How do you know that?
Because we have a team here from the National Research Center who are doctors, and they use X-rays to find all the evidence about age. They found that the age of death for those workmen was from 30 to 35. Those are the people who really built the Pyramids, the poor Egyptians.
"Mark Lehner and I are excavating around the Pyramids to tell the world the truth."
It's very important to prove how the Pyramid was built. The Pyramid, you know, has magic, it has mystery. It's a structure that was built 4,600 years ago. There is no accurate book until now that really explained all of that. All the theorists, in other books, say that the stones were taken from Tura about five miles to the east of the Pyramid. This is not true. All the stones have been taken from the plateau, except the casing stones that came from Tura, and the granite in the burial chamber that came from Aswan. But the magic of the Pyramid makes people think about it. An amateur comes by and looks at this structure and doesn't know the mechanics. The cult of the Egyptians, the religion, the Pyramid—it's all part of a whole civilization.
TELLING THE TRUTH
There is an inscription above Khufu's burial chamber that identifies the Pyramid as that of Khufu. Some people claim that is a fake inscription. Can you comment on that?
They say that the inscriptions inside the five relieving chambers are fake. Fine. I went last week, and we lighted all of them. It has been never lighted before. We did beautiful lighting. Then we can read each single inscription.
As far as Zahi Hawass is concerned, these Egyptians are the direct descendants of the people who erected the Pyramids 4,600 years ago.EnlargePhoto credit: © WGBH Educational Foundation
And what do they say?
The workmen who were involved in building the Great Pyramid were divided into gangs or groups, and each group had a name and an overseer. They wrote the names of the gangs. And you have the names of the gangs of Khufu as "Friends of Khufu." Because they were the friends of Khufu proves that building the Pyramid was not really something that the Egyptians would push. It's like today. If you go to any village you will understand the system of ancient Egyptians. When you build a dam or a big house, people will come to help you. They will work free for you. The households will send food to feed the workmen. And when they build their houses, you will do the same for them.
That's why the Pyramid was the national project of Egypt, because everyone had to participate in building this Pyramid. By food, by workmen, this way the building of the Pyramid was something that everyone felt the need to participate in. Really it was love—they were not really pushed to do it. When the king took the throne, the people had to be ready to participate in building the Pyramid. And when they finished it, they celebrated. That's why even now in modern Egypt we still do celebrations when we finish any project, because that's exactly what happened in ancient Egypt.
But what about the incriptions in the relieving chambers in Khufu and the claim that they were not written in the time of Khufu?
They say that these inscriptions were written by people who entered inside. And if you go and see them they are typical graffiti that can be seen around every pyramid in Egypt, because the workmen around the Pyramid left this. I would like those people who talked about this to come with me. I will take them personally to the rooms. First of all, they say that only the second room is inscribed. It's not true—all the five relieving chambers are inscribed. Number two, there are some inscriptions there that could not be written by anyone except the workmen who put them there. You cannot reach those spots. It had to be the men who put the block there. Mark Lehner and I are excavating around the Pyramids to tell the world the truth, because we believe the public has the right to know the truth.
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