Pyramids, Massive Structures With Four Triangular Sides That Meet At

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 largescale 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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