Pyramid builders’ tombs

This item appears on page 4 of the January 2018 issue.

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Nov. 2 that the tombs of the workers who built the pyramids at Giza, discovered in 1990 on the Giza Plateau, would be open to the public for the first time starting immediately. The 4,500-year-old tombs are known as the “cursed tombs,” due to the curses written on the tomb walls to protect the occupants from plunder. 

The fact that these tombs were allowed to be built beside the king’s pyramid is one of the reasons archaeologists believe that the pyramids of Giza were built by laborers and artisans and not by slaves.