/ 22 June 2000

TOMBS MODELED ON GIZA PYRAMIDS FOUND

EGYPTIAN archeologists have discovered two limestone tombs modeled on the design of the Great Pyramids of Giza. They were built by the builders of the pyramids for themselves and not for the kings, but the authorities did not say if their mummified bodies were found inside them. “The two tombs were conceived on the inside exactly like the three royal pyramids of Giza,” according to Hawas, who is director of antiquities at the Giza plateau just outside the Egyptian capital Cairo. Culture Minister Faruq Hosni told journalists that “this discovery will change established concepts.” For example, he said it will “prove that the pyramids of Giza were not built, contrary to what many people think, by workers submitted to servitude, because the builders have made their tombs similar to those of the kings.”