Home    Mastabas are structures that have many rooms. They were built because the Pharaoh’s tombs were robbed. Earlier, the    Pharaoh  only had a flimsy, little structure surrounding him. Even though Pharaohs had mastabas built so that they had many rooms protecting them, the tombs were still robbed. As a matter of fact, pyramids were built because the Pharaohs were afraid that the robbers would ruin their tombs. However, even though the entrances were closed, the pyramids were still robbed! So the Pharaohs wanted their bodies put in a secret room with thief traps.

Pyramids were built because the Egyptians had decided that a Pharaoh’s Everlasting Spirit should be in an everlasting structure. Pyramids have steps because the Egyptians believed that the spirit of the Pharaoh should be able to climb up to meet the Sun. They were also built to protect the tombs of the pharaohs and other important people, as well as to be platforms for the temples. When the Pharaoh was choosing the site of the pyramid, he had to keep in mind that it had to be above the flood level of the Nile. The sides of a pyramid always have to face exactly North and South. Nobody exactly knows why this is, but we do know that each side of a pyramid was carefully oriented to the cardinal points of the compass, which are North, East, South, and West. Most pyramids are near the place where Egypt’s oldest capital, Memphis, stood, which is south and west from their capital now, which is Cairo.