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Admin moved page What Was the Importance of Pyramids in Ancient Egypt? to What Was the Importance of Pyramids in Ancient Egypt
[[File: Djosser’s Step Pyramid II.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|King Djoser’s Step Pyramid Near Saqqara]]__NOTOC__
The pyramids of Egypt are among the most recognizable and enduring monuments of the ancient world. Long after they were built, other ancient peoples, such as the Greeks and Romans, wrote about them with as much awe as people do today. The Greeks included the Giza Pyramids among the Seven Wonders of the World, which brought an appreciation of the structures to people who would not otherwise see them. The Greco-Roman admiration of the pyramids was transferred to medieval and early modern Europe, where early attempts to uncover the pyramids' mysteries were made. Influenced by the Bible, Europeans of these periods believed that the pyramids were the famed granaries of Joseph in Genesis's book. Around the same time, Arab and Persian writers postulated that Egypt's pyramids were actually vessels of esoteric knowledge of a previous age. Although these early writers erred in their judgment of the pyramids’ functions, they were correct to assume that they were important structures.
Unfortunately, no manual has been discovered that details 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 pyramids' symbolism. 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.
In all of his manifestations, the sun-god was among the most important of the deities in the Egyptian pantheon. After death, the king was associated with the sun-god, so Egyptologists have long argued that pyramids are solar symbols. One of the most common solar interpretations is that pyramids represent the sun's rays shining down on the mummy of the deceased king's mummy. <ref> Lehner, Mark. <i>The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries </i> (London: Thames and Hudson, 2001), p. 34</ref> It is also significant that the very tops of pyramids, known as “pyramidions,” were often gilded, giving a shiny appearance. Others have argued that pyramids, especially step pyramids, represent steps to the heavens that the deceased king will use on his journey in the afterlife. <ref> Shaw, Ian, and Paul Nicholson. <i>The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt.</i> (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995), p. 24</ref>
Another possible explanation for the pyramids' shape is that they were meant to represent the sacred <i>benben</i> stone in Heliopolis. The benben stone was a pyramidion, which according to the Helipolitan creation myth, was the primordial mound of creation. Because of that, many modern scholars theorize that the pyramids were meant to represent the primordial mound of creation through which life emerged. <ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i>The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC.</i> (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 140</ref>
The layout of pyramids also had symbolic significance. Since pyramids were tombs, they were always located on the Nile River's west bank, which is where most tombs were located in ancient Egypt because the deceased needed to see the sunrise each morning. The layout of the Great Pyramids of Giza has particularly been a point of interest among scholars and laypeople alike. Noted scholars state that the three pyramids may indeed have pointed toward Heliopolis's city, further proving the structures' solar significance of the structures, but that they do not match Orion’s Belt as some fringe theories have claimed. <ref> Lehner, p. 106-7</ref>
====The Evolution of the Pyramids===
The next step in Egyptian royal burial construction was to stack successively smaller mastabas on top of each other to create a “step pyramid.” The famed architect and scientist, Imhotep, is generally credited with being the “inventor” of the step pyramid as he was the vizier and “overseer of the works” under the first king of the Third Dynasty, Djoser (ruled ca. 2667-2648 BC). <ref> Wilkinson, Richard H. <i>The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.</i> (London: Routledge, 2003), p. 111</ref> Not only was Djoser’s step pyramid the first Egyptian burial monument made of stone, but it also provided a template for later pyramids as a “temple complex.” The king’s tomb was located beneath the 196-foot high solid structure, but all around it was a 5,397-foot long wall that enclosed the pyramid and several other religious buildings. <ref> Lehner, p. 84</ref>
The entire complex was essentially dedicated to the divinity of the kingship god Horus and Osiris's divinity, the god of the dead, who were merged with the sun-god in the pyramid. Besides the religious significance, pyramid complexes became economic, and population focal points of the community: merchants and artisans all were drawn to them for various professional reasons. <ref> Lehner, p. 9</ref>
====The Pyramid Age====
[[File: Giza Pyramids Camels.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|The Pyramids of Giza: From Left to Right – Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura]]
Although Djoser’s pyramid represented a major step forward in the evolution of pyramids regarding structure, style, and purpose, it would not be until the Fourth Dynasty when the first attempts at a “true” pyramid were made. King Snefru (reigned ca. 2613-2589 BC) started the Pyramid Age by building three pyramids: one near Meidum and two near Dashur. The Medium pyramid was originally intended to be a step pyramid early in the king’s rule. Later in his life, he had it filled in, making it a true pyramid, albeit one with extremely steep angles. <ref> Lehner, p. 99</ref>
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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. Smaller pyramids accompanied the Great Pyramid for the king’s queens and a royal bark 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.” There were two gangs of 1,000 men working on any working day, further divided into “phyles” of 200 men, which were sub-divided subdivided into groups of twenty.
The quarry was less than a mile away, which made making hauling the stones easier, but the workers had to do so without 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 into making the sled slide better. Ten stone setters would work per block. The builders had no pulleys, so they constructed dirt ramps that allowed them 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 thirty-three feet higher on a bedrock foundation. Khafra’s pyramid is slightly sharper 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 Pyramid Age's 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 religious importance. The last king of the Fifth Dynasty, Unas (ruled ca, 2375-2345 BC), introduced an innovation to the Pyramid Texts pyramids. The Pyramid Texts were a collection of hieroglyphic texts, known as Utterances, inscribed on the pyramid’s tomb chamber walls, 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 bark 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. He retakes his hand; Atum lifts Isis, takes his head, the end of his bow-warp, Nephthys coil his stern-warp, 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>
====Conclusion====
Pyramids played an important role during ancient Egypt’s the Old Kingdom for 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 pyramids' structure gradually grew from being simple mound tombs into the great grand structure that most people think of today. Once the size and quality of pyramids declined slightly, their theological significance did not. Later kings plastered their pyramids' interiors with some of the oldest religious texts known to man as a testament to the importance of pyramid building 's importance in ancient Egypt.
====References====
