In ancient times did people used to live around the pyramids in Egypt?

[Violent Rainbow]

I can't seem to find an answer anywhere so I guess I'll ask you people, you know how in Egypt they have those pyramids and the Sphinx and stuff? And there is just desert and sand all around them but in ancient times were they like,in the middle of a city or something? I mean surely they didn't just build these things out in the middle of no where where no one could even look at the, right?

[Candyy]

The only thing i know is that they lived near the river

[Auraplayer (Stir Crazy)]

The ancient Egyptians would have preferred to live close to the Nile, and I know that the pyramids and the Sphinx are a good distance away from the Nile, so I would guess that they acted more like temple complexes than a city where people would live long term. Then again, back in those days, there could be an oasis nearby that can be enough to support a meager population of priests, warriors, and servants that look after those places. Oh, and the pyramids are burial grounds, so I doubt that there would be much people there, aside from grave robbers.

[L1qu1dator]

There was a whole town of craftsmen right beside them, who were needed to build, and since the building took decades, then yes you could say people lived around them.

[patch.macho.2007]

i guess back then there where big ass citys nearby or something

[trousers]

Spoiler: they're not really in the middle of nowhere. They were (almost) always built near to the Nile. E.g. the complex at Giza is about 10km away from the Nile, and more importantly, right next to Giza. Which is a huge city with a population of 8.8m. It's a big sprawl sat on the very green west bank of the Nile. (and it's been there a while)

People just tend to take pictures of the pyramids desert-facing, so they don't have a big ugly city in the background (sorry Giza!)

[♛ H🅾T🅼ESS ☢ BTC ETH]

werent they called bazzars?

[♛ H🅾T🅼ESS ☢ BTC ETH]

A bazaar or souk, is a permanently enclosed marketplace or street where goods and services are exchanged or sold.

The term bazaar originates from the Persian word bāzār. The term bazaar is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work in that area. Although the word "bazaar" is of Persian origin, its use has spread and now has been accepted into the vernacular in countries around the world.

The term souk (Arabic: سوق‎ suq, Hebrew: שוק‎ shuq, Syriac: ܫܘܩܐ shuqa, Armenian: շուկա shuka, Spanish: zoco, also spelled souq, shuk, shooq, soq, esouk, succ, suk, sooq, suq, soek) is used in Western Asian, North African and some Horn African cities (Amharic: ሱቅ sooq).[1][2]

Evidence for the existence of bazaars or souks dates to around 3,000 BCE. Although the lack of archaeological evidence has limited detailed studies of the evolution of bazaars, indications suggest that they initially developed outside city walls where they were often associated with servicing the needs of caravanserai. As towns and cities became more populous, these bazaars moved into the city center and developed in a linear pattern along streets stretching from one city gate to another gate on the opposite side of the city. Souks became covered walkways. Over time, these bazaars formed a network of trading centres which allowed for the exchange of produce and information. The rise of large bazaars and stock trading centres in the Muslim world allowed the creation of new capitals and eventually new empires. New and wealthy cities such as Isfahan, Golconda, Samarkand, Cairo, Baghdad and Timbuktu were founded along trade routes and bazaars. Street markets are the European and North American equivalents.

[Nomad]

I think the pyramids were built away from the cities but I think people lived near the tombs. You had necropolises and stuff around the tombs where priests would do stuff, not sure if they lived there or just worked there in the day.

[Nomad]

Originally posted by blorp:

Spoiler: they're not really in the middle of nowhere. They were (almost) always built near to the Nile. E.g. the complex at Giza is about 10km away from the Nile, and more importantly, right next to Giza. Which is a huge city with a population of 8.8m. It's a big sprawl sat on the very green west bank of the Nile. (and it's been there a while)

People just tend to take pictures of the pyramids desert-facing, so they don't have a big ugly city in the background (sorry Giza!)

I'm not sure if Giza existed back then though. Those ones I think were built in the vicinity of Memphis.

[Fajita Jim]

Originally posted by Auraplayer (Likes to write):

The ancient Egyptians would have preferred to live close to the Nile, and I know that the pyramids and the Sphinx are a good distance away from the Nile,

The Nile used to come right up to the temple complex. It's slowly moved east over time.
https://brilliantmaps.com/nile/

[linis]

Quoting the pimaryhomeworkhelp website,
"Where were they built? Most of the pyramids can be found on the western side of the Nile River, just into the dry desert."

This topic also made me think of the recreation attempt in Assassin's Creed: Origins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omajagaozk0

That was a lot of area to cover back then, and taking the quote into consideration, it probably was not too far to reach that people couldn't have lived around them (while they were being built at least).

4:15 in the video seems like a reasonable distance for both agriculture and practical construction (enough distance into the dry desert to support such massive structures)

[GRATS]

they still do, there's a giant city right next to the pyramids..

Man the posts in this thread are embarrassing. The pyramids are currently and have always been in a big city.

https://i.imgur.com/3sVO2CO.jpg

[Nomad]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

they still do, there's a giant city right next to the pyramids..

Man the posts in this thread are embarrassing. The pyramids are currently and have always been in a big city.

https://i.imgur.com/3sVO2CO.jpg

Well there's over 130 pyramids in Egypt. The ones in your link were built about 20 miles away from Memphis. Giza wasn't there.

[Fake]

Why would they want to live next to an alien landing site?

[GRATS]

Originally posted by TRASH:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

they still do, there's a giant city right next to the pyramids..

Man the posts in this thread are embarrassing. The pyramids are currently and have always been in a big city.

https://i.imgur.com/3sVO2CO.jpg

Well there's over 130 pyramids in Egypt. The ones in your link were built about 20 miles away from Memphis. Giza wasn't there.

Memphis what, the sphinx? It's like 5 miles away. Also the only one that was "away from a city" was Abydos, which now has city all around it. I doubt it was very far, just far for that time.