Where the Slave Idea Began
Dr. Zahi Hawass, renown Egyptologist and Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, says “linking building the Great Pyramids to slavery is a comical thing to say.” In retrospect, the idea that slaves built the pyramids likely originated in ancient Greek historian Herodotus. But Herodotus lived thousands of years after Pyramid construction and would not have firsthand knowledge about its workers. Egyptologists say the Herodotus claim influenced Hollywood films, in particular Cecil B. DeMille’s two Ten Commandments films (1923 and another in 1956), and more recently Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) which influenced people views of Egyptian construction labor. In 1977, even former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin claimed Jewish slaves built the pyramids. This is disputed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology professor Amihai Mazar, who says, “No Jews built the pyramids because Jews didn’t exist at the period when the pyramids were built.”