Tombs discovered near Egypt’s great pyramids reinforce the theory they were built by free workers rather than slaves.
The location of the tombs, where workers who built the pyramids of Khufu (Cheops) and Khafre (Chephren) are buried, suggests they were not slaves.
The tombs, made from bricks of dried mud, date back 4,500 years.
They are the first to be discovered since the first such workers’ tombs were found in 1990.
“These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates these people were not by any means slaves,” Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement.
“If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king’s.”
