CAIRO (AP) – Egyptian antiquities officials on Monday scoffed at claims by Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson that Egypt’s ancient pyramids were not built as pharaonic tombs but used to store grain.
“Does he even deserve a response? He doesn’t,” Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty told the Associated Press on the sidelines of a news conference about recent thermal scans of the pyramids that revealed some anomalies that could lead to new discoveries about their construction.
Carson’s comments have received little attention in Egypt, where people are accustomed to accepted expert views about the 4,500-year-old structures, but have drawn interest in the United States where the retired neurosurgeon has jumped to the top of the crowded Republican presidential field.
Last week, Carson stood by his belief that Egypt’s great pyramids were built by the Biblical figure Joseph to store grain, an assertion dismissed by experts who say its accepted science that they were tombs for pharaohs.
Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Antiquities Ministr,y said Carson’s comments are similar to other inaccurate theories about the pyramids, including that those that say they were built by Atlanteans from a mythical lost continent.