egypt

Funerary monument, built usually of stone masonry and consisting of four triangular sides meeting in a point. It served as the focal point -or at least the most visible component- of Egyptian royal funerary complexes from the IIIrd Dynasty (2686-2613 BC) to the Second Intermediate Period (1650-1550 BC). Throughout the rest of the Pharaonic period private tombs occasionally incorporated small scale mud-brick or stone "Pyramidia". The modern term derives from the Greek word pyramis (wheat cake), presumably because cakes of this type were pyramidal in shape; the ancient Egyptian word, however, was mer.
In purely architectural terms, pyramids can be divided into two broad types: "Step pyramids" and "true pyramids". The first step pyramids appear to have developed initially out of the rectangular royal and private MASTABA tombs of the Early Dynastic period (3100-2686 BC), but by the early IVth Dynasty the first smooth-sided true pyramid had been constructed at DAHSHUR. Over the next thousand years the pyramid gradually acquired a wide range of symbolic meanings.
The full-scale "pyramid complex" consisted of a true pyramid with its mortuary and valley temples, a causeway between the two latter, and usually a number of smaller "subsidiary pyramids"; this had evolved by the beginning of the IVth Dynasty. However, the origins of the pyramid complex can be discerned in the royal tombs and "funerary enclosures" at Early Dynastic ABYDOS and the Old Kingdom Step Pyramid complex at SAQQARA.
Chronology and development: The first step pyramid was built by the architect IMHOTEP for the IIIrd Dynasty ruler Netjerikhet DJOSER [Zoser] (2667-2648 BC) at SAQQARA. From the reign of Zoser onwards the pyramid complex was established as the royal funerary monument and burial-place. Zoser's pyramid seems to have initially taken the form of a huge mastaba, built in stone rather than mud-brick, but it was gradually extended and elaborated until it became a pyramidal; superstructure consisting of six massive steps and reaching a height of 60m, making it clearly visible from the capital city of Memphis. A passage from the north side led to the subterranean royal burial chamber, and eleven subsidiary chambers for members of the family. A series of ancillary chambers and corridors were decorated with elaborate blue FAIENCE tiles and relief sculpture showing the king performing rites at his royal jubilee (SED FESTIVAL).
In Zoser's complex the recessed, "palace facade" style of the superstructures of Saqqara mastaba tombs of the Early Dynastic period was used to decorate the great enclosure wall surrounding the pyramid and its ancillary surrounding the pyramid and its ancillary buildings. It is thus thought likely that Djoser's monument was a combination of a royal tomb and a "funerary enclosure" (or Talbezirk), such as those of the Ist and IInd Dynasty rulers at Abydos (e.g. the shunet el-Zebib complex of KHASEKHEMWY).
To the east of Zoser's pyramid was an open area surrounded by rows of solid "dummy" buildings apparently intended to replicate various provincial shrines. This part of the complex was almost certainly connected with the celebration of the sed festival, although it is not clear whether the ritual itself would have been enacted there during the king's lifetime. A mortuary temple, now badly ruined, stood on the north side of the pyramid, and a large rectangular structure known as the "south mastaba" lay at the south end of the enclosure (perhaps serving as a cenotaph balancing the main pyramid and thus symbolizing the DUALITY of the Egyptian kingship). The complex as a whole seems to have been simultaneously a permanent monumental equivalent of the sed festival and the celebration of the royal funerary cult. As later pyramids became more concerned with the king's solar connections, the importance of the sed festival as an element of the funerary complex appears to have diminished correspondingly.

The remains of the unfinished step pyramid complex of SEKHEMKHET (2648-2640 BC) are situated a short distance to the southwest of Zoser's complex. A few other surviving traces of enclosure walls at the western side of the Saqqara necropolis, including the so-called Great Enclosure (currently being investigated by a team from the Royal Museum of Scotland), suggest that further IIIrd Dynasty rulers probably began to erect similar monuments. It is also worth pointing out that the use of steps in pyramid building never truly died out, in that many true pyramids continued to consist of a stepped structure, which was simply transformed by the application of a smooth outer casing. The late IIIrd Dynasty (or early IVth Dynasty) pyramid at MEIDUM, for example, was originally conceived as a step pyramid; in this instance, however, the smooth outer casing eventually collapsed, and the original stepped core of the superstructure was revealed.

The two pyramids of SNEFERU (2613-2589 BC) at DAHSHUR were probably the first royal funerary monuments to be conceived as true pyramids from the outset. The southern most of these is known as the "bent pyramid" (or "rhomboidal pyramid"), owing to the marked change of angle part-way up its profile, from 54°27¢ in the lower part to 43° 22¢ in the upper. However, the "northern pyramid" (or "red pyramid") was successfully completed with a constant angle of 43°22¢. From this time onwards the practice of giving names to pyramids is regularly attested; thus the north pyramid was known as "Sneferu appears in glory" and the bent pyramid as "Sneferu of the south appears in glory".

However, it was Sneferu's son KHUFU [Cheops] (2589-2566 BC) whose name came to be most intimately linked with pyramid construction, since his funerary monument is the Great Pyramid at GIZA, the largest surviving pyramid. It stands alongside two other smaller pyramid complexes belonging to two of his successors, KHAFRE [Chephren] (2558-2532 BC) and MENKAURE [Mycerinus] (2532-2503 BC) (although the unfinished pyramid complex of his immediate successor, Djedefra (2566-2558 BC), was located further to the north at ABU ROASH).

