedral around AD 1300.  It is believed that more than 2.3 million blocks were used in its construction, not including the limestone casing.  Theories regarding its manner of construction abound. 

It is interesting to note that even given Manetho’s rather high estimate of Khufu’s reign, the Egyptians would have had to quarry, dress, move, and place just over 100 blocks per day, at an average weight of 2.5 tons, non-stop, 24 hours a day, for 63 years to complete the Great Pyramid.  Given the more likely reign of 23 years, that would mean about 274 blocks per day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week—about one block every five minutes.  Such logistics naturally raise a few questions.

(For some potential answers, be sure to read the Em Hotep! exclusive series, Hemienu to Houdin)

One two-ton block, every five minutes, day and night, non-stop, for 23 years? (Photo by Keith Payne)

All theories aside, the notion that Khufu’s pyramid was built by slaves has been roundly discredited.  Ruins of what seems to be the builders’ village have been uncovered, along with tombs of their own.  Evidence suggests that the building of Khufu’s pyramid was a national project that drew laborers, engineers, architects, craftsmen, and all of the specialized labor necessary to support such a workforce from all over Egypt.  From a social perspective, the construction of Khufu’s pyramid may be compared to the conscription efforts of World War II, had the war lasted 23-63 years…

Climbing into the Thieves' Entrance (Photo by Keith Payne)

There has been some debate over whether the Great Pyramid was intended as a tomb for the pharaoh, or if it served more of a symbolic function.  Most Egyptologists agree that the pyramid was intended for the burial of Khufu, but not everyone agrees on where in the pyramid he may have been interred.  Zahi Hawass has expressed doubt that the King’s Chamber was the tomb of Khufu, which he thinks may still lie undisturbed within the pyramid.

Access to the pyramid is gained through the Thieves’ Entrance, a rough-hewn cave dug out by robbers more than eleven centuries ago, which leads into the original descending passageway.  This in turn leads to a narrow 130 foot-long ascending passageway which is 3½ to 4 feet high, and extremely steep.  This passageway lets out in the Grand Gallery, a 30-foot high passageway that continues along at a 29 degree incline, and opens into the King’s Chamber.

The Grand Gallery inside Khufu's Pyramid (Photo by Keith Payne)

Inside the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid (Photo by Keith Payne)

The King’s Chamber is lined with red granite, and the sarcophagus inside is hewn from a single block of the same.  To date, two rooms besides the King’s Chamber have been found.  The middle chamber is called the Queen’s Chamber, although there is no evidence it had anything to do with any of Khufu’s queens, who have their own pyramids.  Its true function is unknown.  The third chamber was never completed and may have originally been planned to hold the sarcophagus, but again, there is no way to be certain.

Jean-Pierre Houdin has argued that all three chambers were intended for the burial of the king, but at different times.  From the outset, he contends, Hemienu wanted to make certain that the king had a suitable burial chamber, and the primary goal of the pyramid is the King’s Chamber.  But Hemienu knew that completion of the King’s Chamber, the final resting place for Khufu, was a while off, so the pyramid was built with contingency burial chambers. 

The underground tomb was built first and left in the rough—if needed it could be finished fairly quickly.  If the king should die during the first ten years of construction he could be buried in the underground tomb.  The Queen’s Chamber was then built as a more fitting temporary grave, and would have allowed Hemienu to test some of the techniques he would be using in the much grander King’s Chamber.  Finally, the King’s Chamber was completed.  It was fortunate the underground and middle chambers were never required, but Hemienu left nothing to chance.

Khufu's Sarcophagus--or was it? (Photo by Keith Payne)

Khufu’s valley temple, causeway, and mortuary temple (pyramid complex) are all but gone, with only a few basalt paving stone left to delineate their outline.    His cult pyramid was recently located to the southeast of his pyramid, but the most exciting discovery was a perfectly preserved and fully intact funeral barge.  (For more on the funeral barge see my feature article on the Giza Plateau here.)

The only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World (Photo by Keith Payne)

Further Reading

Egyptian Monuments:

Pyramid of Khufu

LookLex:

Khufu

National Geographic:

Great Pyramid:  Earth’s Largest

Tour Egypt:

Khufu

The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt:  An Introduction

Photograph “WIKI – Khufu.jpg” is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright 2009, all rights reserved.

