Akhenaten is the ruler who broke that practice. I think.
Even though the Panama Canal is considered to be one of the most prominent engineering marvels of the world, it is literally built on many losses. During building the Canal more than 25,000 people died, mostly because of disease. Over 20,000 people died when the French set a hope to build the canal, and 5,000 died when the Americans did it successfully. It is a really huge sacrifice.
