Comments by "Vary Olla" (@varyolla435) on "The Fourth Dynasty of Egypt: The Age of the Pyramid Builders" video.

Less Hollywood = more history. Egypt of the 4th Dynasty was not yet an expansionist empire. That would come centuries later after the expulsion of the Hyksos - which is long after pyramids were built. So the condition of the graves of the workers buried at Giza indicate they were well treated and fed. Also they were buried Egyptian style - something not expected for slave labor. Meanwhile at Amarna - which dates to the early New Kingdom when references to military captives are seen and when pyramids were not longer built = one does see evidence of workers being mistreated. There are mass graves of young people who show evidence of being undernourished and worked to death = your captive workforce. So no = the pyramids were not built by slaves. The Pharaohs maintained a caste of professional workmen who were "salary workers" while they were supplemented by seasonal labor in the form of "the corvee" whereby able bodied Egyptians were required to work part of each year on public projects. Herodotus wrote the Great Pyramid workforce was swapped out every 90 days. 🤔
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Meanwhile I am saying perhaps you should forgo such uninformed assumption to instead = seek to understand. Follow the white rabbit Neo: 1 - the Sphinx is carved from the limestone bedrock = and limestone is porous. 2 - beneath the Giza plateau is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System = ergo there is groundwater 4-5 meters below the Sphinx. 3 - via pressure gradient variance as water in the ground is often under greater pressure than above - hence why if you dig a well water seeps into the hole you create = moisture from below upwells through the porous bedrock to the surface where salt crystals are formed. They denude the surface of the stone causing it to flake away to touch. The process is called = "efflorescence." Moral of the story: the Mokattam Formation which forms the plateau the Sphinx is carved from has 3 main layers of differing densities - and hence hardness levels. The hardest part of the Sphinx is the lower body. The next hardest part is the upper neck and head. The softest part is the upper back and neck area = which was also the most degraded. So yes the Sphinx spent most of its life buried in sand and hence rainfall could not reach it. Yet sand shifts about and the surface of the stone weakened by efflorescence would still flake away over time = yielding what we saw. The Egyptian government via a USAID grant installed some years back underground water pumps to lower the water table and divert it from the necropolis. The Sphinx itself is constantly being maintained being coated with a neutralizing agent to slow the erosive process with some areas now covered over. Thus the Sphinx dates to the dynastic Egyptians and its uneven erosion is not due to age nor rainfall = but efflorescence. So now you know. 🤔 p.s. - there was no "lost" civilization. Arguing such is classic argumentum ad ignorantiam - a logical/deductive fallacy. A thing does not exist until you provide tangible, compelling physical evidence to show proof of concept.
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@AlexH8280 "I am saying it seems that some much earlier group of people in the region carved a massive animal, the head likely out of possibly a large jutting piece of rock, and the rest of the body out of the bedrock." Sorry if you do not even recognize what you yourself claim. C'est La Vie Moral of the story: enjoy your poorly formed assumption as already indicated. It is clear you lack understanding here - nor apparently a desire to correct that fault. Instead you as always happens go round and round trying to cling to your assumptions rather than confront actual evidence which makes such intenable. 🥱 p.s. - "wind" = pushes sand about - ever been to a desert as I have. So dunes of sand such as bury things like the Sphinx are pushed about over the years which cause friction against the body of the Sphinx = causing loosened areas to flake away akin to sandblasting. It is not the "wind" per se that causes the damage = but the sand the wind blows about. Also Egypt gets hit by periodic earthquakes as well which similarly shake things up. Perhaps it is time to stop assuming what you obvious do not understand - just saying.
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@AlexH8280 🥱round and round and round you go. As to statues. You know that Egyptologists have unearthed as an example smaller Sphinx statues partially completed which were abandoned in the quarries. In 2019 as an example a large partially completed "criosphinx" - half man/half ram - dating to Amenhotep III was unearthed at the quarry of Gebel el-Silsila. Smaller sphinxes line the "avenue of the Sphinxes" at Luxor as another example. It was common that when a Pharaoh died work began under them would halt as the workers moved onto to things the new Pharaoh wanted done. So Egypt is littered with half-completed objects and "size" does not matter. Then as now you got what you paid for. Hence wealthier Pharaohs during times of prosperity created more monumental structures - while lesser ones sufficed with smaller versions of the same. You are seeing only what you want to see to try to justify your assumptions = instead of confronting the evidence I have provided you.
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@AlexH8280 😴😴😴 It was apparent long ago that you desperately "want to believe" = just not "understand." Thus everything to date reflects you going round and round looking for excuses to ignore the evidence I have provided - while clinging to your assumptions. How sad -- if not unexpected. Moral of the story: I have provided you with evidence to explain why the Sphinx looks as it does + association to dynastic Egypt. Meanwhile you have responded as expected with continued inference to "some" supposed people for which you have provided exactly squat to demonstrate they exist outside of your imagination. That as so often is the case is all you seem to really have. Yet it is as I already noted for you classic argumentum ad ignorantiam. So here is your freebie as frankly this grows hackneyed. A thing is not real and hence true = unless you first can provide something tangible to ascribe validity to it. What you opt to believe - or not - in truth matters very little I'm afraid. Only credible evidence = plausibility - and hence "fact". You lack that. Enjoy your assumptions. p.s. - Gebel el-Silsila = GRANITE quarry. Granite is igneous stone and hence is not porous as limestone is - which the Giza Sphinx is carved from. Limestone is a sedimentary stone formed from ancient ocean floor and is naturally porous and is subject to erosion when exposed to fresh water which is akin to weak battery acid to it. That is why you see "sinkholes" develop in karst formations were flowing fresh water is present. Hopefully you at least have heard of them. Time to move on.
