Egypt’s chief archaeologist said on Sunday, that new tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves.
The tombs which date back to the reigns of Pharaohs Khufu and Khafra are part of a complex of workers’ tombs that were first discovered when a horse stumbled upon the necropolis in 1990, the Cairo-based ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Khufu and Khafra ruled between 2609 B.C. and 2551 B.C.
The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor of being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.
According to the statement, the tombs were found by an Egyptian excavation team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).
“We were not expecting to discover any tombs in this area,” Hawass said. “These discoveries prove that the importance of Saqqara extends beyond the Old Kingdom of the 3rd to the 6th dynasty and can tell us so much about the 26th dynasty.”