Possibly symbolic of a second son who was not his father’s first choice to reign, Khafre’s Pyramid steps forward from the plateau’s horizon as if to say “I will have my day in the sun…”

Pharaoh Khafre

Pharaoh Khafre (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Pharaoh Khafre was known as Chephren to the Greeks, and his name, Khaf-Ra, means “Appearing like Ra.”  One of Pharaoh Khufu’s sons, he was preceded in kingship by his brother, Djedefre, who ruled for about eight years.  After Djedefre’s early death, Khafre assumed the throne, making him the fourth king of the Fourth Dynasty. He was succeeded by his son, Menkaure.

Khafre is believed to have reigned between 2572—2546 BC, although this is not certain.  It is probable that the length of his reign was 25 years or so, although the Ptolemaic-Era historian Manetho gives the length of his reign as a very unlikely 66 years. 

In addition to building the second largest pyramid in Egypt, Khafre had a penchant for commissioning statues of himself.   Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass noted that Khafre had placed 23 life-sized statues of himself in his valley temple, seven larger-than-life statues of himself in his mortuary temple, with an additional 12 around its courtyard, and either built the Great Sphinx in his own image or (even worse) had his face carved over the original. 

The Pyramid of Khafre with the Great Sphinx and a canine friend (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Pyramid of Khafre

The Pyramid of Khafre, also called the Pyramid of Chephren, is the second largest in Egypt.  We are not sure of when its construction was completed, but it was most likely early in Khafre’s reign.  The original height of the Khafre‘s Pyramid would have been about 471 feet, although there has been some loss due to erosion and its missing capstone.  It is currently about 455 feet high.  The limestone casing at the topmost section of the pyramid is still largely intact, giving an idea of how the pyramids might have originally appeared.

The majestic Pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre (Photo by Keith Payne)

Looking up the side of Khafre's Pyramid at its limestone layer high above (Photo by Keith Payne)

The sarcophagus in Khafre’s burial chamber is cut from a single large block of granite, and is partially sunk into the floor.  No mummy or other remains were found in Khafre’s pyramid.  There is a second pit in the floor which may have held the canopic jars containing Khafre’s internal organs, but this is not certain.  It has been speculated that Khafre’s Pyramid may have served a ceremonial purpose rather than as a burial place, although both possibilities could be true.  There is a second chamber within the pyramid the purpose of which is unknown.

Khafre's Pyramid on the horizon, with Khufu's Pyramid in the background (Photo by Keith Payne)

There are two entrances to Khafre’s Pyramid situated one above the other.  Some Egyptologists speculate that this may be because the pyramid was originally planned to be much larger, but others postulate the second entrance was built simply as a result of a change in plans.

Khafre’s mortuary temple was plundered for building materials, but its foundation remains and shows that the temple was quite large, and was constructed in a manner similar to his valley temple, which is intact.  Khafre’s valley temple was buried under sand until the 1800′s and is in excellent condition, serving as a valuable example of temple construction from that era.  Like the mortuary temple, the valley temple is constructed of a limestone core lined with pink Nubian granite imported from Aswan.

Khafre's Pyramid seen from the causeway (Photo by Keith Payne)

 Further Reading

Egyptian Monuments:

Pyramid of Khafre

LookLex:

Khafre

National Geographic:

Pyramid of Khafre:  Home of the Sphinx

Tour Egypt:

The Great Pyramid of Khafre at Giza

Photograph “WIKI – Khafre_statue.jpg” by Jon Bodsworth is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright by Keith Payne, 2009, all rights reserved.

Pharaoh Menkaure

Pharaoh Menkaure (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Pharaoh Menkaure was known as Mykerinos by the Greeks, and his name, Men-Kau-Re, means “Eternal is the Spirit (Ka) of Ra.”  The fifth king of the Fourth Dynasty, he ascended to the throne around 2539 BC, although the length of his reign is debated.  The Turin King List puts the length of his rule at 18 years, although some sources record his rule as being as short as 12 years and as long as 63 years.

