Archaeologists, activists alarmed by online calls to demolish Pyramids
After bringing down statues, symbolic of racism and oppression in the US and the UK during the Black Lives Matter protests, some social media activists started calling for the demolition of the Pyramids, basing their argument on the contested notion that they were built by slaves.
The hashtag #pyramids has been widely circulating on Twitter in recent days, but not for the reasons one might expect. The fact that Cairo is preparing to reopen the country for tourism within weeks or that many travelers are eagerly waiting for the coronavirus threat to subside, to visit Egypt — if only to feast their eyes on the centuries-old monuments in Giza — has little to do with the viral hashtag.
Oddly enough, the Pyramids have instead been cited multiple times in an online discussion between Twitter users on whether or not these massive structures built as tombs for the pharaohs of Egypt's Old Kingdom more than 4,000 years ago should be torn down for allegedly having been built by "slaves."
