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====The Symbolism of the Pyramids====
[[File: Snefru’s Pyramid at Meidum.jpg|300px|thumbnail|rightleft|King Snefru’s First Pyramid Near Meidum]]
Unfortunately, no manual has been discovered that details the mechanics of how the pyramids were built or what they were meant to represent. Although that certainly presents some problems to the modern scholar, some conclusions can be drawn concerning the symbolism of the pyramids. Any discussion or examination of what the pyramids were meant to symbolize must begin with the ancient Egyptian concept of divine kingship and how that related to Egyptian religion.
The final pyramid Snefru constructed was the North or Red Pyramid, so named for its reddish color. The king began the pyramid in his thirtieth year of rule, but it remains unknown if that was the final resting place. The Red Pyramid is considered the first true pyramid that survived unblemished and therefore provided the template for the later Giza Pyramids. <ref> Lehner, p. 104</ref>
====The Giza Pyramids====[[File: Khufu’s Barq.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|King Khufu’s Funerary Barque]]Snefru left his son and successor, Khufu (ruled ca. 2589-2566 BC), known as Cheops to the Greeks, with an impressive architectural base from which to build. Khufu did so by building the greatest of the three pyramids known collectively as the “Great Pyramids” or the “Giza Pyramids” for the modern town in Lower Egypt near where they are located. Khufu’s Pyramid covers 13.1 acres, is 479 feet high, and has a slope of 53 degrees. The Smaller pyramids accompanied the Great Pyramid was accompanied by smaller pyramids for the king’s queens and a royal barque that was never used in the temporal world, but was buried next to the pyramid to be ridden by the king through the underworld. <ref>Lehner, p. 14</ref>
The organization of the labor needed to build the pyramids was almost as incredible as the pyramids themselves. The Great Pyramid was built from 2,300,000 limestone stones, each weighing about 2.5 tons. <ref> Lehner, p. 108</ref> The workers were picked from villages throughout Egypt in a conscription/draft system, were paid, and their families were also taken care of while they were away. The men would be divided into groups of 25,000 who would work for three -month “tours.” On any working day, there were two gangs of 1,000 men working, further divided into “phyles” of 200 men, which were sub-divided into groups of twenty. The quarry was less than a mile away, which made hauling the stones easier, but the workers had to do so without the use of wheels. Twenty men could pull a two ton block on a sled from the quarry to the pyramid in about twenty minutes, less if they poured water to make the sled slide better. Ten stone setters would work per block. The builders had no pulleys, so they constructed dirt ramps that allowed the workers to stack the blocks. <ref> Lehner, p. 224-25</ref>
The quarry was less than a mile away, which made hauling the stones easier, but the workers had to do so without the use of wheels. Twenty men could pull a two-ton block on a sled from the quarry to the pyramid in about twenty minutes, less if they poured water to make the sled slide better. Ten stone setters would work per block. The builders had no pulleys, so they constructed dirt ramps that allowed the workers to stack the blocks. <ref> Lehner, p. 224-25</ref> Two kings after Khufu, Khafra (reigned ca. 2558-2532 BC), called Chephren by the Greeks, was the next king to build a pyramid at Giza. Although Khafra’s pyramid looks bigger than Khufu’s, it is on a bedrock foundation that is thirty-three feet higher. Khafra’s pyramid is at a slightly sharper angle than Khufu’s , and the bottom is made from red granite. <ref> Robins, Gay. <i>The Art of Ancient Egypt.</i> (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 49</ref>
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Khafra’s pyramid is the larger complex, which contains the fabled Sphinx. The Sphinx, which was carved from the natural bedrock instead of limestone, and the temple complex are connected to the pyramid by a causeway that at one time would have connected to canals that brought people to and from the Nile. <ref> Lehner, p. 126</ref>
The smallest of the three Great Pyramids was King Menkaura’s (reigned ca. 2532-2503 BC), known to the Greeks as Mykerinos. After Menkaura, the high point of the Pyramid Age had peaked, but it was not completely done.
====Later Pyramids====The pyramids constructed after the Fourth Dynasty were inferior in size, but not so in theological religious importance. The last king of the Fifth Dynasty, Unas (ruled ca, 2375-2345 BC), introduced a new an innovation to the pyramids known as the Pyramid Texts. The Pyramid Texts were a collection of hieroglyphic texts, known as Utterances, inscribed on the walls of the pyramid’s tomb chamber, which served to unite the king in death with Osiris and the different manifestations of the sun-god. <ref> Malek, Jaromir. “Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2125 BC).” In <i>The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.</i> Edited by Ian Shaw. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pgs. 112-13</ref> One Utterance describes how the rides an ethereal barque with the sun gods Re and Atum and Isis, who was the goddess of magic and Osiris’ wife.:<blockquote>“He goes aboard the bark like Re at the banks of the Winding Waterway, this King rows in the Bark of Lightening, ; he navigates therein to the Field of the Lower Skies at this south of the Field of Rushes. His Re takes his hand is taken by Re, ; Atum lifts Isis takes his head is lifted up by Atum, the end of his bow-warp is taken by Isis, his stern-warp is coiled by Nepthys, the Celestial Serpent has placed him at her side, she drops him down among the khentyush as calf-herds.” <ref> Faulkner, Richard, trans. <i>The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts</i> (Stilwell, Kansas: Digireads.com Publishing, 2007), Utterance 548</ref></blockquote>
Pyramid building continued into the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1975-1640 BC), which comprised Egypt’s Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties. Most of the prominent pyramids from this period were built near the city of Lisht in Middle Egypt, but some were also constructed near Dashur. <ref> Lehner, pgs. 168-87</ref> These pyramids were but a shadow of those built during the Fourth Dynasty and by the New Kingdom the royals abandoned pyramids as royal burials in favor of more isolated and hidden tombs in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes in southern Egypt.
====Conclusion====Pyramids played an important role during ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom for a number of some reasons. They not only functioned as tombs for their kings, who were seen as gods, but were the focal point of a much larger temple complex. The structure of pyramids gradually grew from being simple mound tombs into the great structure that most people think of today. Once the size and workmanship quality of pyramids declined slightly, their theological significance did not. Later kings plastered the interiors of their pyramids with some of the oldest religious texts known to man as a testament to the importance of pyramid building in ancient Egypt.
===References===