Herodotus claimed that Menkaure was a son of Khufu, however it is more widely accepted that he is the son of Khafre and grandson of Khufu.  Tradition holds that he was a munificent and fair ruler, unlike his grandfather.  Herodotus credits him with reverssing many of the oppressive policies put in place by Khufu and allowed to stand by Khafre.

He was succeeded by his son, Shepseskhaf, who had to finish Menkaure’s pyramid after his death.  His valley temple, which was also completed by Shepseskhaf, was expanded during the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, which further attests to his reputation for benevolence. 

The Pyramid of Menkaure

The Pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three Giza Pyramids, with an original height of 218 feet, and a current height of 204 feet.  It is estimated to have less than 1/10th the mass of Khufu’s Pyramid.  Its completion date is not exactly known.

Pyramid of Menkaure and his Queens' Pyramids (Photo by Keith Payne)

The upper part of the pyramid was originally encased in limestone in a manner similar to the other pyramids, but the lower portions were encased in granite.  The granite casing around the entrance is in various stages of completion, providing a glimpse of how the blocks would have looked before and after being smooth-cut.

Entrance to Menkaure's Pyramid with facing stones (Photo by Keith Payne)

The original basalt sarcophagus was lost at sea in 1838 when an attempt was made to move it to Great Britain.  As with other pyramids, this sarcophagus was empty.  A second wooden sarcophagus was found bearing Menkaure’s name and which contained human bones, but carbon dating has shown this body to be less than 2000 years old, making it a rather macabre forgery.  This again raises questions as to whether or not anyone was ever buried in any of the pyramids of the Giza Plateau.  Their location within the Memphis Necropolis, and their obvious relation to funerary temples, indicates that the pyramids were associated with the death and afterlife of the pharaohs in some actual or symbolic manner, but exactly what this function may have been remains open to speculation.

Menkaure's Pyramid (Photo by Keith Payne)

Further Reading

Egyptian Monuments:

Pyramid of Menkaure

LookLex:

Menkaure

National Geographic:

Pyramid of Menkaure:  Last of the Great Pyramids

Tour Egypt:

Menkaure:   The Last Great Pyramid Builder On the Giza Plateau

The Great Pyramid of Menkaure at Giza

Photograph “WIKI – MenkauraCloseUpOfKingsFace_MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png” by Keith Schengili-Roberts is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright by Keith Payne, 2009, all rights reserved.

There are three of them, they are located in the middle of the Egyptian desert, they were built by slaves, and they have mummies in them.

Right?  Well…

They are large and they do have four sides.  They are wide at the bottom and come to a point, although you could park a large SUV on some of those points, and still have room for a picnic.  They are triangular in shape, but some of them have a step-shaped contour, others look like a few different sized boxes stacked on top of one another, and at least one sharply changes the angle of its slope two thirds of the way up.  Many of them look like piles of rubble. 

So far more than 130 pyramids have been found in Egypt, and more have been discovered in Sudan.  They are located in the desert,  but the most famous pyramids are within walking distance of a city with twice as many people as Los Angeles.  They were not built by slaves, and until very recently, no mummies had been found in any of them.  

The Giza Pyramids

Built during the Old Kingdom Period, particularly during the Third and Fourth Dynasties, the pyramids represent a time when power was absolutely centered in the person of the Pharaoh.  They required a huge workforce ranging from general labor to artists and engineers, and the notion that they were built by slaves, Hebrew or otherwise, has been widely discredited.  There are many theories regarding their construction, each of which has its own set of unanswered questions.

Guarding the Giza Pyramids

Mastabas

The early forerunner of the pyramid is the mastaba, the Arabic word for bench, so-called for their bench-like shape.  In the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods, the mummified bodies of the dead were buried in shafts cut into the stone ground, and mastabas were built over the grave.  Mastabas were rectangular structures with sloping sides and a flat top.  They were generally made of mud brick, but in later times royalty and more important court officials might have mastabas constructed of dressed limestone.  Cemeteries of mastabas often mirrored the social strata of the living, with more grandiose tombs being set apart on larger plots of land while those of lesser personages were lined up in avenues like city streets.

