Question: Why would an agrarian culture with notoriously rich soil need a
'jobs creation' project? Egypt's wealth was based on its agricultural surplus
it's peasants also had a long 'off season' thanks to the indundation. Khufu
decided to dedicate that wealth and that manpower to building a honking big
tomb for himself. Djedefre and Khafre followed suit. Later Pharaohs decided
to spend their money and their manpower of other projects. This shift in
priorities may have been related to the financial drain of the decades long
pyramid projects. Anyway something convinced Menkaure and his successors that
size no longer mattered.