What was the Persian empire's take on the Pyramids of Egypt?

by onca32

I've always wondered what the the Persians made of the Pyramids in Egypt at the time. Were they cordoned off as historical treasures? Were they just ignored?

liwios

The persian domination of Egypt is in itself a difficult subject because it is portrayed very differently by the various sources. For example Herodotus and Stela of the Ptolemaic period show them as the archetype of bad kings, looting sanctuaries and so on (the Ptolemaic decrees showing how the kings are good because they undo malevolent acts supposedly made by the persians). It is clear that during the period of persian rule the Great king, wanted to be seen as a legitimate Pharaoh, so it would have been a very bad idea to show disrespect to sanctuaries. But don't forget that the archaeological documentation is scarse, and that there were many more Pyramids in Egypt, for exemple those of the middle kingdom, who are today overlooked because of a different building technique making them less impressive today. Last but not least, the temples of Pyramids in Giza were burned at the end of the old kingdom, more than a thousand years before persian rule.

*edit: rewriting some syntaxical repetitions