Essay:Greatest Myths of World History

Here is a growing list of the greatest myths of world history:

Slaves built the pyramids

For many years, it was widely believed that the pyramids were built mainly with slave labor. We now know that they were built by free men. Most of the men who worked on the pyramids were farmers or farm laborers. In the summer, when the Nile flooded and farm work was impossible, they found work as builders.

Columbus sets out to discover America

When Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, what he was really doing was looking for a sea route to Asia. It didn't turn out quite the way he expected; he made landfall on the island of Hispanola. A related myth is that Columbus discovered or proved that the Earth was round. Unlike many others, these myths are widely known to be false.

A pox on you!

Anti-Christians teach that the Christian Europeans deliberately spread smallpox among the American Indians, as in handing out blankets with the germs. In fact, the germ theory of disease was not even discovered until the 19th century.

"Let them eat cake!"

Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" was almost certainly never uttered. The phrase was likely invented by anti-monarchist revolutionaries seeking to have Marie and Louis XVI executed. Moreover, even if it was uttered, it would have made sense because there was a shortage of bread and cake was a rational substitute.