18. Were the Pyramids Built by Ancient Israelite Slaves?
In a 1977 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin raised hackles when, during a visit to Egypt’s National Museum, he stated: “We built the pyramids“. Begin voiced a common perception held by many who extrapolated from the Old Testament’s Book of Exodus about the enslavement of Jews in Egypt, that ancient Israelites had built the Pyramids. That narrative has been expressed frequently in fiction, film, and sundry cultural references from comics to cartoons to songs.
It is, however, a myth. The Pyramids were not constructed by slaves. As seen below, they were built by professional builders, aided by armies of peasant laborers working in the off season. All were compensated – and in the case of the professional builders, well compensated – for their work. As to the claim that they were built by Jewish slaves, Jews were not even in Egypt at the time the Pyramids were built.
