Pyramids

Pyramids, massive structures with four triangular sides that meet at the top in a point. They are found
mainly in Egypt, where in ancient times they served as royal tombs, and in Central and South America,
where they were part of the religious architecture of several Indian civilizations.

Pyramids In Egypt
The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife during which the soul returned to the body. For this reason,
the body was carefully preserved. Mummies of royalty and nobility were placed in tombs with objects for
use in the afterlife—objects frequently of great value. Sooner or later most tombs were looted. To guard
against looters, tombs were made ever larger and stronger, until the pyramid became the standard royal
tomb. With its passages blocked and its entrance faced over, it was considered safe from tomb robbers.
Nevertheless, nearly all Egyptian pyramids were looted in ancient times.

The Earliest Pyramids

In the period prior to about 2700 B.C., tombs of kings and nobles were mastabas, rectangular structures
with sloping sides and flat roofs, built first of sun-dried brick and later of stone. A tomb was built during the
lifetime of the person who would occupy it.

Pharaoh Djoser, who reigned about 2650 B.C., constructed his tomb at Saqqara, the necropolis
(cemetery) of Memphis, first as a mastaba. This was then covered with a new structure 200 feet (61 m)
high, pyramidal in shape with six tiers up the sides. This step pyramid, as it is called, is the first large-
scale stone monument known to history.

Some 30 years after Djoser's death, the fourth dynasty of Egyptian kings began with Snefru, who built
himself two pyramids at Dahshur. The first one was abandoned because it was cracking under its own
weight. The second, with a low pitch, was the first successful true pyramid.

The Pyramids At Giza

Khufu (or Cheops), Snefru's son, built his pyramid tomb at Giza (Gizeh), across the river from the site of
modern Cairo. It was the largest of the Egyptian pyramids—756 feet (230 m) square, originally 480 feet
(146 m) high, but now lacking the tip of the apex, and covering about 13 acres (5.3 hectares)—and is
known as the Great Pyramid. Two burial chambers, one cut into the rock below the monument and one
low in the pyramid, were abandoned during construction. The final burial chamber was near the center of
the structure.

The pyramid was built of 2 1/2-ton (2,270-kg) blocks of limestone quarried near the construction site and
faced with a finer limestone from across the Nile. The granite used for passages and chambers was
brought down the river from Aswan. The Egyptians did not know the principle of the pulley, and raised
and turned stone blocks by use of a lever, probably the type known as a weight arm. The blocks were
transported by sledges, which often had rollers laid in front of them, and may have been pulled up the
pyramid face on plank skidways. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the Great Pyramid
required the labor of 100,000 men during most of Khufu's 23-year reign. Many scholars believe, however,
that slave labor was not plentiful in that period and that the work was done by as few as 4,000 workers,
who were not slaves but free men.
The Great Pyramid was the main structure within a walled enclosure, which contained also an offering
chapel and a mortuary temple. An enclosed road led to a building, beyond the enclosure, where the body
was embalmed. A canal connected this building with the Nile, so the funeral cortege could arrive at the
site by water. Three small pyramids within the enclosure were the tombs of Khufu's queens. This plan of
outlying buildings was followed for most later pyramids.

A succeeding king, Khafre (or Chephren), built a pyramid almost as large as Khufu's. He also ordered the
carving of the Sphinx, which is adjacent to the embalming building. A later king, Menkure (or Mykerinos),
built a small pyramid near the two large ones that is considered the most perfect of the three.

Although Egyptologists consider the pyramids at Giza nothing more than tombs, for centuries it has been
speculated that they served other functions as well or contained great secrets. It has been claimed, for
example, that they served as astronomical observatories, that they provide evidence of visitations from
outer space, and that they possess occult powers.

The pyramids of Egypt at Giza are the best preserved of

the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They still attract many visitors to Giza, just outside the present-day
city of Cairo.
Later Pyramids
It is estimated that Egyptian kings built more than 80 pyramids. Most were constructed over a period of
500 years along the west side of the Nile within 50 miles (80 km) of Giza. A period of turmoil followed,
during which the kings wielded little authority. About the 21st century B.C. a strong monarchy developed
again. Pyramid-building resumed at Thebes, the new capital, and other locations, and continued until
about the 17th century B.C. Thereafter, royal burials were in secret, rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the
Kings.

The Egyptian pyramids were known to the ancient Greeks as one of the Seven Wonders of the World,
because of their immense size. The Romans imitated them during the imperial era, building pyramidal
tombs of concrete, faced with white marble (such as the pyramid of Caestius in Rome, built 12 B.C.). The
last pyramids constructed in Africa were built by Ethiopian kings about 300 A.D.
Pyramids In America
Pyramids were built in Mexico and Central America as religious ceremonial centers as early as 1,000 B.C.
The earliest ones were little more than mounds of dirt and clay. Eventually, more elaborate structures
were built by facing mounds with stone slabs and by erecting stairways, and by building small structures
on the apexes.

The best-known Mexican pyramid is the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán, built sometime in the first
century A.D. It has a base of about 700 feet (213 m) on each side and is 213 feet (65 m) high, rising in
four stages marked by terraces. The largest known pyramid in the Western Hemisphere was built over a
period of hundreds of years at Cholula, Mexico. In its final form it had a base that covered about 40 acres
(16 hectares) and a height of 181 feet (55 m).

The Maya Indians of the Yucatán region of Mexico and of Central America were the Western
Hemisphere's most productive builders of pyramids. Most were built during the height of their civilization,
from about 300 A.D. to about 900 A.D. Their most impressive pyramids are at Uxmal and Chichén-Itzá in
the Yucatán and Tikal in Guatemala. Later Indian civilizations, such as the Toltec, Zapotec, and Aztec,
also built pyramids.

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