Pyramids

PYRAMIDS

Burial monuments for ancient Egyptian kings.

For over a thousand years, from the Step Pyramid of King Djoser (r. 2654–2635 b.c.e.) to the beginning of the New Kingdom with the Eighteenth Dynasty (1549 b.c.e.), Egyptian kings were buried in pyramid tombs. There may be as many as one hundred; remains of some that are mentioned in texts have not yet been discovered. The ruler's pyramid was the center of a pyramid complex, which generally included a mortuary temple on the east side, a causeway leading down to a valley temple on the edge of the flood plain, and subsidiary pyramids for queens. All were plundered long ago. The three major pyramids of Giza (Fourth dynasty, c. 2547–2475 b.c.e.), the largest of which is that of Khufu (Cheops), are the most famous. Easily visible from Cairo, they are central objectives of archaeological research and tourism. Khufu's Great Pyramid is unusual in containing three burial chambers, probably reflecting changes in plan, with the king buried in the uppermost. The interior walls of the pyramid of Unas, the last ruler of the 5th Dynasty (2375–2345 b.c.e), and those of the 6th Dynasty (2345–2181 b.c.e) at Saqqara are elaborately inscribed with religious passages known as Pyramid Texts. After Egyptian rulers stopped building pyramids, nonroyal funerary chapels sometimes included small pyramid-shaped structures. Centuries later in what is now northern Sudan, the Nubian kings of Meroe and Napata built steep-sided pyramids on a smaller scale than those of their Egyptian predecessors. First depicted on postage stamps in 1867 and giving their name to al-Ahram (Egypt's leading newspaper), they have become national symbols of Egypt.

see also giza.

Bibliography

Edwards, I. E. S. Pyramids of Egypt. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1986.

Lehner, Mark. The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

donald malcolm reid