Exclusive Private Tour

Special Permission from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities Is Required

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is responsible for the preservation, conservation and excavations of Egypt’s heritage.  As such, a requirement is that we make an application to the Ministry seeking permission to visit the site which is generally not available to the public.  The Ministry  will make a decision and we abide by the decisions they make.

So Where Was the City of the Pyramid Builders?

In 1988, a site 400 meters south of the Sphinx was discovered that proved to be the vast settlement that once served as the base of operations for constructing the great pyramid. The 4th Dynasty city had sprawled over 17 acres. It had been completely covered by metres of sand. The excavation has been going on continuously since that time.

This city served as the base of operations for the pyramids of the pharaohs Menkaure, Khafre, and probably Khufu. Its size and layout and the building foundations indicated large populations of labourers, craftsmen, managers, and administrators all directly and/or indirectly involved in building their pharaohs eternal home.

The city housed the workers of the pyramid complexes, but also those who sustained the town and its workforce.  The excavations revealed that the town’s streets and alleyways, were lined with craft workshops, industrial yards, bakeries, commissaries, kitchens, warehouses, small houses, and stately homes/offices for site administrators as well as cemeteries. And the raw materials from across Egypt flowed into the site for building, furnishing, and decorating the pyramid complexes and for producing the workforce’s food, clothes, shelter, tools, and equipment.

And What About the Workers – Who Were They?

Dispelling the myth about who built the pyramids, the workers were ordinary, everyday farmers who were housed, paid and fed for their labour. They were not slaves. Consider this:

• 3-4 months a year, rural activity stopped with the flooding of the Nile. The annual flood made agriculture impossible. So, working at the pyramids was a source of income for the farmers and a source of labour for the project.
• Between 10,000 to 20,000 people had worked over 20 – 30 years of the construction period – this was a monumental, national building project.
• Thousands more people were involved in preparing food for the workers including:
  • 1500 people involved in supplying sheep
  • 500 people with the cattle and
  • 2000 and others with wheat and barley (to make bread and beer).
• All of this had a dramatic effect on the 1 million Egyptians who lived in the Nile Valley, and which led to Egypt’s growth and prosperity.
• There was also a health care system for the workers injured during construction and medical facilities were available – the first of its kind in history.