An avenue of mastabas at Saqqara

The mastabas included a small shrine where offerings of food and incense could be made for the deceased, and a concealed a room called a serdab, where a statue of the deceased was housed.  The walls inside the mastabas typically had detailed murals and friezes depicting the everyday life of the deceased, and in fact, these paintings provide much of what we know of Egyptian life during that period.  The mastaba was not just the tomb of the deceased, it was a representation of their home in the afterlife, and so great care was taken in its construction and preservation.  Although not built until the Sixth Dynasty, the mastaba par excellence is that of Vizier Mereruka, at Saqqara.

The Step Pyramid

Post-mortem accommodations would take a quantum leap forward in the Third Dynasty when Imhotep, chief engineer and architect of King Djoser, conceived of a way to symbolize the king’s ascension to divinity.  Imhotep started with a basic mastaba, but constructed it in a square rather than the traditional rectangular shape.  He then added another smaller mastaba to the flat surface of the first, and continued to build upward until he had six square mastabas, each smaller than the previous, stacked one on top of the other.  The result was the original Stairway to Heaven—the Step Pyramid of Djoser.  Pharaoh was greatly pleased…

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

Although the mastaba would remain in use for thousands of years, Imhotep started a craze that would earn him deification, a rare honor for a commoner.  The evolution of the pyramid form may be observed in the region of Dashur, where attempts were made—and in some cases failed—at making a true smooth-sided pyramid.  But the procedure would be perfected during the reign of Snefru, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty.

Evolution of the “Modern” Pyramid

Meidum Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Snefru’s first contribution to pyramid building was his completion of the pyramid begun by his father, King Huni, at Meidum.  The Meidum Pyramid began as a step pyramid, but in completing it Snefru attempted to smooth its sides, resulting in a large blocky structure.  It would mostly collapse later, during the New Kingdom Period. 

Snefru's Bent Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Snefru built his second pyramid intending to attempt a smooth-sided pyramid from the outset.  This attempt is called the Bent Pyramid because the top third was constructed at a radically different angle than the bottom two thirds.  It is believed that the angle of the bottom part, a 55-degree grade, was too steep and when the construction began to show signs of stress, the angle for the remaining part was changed to a much more stable 43-degrees.

Snefru's Red Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

They say the third time is the charm, and King Snefru would agree.  His third contribution to the Pyramid Fields of the Memphis Necropolis was the Red Pyramid, the first true smooth-sided pyramid.  Having learned from his mistakes, such as they were, the Red Pyramid was constructed at a 43-degree gradient from the first block, and is the third largest pyramid in Egypt, being just barely exceeded by those of Khufu and Khafre at Giza.

Snefru’s Red Pyramid would be surpassed by that of his son, Khufu, on the Giza Plateau.  Others would follow, including the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, but the Great Pyramid was the pinnacle, literally, of pyramid building.  Khafre’s Pyramid looks larger because of its location on higher ground, but Khufu’s Pyramid is the undisputed champion.

The pyramids of Khafre and Khufu

The Pyramid Complex

Pyramids are actually just the centerpiece of a larger complex.  Each pyramid contains a number of elements, all associated with the afterlife.  There is typically a valley temple, a pavilion where the body of the king was received, which was connected to the Nile.  From the valley temple there would be a causeway leading to the mortuary temple, which was dedicated to the worship of the deceased king. 

Mortuary temples had their own priests who not only performed the funerary rites but who assured that the cult of that particular king would be sustained in the future.  There was often a smaller “cult pyramid” which was built to honor the king’s Ka (his spirit or soul).  Pyramid complexes often also included cemeteries, or even additional pyramids, for the king’s family and chosen servants.

Khufu's Queens' Pyramids

It goes without saying that pyramids were associated with the afterlife, and are the center of the king’s funerary complex, but some controversy remains regarding exactly what function they served.  It seems obvious they were intended to hold the body of the dead king—including the presence of burial chambers and sarcophagi.  However, out of the nearly 140 pyramids discovered, not a single king’s mummy has ever been recovered from a pyramid.  The only mummy found in a pyramid thus far is that of Queen Seshseshet, discovered in her pyramid in November, 2008.

