Archeologists discover 2 giant sphinxes

[catchnrelease]

16. Early govt jobs programs

The Egyptian monuments were not built by slaves, no matter what Hollywood would like you to believe. For a good part of the year after the Nile's annual flood, people would go to work on these projects and were paid in grain etc to sustain themselves until the waters receded and they could go back to their farms.

Also, families would send male members to serve as craftsmen on the projects. They were housed and fed in settlements/towns that surrounded the monument being worked on. I'm not saying they lived in luxury but they were not slaves. I've read it described as more like a temporary army, conscripted by the Pharoah.