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As if he'd care......... Hancock et al are not in the business of seeking understanding - nor even telling the truth for that matter. Their business model is = monetizing the ignorance and gullibility of their followers via "monetizing speech". They do not care what is said - only that something is said so they can clickbait and profit from it. 🤨
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lol! Fortunately the ancient Egyptians did not need to recruit. The Pharaons maintained a caste of professional craftsmen who were "salary workers" - their salary being providing them housing and a stipend of food. Thus freed from the need to seek daily sustenance they could focus upon their task. These were supplemented by a labor pool of seasonal workers. Able-bodied Egyptians were required to labor part of each year on public works via "the corvee." As an aside. Herodotus stated these workers were rotated out every 90 days and replaced by new gangs. As they did specific tasks being broken down into organized teams they would like factory workers on an assembly line require minimal training. Their supervisors would be experts like the caste of craftsmen who oversaw these gangs. 🤔
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Wrong = but thank you for playing. lol! Next time dig a bit deeper and learn the actual evidence out there.
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@AshMundo lol! The workman graffiti in the relieving chambers of the Great Pyramid is not debated = save for by those whose understanding is nil - yet who nevertheless promote dubious pseudo-historical claims. Thus the workman graffiti in the Great Pyramid mirrors that seen on the covering stones of the solar boats buried beside it which were discovered in the 1950's. How about on blocks of the Bent or Red Pyramids or even on the abandoned blocks found at Wadi al-Jarf in 2014 where the diary of Merer was discovered??? In these locations - and others - you see similar phyle markings written upon blocks in the same red ochre paint...........so I guess then all of the rest are supposedly forgeries as well. lol! Moral of the story: the graffiti is seen all over Egypt and is but one piece of a large body of evidence which ties the pyramids to the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom and Khufu specifically. Merer's diary references the Great Pyramid and Giza by name in relation to Khufu. He called the pyramid "Akhet-Khufu" which means the horizon of Khufu - "pyramid" is a later Greek appellation. As the Egyptians referred to things by the Pharaoh responsible for them = the Great Pyramid and the Giza necropolis are tied to Khufu as their creator. Nuff said. You need to stop listening to nonsensical sources and learn the actual history.
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It's nonsense of course. There is absolutely zero evidence of a supposed predynastic civilization capable of creating the Sphinx - not even a pottery shard to show such was real. Meanwhile there is loads of evidence tying it to the Egyptians of the 4th Dynasty. As an aside. The erosion of the Sphinx which is carved from the porous limestone bedrock is due to a process known as = efflorescence. There is groundwater below the Sphinx and videos here on YT showing Egyptologists and hydrologists drilling below it to hit water ~4-5 meters down. The Egyptian government per a USAID grant some years ago installed underground water pumps to lower the water table and divert it away from the necropolis to slow the erosive process which is slowly dissolving the statue.
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Wrong..........but thank you for playing. On a side note. Argumentum ad ignorantiam makes for a poor argument. I will leave you with the famous query Mark Lehner asked of Schoch long ago when he first made his silly claim about the Sphinx - and which Schoch has yet to answer = "where are the shards???" Better luck next time.
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🤣 There's always one.......... 🥱
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It would be ever better if you could show what he supposedly got wrong via credible evidence......... 🥱
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🤣 There's one in every crowd..... Also as a historical aside. The rise of all this "Kemetism" pseudohistory nonsense dates to the 1960's-70's following the civil rights movement in the US. It was a "feel good" attempt on the part of some. It also coincidentally was the butt of comedic satire as well. Comics like Richard Pryor used to do routines about these "black nationalists" while movie actors like Bill Cosby incorporated this nonsense into movies via their belonging to "temples" and wearing a Fez. 🤭
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Correct. It was initially built too steep coupled with a poor foundation as the ground at Dahshur was not conducive to supporting a large heavy stone structure. That is why at Giza the pyramids were subsequently built upon the bedrock itself using larger stone blocks while they followed standardized angles of assent for their sides. The Egyptians were big on "recycling" in that when they found something which worked they usually applied it going forward. Corbelled halls and chambers are an example of this.
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Wrong. There is ample evidence linking the Great Pyramid to Khufu - to include contemporaneous evidence in the form of the diary of Merer. He was one of those who shipped the white Tura limestone to Giza used as casing stones on the pyramid. He refers to the pyramid as "Akhet-Khufu" and he named Khufu's half-brother Prince Ankhhaf as vizier in charge of construction at Giza. Also why the portcullis antechamber made of granite + the granite blocking plugs - still in place = if not a tomb????? As to your supposed "evidence" about the Egyptians finding them = Pffft! Garbage in --------> garbage out. So much for dates with "French models" found on the internet........... 🤭
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@bradbrandon2506 3 posts = nothing actually said. Just parroting of old talking points no one takes seriously. So here is a freebie. Anyone can claim something as supposed fabricated. To make it real however = you must prove the fabrication occurred + preferably show "why". Moral of the story: your incredulity means little I'm afraid. The diary is real until proven otherwise and it provides contemporaneous evidence relating to Giza and Khufu's pyramid to include referencing his family as noted. p.s. - here is another freebie. Early tombs like pyramids had accompanying = mortuary temples. Thus it was in the temples where references to the Pharaoh was found and not the tomb as that would come later. Khufu's mortuary temple was destroyed when the Old Kingdom collapse. Fragments of it exist however such as one showing him perform the Sed Festival. So if you are going to "opine" on a subject - perhaps you should first do some research. Just saying.
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