Some speculate that the king’s pyramids may have served a ceremonial function, possibly as a location for the initiation of the king into divinity and preparation for the afterlife.  Others speculate that the kings were indeed interred in their pyramids, but that their bodies were later removed for various reasons.  It is possible that the pyramids served as both tombs and places of initiation.  All that is certain is that we can’t be certain, which is a large part of the pyramids’ appeal.

Backside of the Giza Pyramids

Further Reading

Egyptian Monuments:

Archive for the ‘Pyramid Fields’ Category

(Probably the best online resource on pyramids, hands down)

LookLex:

Giza – The Pyramids

National Geographic:

Introduction to Pyramids

Queen’s Mummy Found In 4,300-Year-Old Pyramid

Tour Egypt:

Overview of Pyramid Construction

Photographs ”WIKIpyr01 – Meidoum_pyramide_006.jpg” by Wiki user Neithsabes, “WIKIpyr02 – Snofru’s_Bent_Pyramid_in_Dahshur.jpg” by Wiki user Ivrienen, and “WIKIpyr03 – RedPyramid.jpg” by Wiki user Chipdawes are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright 2009, all rights reserved.

Welcome to the Giza Plateau, the only place on Earth that is recognizable from outer space because of a few 4,600 year old buildings.

The Liveliest Graveyard in the World

The Giza Plateau is a high desert plain adjacent to the southwestern suburbs of Cairo.  Home of the Great Sphinx and the famous Giza Pyramids, the plateau is named after the small nearby town of el-Gizah.  This most-famous of archeological sites is often envisioned as a remote and uninhabited stretch in the heart of the Sahara, but nothing could be further from the truth.  The largest and busiest city in Africa abuts this ancient city of the dead, and everywhere you look someone is trying to sell you decorated papyrus, good luck scarabs, or bottled water.

Cairo as seen from the Giza Plateau (Photo by Keith Payne)

The views from the plateau range from ancient desert vistas to the encroachment of of modern Cairo.   Look in one direction and you might see a camel corral.  Look to the right and there is the causeway leading up to Khufu’s Pyramid, the last Wonder of the Ancient World.  Look instead to the left and you are facing the skyline of a metropolis of seventeen million people.  But when you are there, nothing, not even the many hucksters, can break the spell of the panorama unfolding around you.

Feeding time at a camel corral at the base of the plateau (Photo by Keith Payne)

The bank of a road leading from Cairo to the plateau (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Necropolis

The Giza Plateau is the northernmost part of the Memphis Necropolis, the burial grounds of the ancient capitol of Egypt.  The Memphis Necropolis began in the area of Saqqara, which during the time of the First Dynasty was a cemetery for officials and servants of the Royal Court, with the royalty being entombed at Abydos.  But by the Second Dynasty, kings were choosing Saqqara as their burial sites as well.  Beginnig with the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Netjerikhet), first king of the Second Dynasty, the Memphis Necropolis was the preferred burial site of Egyptian Kings.

One of the many mesas of the Giza Plateau (Photo by Keith Payne)

The region was ideal for the ancient Egyptians, who took great care in their treatment of the dead.  On the one hand, there were plenty of flat, solid surfaces for building pyramids and other royal mortuary structures out of fine limestone that could be quarried elsewhere and imported.  On the other hand, the mesas and other local materials and features could be used to construct tombs for privileged non-nobility.

The area around Saqqara eventually began to suffer from a sort of urban sprawl of the dead, with tombs being built further and further north, and kings having to chose increasingly remote locations to have room to build the sort of funerary complexes that really got the attention of the gods.  Pyramids as far afield as Dashur and Meidum were constructed, many on a larger scale than those of Saqqara.  But the real granddaddy of pyramids would be raised on the Giza highlands.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Pyramids and the Giza Cemeteries

There is evidence that as early as the First Dynasty Egyptians of means were being buried as far north as Giza, but it isn’t until the Fourth Dynasty that a king’s pyramid makes its appearance, and it was quite a debut indeed.  The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built on a scale intended to outdo the Red Pyramid of his father, Snefru, at Dashur.  It remains unsurpassed.  Khufu’s pyramid would be followed by that of his son, Khafre, and the much smaller Pyramid of Menkaure.  These three pyramids, while certainly not the only ones on the plateau, are collectively known as the Giza Pyramids.

