近日，埃及考古挖掘小组在位于开罗的胡夫金字塔附近发掘出一系列古墓。专家经分析推断，这些由泥砖堆砌而成，并完好地保存着死者的尸骨及祭品的古墓, 是为当年建造金字塔的受雇工人而建。这一发现大大挑战了金字塔是由奴隶或外星人所建的学说，为金字塔的建造之谜再添神秘色彩。

    Egypt displayed last week newly-discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, putting the discovery forth as more evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments.

    The tombs were found by an Egyptian excavation team led by Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. “The tombs are dated to the Fourth Dynasty and belong to workmen who built the pyramids of Khufu (2609-2584 B.C.) and Khafre (2576-2551 B.C.),” said Mr. Hawass.

    The mud-brick tombs were uncovered last week in the backyard of the Giza pyramids, stretching beyond a burial site first discovered in the 1990s and dating to the Fourth Dynasty, when the great pyramids were built on the fringes of present-day Cairo. The series of modest nine-foot-deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry desert sand along with jars that once contained beer and bread meant for the workers’ afterlife.

    Mr. Hawass said that discovery and the latest finds shed more light on the lifestyle and origins of the pyramid builders. Importantly, they suggest that the workers were paid laborers rather than the slaves of popular imagination. “These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves. If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king,” concluded Mr. Hawass.