Ancient Egypt: Travels Beyond the Grave - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 198

Unlike the tomb of Pharaoh Djoser, the Pyramids of Giza were not a prototype for
tombs to come. Perhaps their cost in men and materials was too great for the kingdom to
sustain. Herodotus estimates that 100,000 men worked to build the pyramids. More recent
estimates suggest the figure is closer to 20,000 and that they worked for a quarter-cen-
tury to build the great pyramid. Its massive stones were quarried from the cliffs at Aswan,
levered and sledged to barges, and floated northward on barges down the Nile. At the build-
ing site, rising ramps were built along the site of the pyramid, some to go up, and others
to go down. Manhandled wood rollers and sleds carried the stone blocks upward. At sev-
eral places along the river, the several thousand site workers lived, toiled, and were fed on
beer, bread, and grain. They were free men, not slaves, and the pyramid project served the
economy as a public works project, while its sizable encampments of workers, many poor
farm boys from far-off places, promoted a socializing loyalty to king and culture.
The pyramids were tomb and spectacle combined. Before and after the pyramids, royal
tombs and those of the elite were hidden from view, dug deep into the desert, their en-
trances artfully concealed. Never mind that tomb-building villages had been constructed
near the tomb; planners trusted their skills of concealment to keep looters away. It was
a misplaced and mismanaged trust. The only intact tomb found thus far is the tomb of
Tutankhamen. Even so, empty tombs continue to intrigue the tourist and dazzle the travel-
er. In the desert near present-day Luxor in the Valley of the Kings, visitors will ponder the
prodigious effort required to use obsidian and bronze tools to cut passageways and cham-
bers deep below ground in solid rock. They will gaze in awe at tomb murals. Some paint-
ings detail the wealth of the deceased (cattle, servants, furniture, etc.); some depict tributes
paid by faraway kings and tribes; and still others are anecdotes that celebrate the life of the
deceased.
WERE THE PYRAMIDS BUILT BY SLAVES?
As Hollywood likes to tell it, slaves built the pyramids, sweating beneath the overseers'
lash and suffering cruelly in the scorching desert. In truth, those who built the pyramids
were volunteers and conscripts who lived in workers' barracks and villages, ate well,
roistered, and competed for prizes of beer and beef. Precious pepper sprinkled their food to
give them strength and, quite likely, to keep mosquitoes from their skins. Hollywood epics
fix our history lessons, however. It pleases modern sensibilities to see pyramid builders as
slaves, a view that gives dramatic narrative to the Old Testament 's Exodus by conflating
Hebrews (“Let my people go”) with slaves of the pyramids.
MUMMIES: HOW WERE THE DEAD EMBALMED?
Contrary to a staple of Hollywood horror films ( Pace , Boris Karloff), mummies did not
rise or even walk. The mummy was forever to be a safe haven for the Ka and Ba. Shortly