Did Slaves Build The Great Pyramid At Giza Essay

In Ancient Egypt, slaves were treated poorly, and they were forced to do most things. But one of them was not building the Great Pyramid at Giza. Upper social classes were not useless and they were able to do the hard labor by themselves without slaves to build the Great Pyramid at Giza. Slaves did not build the Great Pyramid at Giza because the workers were well respected and buried near the Pharaoh’s tombs, they were given bread and beer for the afterlife, and the workers were paid laborers.

The Great Pyramid at Giza was built in approximately 2700-600 BCE. Back then slaves were known as the lowest social class and were very disrespected and treated poorly. Slaves could not have built the Great Pyramid at Giza because according to Dr. Zahi Hawass. In fact, he said that “the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination,” (Hawass 2). This means the workers were not slaves because slaves were clearly understood to be very poor, and do not get paid for any of the labor they did. Another reason the slaves could not have built the Great Pyramid at Giza as well because the laborers were buried near the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs were buried inside of the pyramid as a special place

Zahi Hawass, spent decades excavating and analyzing areas around the pyramids. He states that “the discovery and the latest finds last week show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination,” (Hawass 2). This means that Hawass believes that slaves did not build the pyramid. He believes that “the majority of the workers of the pyramid were from poor Egyptian families that were in the middle social class,” (Hawass 2). People under this category would have volunteered to work so they could get paid to support their family. This shows that slaves did not build the Great Pyramid at Giza because they could not have been volunteers and paid laborers if they were lash-driven and forced to do everything they