The Giza Pyramids (Photo by Keith Payne)

Map of Giza Plateau (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The Giza Necropolis would come to be the primary burial grounds throughout most of the Old Kingdom period, with more than 6,000 tombs being located in the area.  It can be roughly divided into two sections.  The northern section is comprised of the Sphinx, the Giza Pyramids, and their related temples.  This is further subdivided into the Eastern Cemetery and the Great Western Cemetery.  The second part is the Southern Field, which consists of tombs of lesser nobles and high officials.

Lesser tombs in the shadow of the pyramids (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Great Western Cemetery lies to the west of Khufu’s Pyramid and is the resting place of high court officials and grand architects.  One such master builder was Senedjemib-inty, whose tomb is pictured below.  Senedjemib-inty was a vizier who served under Pharaoh Djedkare of the Fifth Dynasty.  One of his titles is “Overseer of All Royal Works,” and many members of his family, also viziers and royal architects, have tombs in the Great Western Cemetery.

The tomb of Senedjemib-inty (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Eastern Cemetery is located to the east of Khufu’s Pyramid, and contains mostly tombs of Khufu’s family and favored servants, although esteemed court officials would continue to be buried there long after Khufu’s reign.  Seshemnefer IV, for example, who lived during the Sixth Dynasty and bore the title “Secretary of all the king’s secret orders,” earned a place for himself in the Eastern Cemetery. His mastaba (tomb) is fairly typical of those in the Western and Eastern Cemeteries.

The tomb of Seshemnefer IV (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Giza Necropolis fell into disuse, and outright abuse, during the Middle Kingdom Period, which is when the pyramids and tombs suffered frequent plundering and destruction.  The area experienced a revival during the New Kingdom, particularly during the Eighteenth Dynasty, when religious devotion centered on the Sphinx and the pyramids again came into vogue.  This persisted even into the Late Period when the newly-popular cults of Osiris and Isis built shrines around the Sphinx.  The area again fell to indignity beginning with the Ptolemaic Dynasty and lasting into the modern period, when tombs and pyramids were again subject to being robbed and stripped for materials.

The Solar Boat Museum

The Solar Barge of Khufu (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

One of the more modern structures on the Plateau is the Solar Boat Museum.  In 1954 Kamal el-Mallakh, an inspector working for the Department of Antiquities, discovered a complete disassembled cedar boat buried in a pit next to Khufu’s Pyramid.  He had found evidence of something buried in the location four years earlier while surveying for a road, and suspected it might be a boat pit similar to those found at lesser pyramids, but wasn’t able to begin a serious excavation at that time. 

Besides, the previous boat pits had already been plundered by the time they had been discovered, so Kamal’s discovery was low on the list of priorities. 

The Solar Boat Museum next to Khufu's Pyramid (Photo by Keith Payne)

The boat, which included its original ropes and sails, was meticulously removed and in 1958 reconstruction began.  It would not be completed until 1968.  It is not certain whether or not the boat was ever in water or if it served a more ceremonial function.  The Solar Boat Museum was built overtop the pit where the 4,600 year old boat was discovered, and has housed the boat since 1982.

History, Mystery, and Everything In Between

The Giza Plateau remains one of the most active archeological digs on Earth, and one where tourists, amateur Egyptologist, professional archeologists, royalty, peasants, mystics, and con-men freely intermingle on a daily basis.  Everything is literally set in stone, and yet also in a constant state of flux.  The very place where you haggled over the price of a bottle of water yesterday may be cordoned off tomorrow as the most important historical discovery in modern history.  The proportion of everything is huge and under perpetual scrutiny, and yet everything the eye sees suggests even more lies hidden.

The Great Sphinx and Pyramids (Photo by Keith Payne)

Further Reading

Egyptian Monuments:

Giza

LookLex:

Giza – Or is it Still Cairo?

 Tour Egypt:

An Overview of the Giza Plateau in Egypt

The Cemeteries of Giza

LookLex:

Giza – Or is it Still Cairo?

Photograph “WIKI02 – Barque_Solaire2.jpg” by Alex Lbh is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright 2009, all rights reserved.