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The puzzle of the pyramids

The Curious Cases team discovers how Egypt's pyramids were really built.

The Great Pyramids of Giza are awesome feats of engineering and precision. So who built them - and how? Was it a mysteriously super-advanced civilization now oddly extinct? Was it even aliens?

Nah, course not! Rutherford and Fry investigate how these inspiring monuments were really constructed, and learn about the complex civilisation and efficient bureaucracy that made them possible.

Professor Sarah Parcak busts the myth that they were built by slaves. In fact, she reveals, it was gangs of well-paid blokes fuelled by the ancient Egyptian equivalent of burgers and beer. And Dr Chris Naunton explains how it was not some mysterious tech, but incredible organisation and teamwork which made it possible to transport massive stone blocks over long distances several thousand years before trucks arrived.

Dr Heba Abd El Gawad points out how racism led to bizarre assumptions in the history of archaeology, and how those assumptions linger in contemporary conspiracy theories which refuse to accept that Egyptians could have built the pyramids themselves!

Contributors: Professor Sarah Parcak, University of Alabama, Dr Chris Naunton, Egyptologist and broadcaster, Dr Heba Abd El Gawad, University College London

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 17 Apr 2023 00:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 10 Apr 2023 19:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Apr 2023 04:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Apr 2023 12:32GMT
  • Tue 11 Apr 2023 19:32GMT
  • Mon 17 Apr 2023 00:32GMT

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