As far as the overall development of the pyramid complex was concerned, the basic components were already present in the Giza monuments, which were first scientifically studied by Flinders Petrie in 1880-2. Each pyramid was entered by a passage from the north, and on its east side was a mortuary temple, usually interpreted as the royal equivalent of the MASTABA funerary chapel. A walled (later roofed) causeway led down from the mortuary temple to the valley temple, which was associated with the royal funeral rites and statue cults. All of the Giza pyramids, as well as most other surviving pyramids, were accompanied by "subsidiary pyramids" of varying size and number, located within the main pyramid enclosure; some of these are described as "queen's pyramids", since they were probably built for the king's wives, while others may have served a similar purpose to the "south mastaba" in Zoser's complex.
The internal arrangements of the Great Pyramid were a typical in that there were three burial chambers- one subterranean and the other two built into the core of the superstructure- whereas most other pyramids had only one subterranean burial chamber known out of the bedrock below the superstructure. Small shafts, usually known as "air shafts", lead from the uppermost chamber of the Great Pyramid to the outside of the pyramid, while similar ones lead from the so-called "queen's chamber" several meters below. The investigation of one of these vents in 1993 revealed the presence of a blockage midway along the passage, which may be a door to a fourth chamber or perhaps simply closes off the shaft.
It has long been suggested that the "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid actually served some astronomical function, since they are evidently carefully aligned with various stars, including the constellation of Orion (The Egyptian god SAH), which might have been the intended destination of the king's BA, when he ascended to take his place among the circumpolar stars. A certain amount of astronomical observation was clearly used in the process of pyramid-building, particularly in terms of the precise alignment with the cardinal points, but there seems to be little foundation for the suggestion that the layout of the three pyramids at Giza was intended to symbolize the shape of the belt of Orion.

The last Vth Dynasty ruler, UNAS (2375-2345 BC), seems to have been the first to inscribe the PYRAMID TEXTS on the internal walls of his pyramid at Saqqara. This practice was then taken up by the rulers of the VIth Dynasty (2345-2181 BC) and their queens, providing Egyptologists with a set of almost eight hundred early religious "utterances" that have provided a useful body of evidence with regard to the symbolism and purpose of pyramid complexes.

The standard of workmanship of pyramids appears to have declined along with the political and economic structure of the old kingdom, and the pyramid complex all but disappeared in the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC). However, the form began to be used again in the Middle Kingdom, when the state had been reunified. The unusual funerary complex of the XIth Dynasty ruler MENTUHOTEP II (2055-2004 BC) at DEIR EL-BAHRI may have incorporated a pyramidal superstructure (although opinions differ on this point), but the full pyramid complex was reintroduced with the complexes of AMENEMHAT I and SENUSRET I at EL-LISHT. Later XIIth and XIIIth Dynasty pharaohs built pyramids at Dahshur, HAWARA, Saqqara, Mazghuna and EL-LAHUN. These pyramids made extensive use of mud-brick, using stone only for cross walls which were then infilled with rubble or mud-brick, although the whole edifice was given a casing of fine limestone so that externally it would have appeared as well built as those of the old kingdom. However, the subsequent removal of these outer casings has reduced them to a more severely weathered state than their stone-built predeccessors.
No pyramids have survived from the XIVth to XVIth Dynasties (1750-1650 BC), although there were a few small mud-brick XVIIth Dynasty pyramids at western Thebes, and the XVIIth Dynasty ruler AHMOSE I (1550-1525 BC) is known to have constructed a cenotaph at Abydos is the form of a mud-brick pyramid. Thereafter, the "pyramidion" became a comparatively minor element in the pyramid-shaped superstructures of private funerary chapels, as in the case of the cemetery of the New Kingdom workmen at DEIR EL-MEDINA. Many hundreds of years after the construction of the last Egyptian pyramid complex, the pyramid form was revived-albeit on a smaller scale and with much steeper sides-in the funerary monuments of the Napatan and Meroitic kings of Nubia.

Symbolism and Purpose:
There is general agreement that the fundamental purpose of the pyramid was to serve as a highly visible superstructure for royal burials (with the exception of seven late IIIrd Dynasty non-sepulchral step pyramids, perhaps erected as symbols of royal power at provincial capitals. There is, however, still a great deal of debate concerning the symbolism of its shape and design. It has been suggested than it represented the PRIMEVAL MOUND of creation, on which the sun-god was thought to have been born, and which was probably first symbolized by the Heliopolitan BENBEN stone.
Since the pyramidion at the top of each pyramid was often gilded and was closely connected with the sun, it has been proposed that the building was intended to symbolize the sloping rays of the sun. However, it has also been suggested that, particularly in the case of the step pyramids, there may have been an association with the idea of ascending to the heavens on a stairway, since it was believed, from at least the Old Kingdom onwards, that the deceased were able to rise up to the night sky, becoming transformed into "imperishable stars". There is also a great deal of symbolism in the various locations of such features of the pyramid complex as the entrance to the pyramid, the mortuary and valley temples, the subsidiary pyramids, as well as more detailed features, such as the position of the sarcophagus and the orientation of the internal corridor and chambers.
The Greek historian HERODOTUS (484-420 BC) gave an account of the pyramids, but Pliny (AD 23-79) seems to have been the first ancient writer to suggest that they might have contained treasure. After the Arab conquest (AD 641), such stories of buried riches led to numerous attempts to open the pyramids, although the contents of the burial chambers were always found to have been long since plundered. Various myths concerning the origins and significance of pyramids persisted among European travellers, including the ingenious theory that they had functioned as the granaries of the Biblical Joseph. In modern times, much stranger theories continue to the concocted concerning the nature of pyramids, and the pragmatic accounts of generations of archaeologists have done little to dispel the popular belief that they are embodiments of some lost mystic knowledge and/or the key to the understanding to the universe

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