暢談世界文化:11 等待永生的法老 (1/2)

Professor Thomson, do you know anything about when the pharaohs lived, in ancient Egypt? As a matter of fact I do. They have a long history, from the Pre-Dynastic period, 5500 to 3100 BC to the Late Kingdom period, 664 to 332 BC. Pharaoh is the ancient Egyptian name for king. That is a long history! Too long for my project, I think. What about famous pharaohs? There were certainly many of those. Sneferu was a pharaoh during the Old Kingdom period, he reigned for around 30 years. He is famous because he was the first pharaoh to build pyramids. He's very important then. Another? OK, next is Khufu, who reigned during the fourth dynasty. He was famous for building The Great Pyramid at Giza, one of the most well-known throughout the world. This pyramid shows us how Khufu was able to lead and coordinate his people, who helped him to build the pyramid in exchange for goods and services. Why didn't he pay them? After all, they were construction workers. At that time, there was no monetary system in Egypt. Oh, I see. OK, who's next?