Egyptian pyramids
The Pyramid of Khufu is the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing, even though it is the oldest of them by about 2,000 years. It is one of at least 138 pyramids identified in Egypt. Most were raised as tombs for pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. Some still tower over the desert, while others have crumbled into little more than heaps of rubble. What did the shape mean to the people who built it? How did they move such enormous quantities of stone? And why did the great age of pyramid building fade, only to flare up again far to the south?
The Egyptian word for pyramid is mr, written with a single hieroglyph that Egyptologists label O24 in Gardiner's sign list. Its meaning is unclear, because the word seems to point only at the built object itself. Other architectural terms are easier to unpack. The word for temple, for example, joins the words for house and god.
The same O24 sign appears in benben, the name of the mound of existence that rose out of the abyss known as nun in the Egyptian creation myth. A further link comes from the capstone of pyramids and obelisks, which was called the benbenet, the feminine form of benben. The shape is therefore thought to echo that primordial mound.
Polished white limestone once faced most pyramids, so they gleamed from far away. The slope is also thought to suggest the rays of the sun descending to earth. Names followed the same idea. The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur was formally called The Southern Shining Pyramid, and the pyramid of Senusret II at El Lahun was called Senusret Shines.
Scholars agree that pyramids were burial monuments, but they still disagree about the beliefs that produced them. One suggestion calls them a kind of resurrection machine. The Egyptians saw the dark patch of night sky around which the stars appear to turn as the physical gateway to the heavens. A narrow shaft runs from the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid through its whole body, and it points at the center of that patch. The design may therefore have been meant to launch the soul of the dead pharaoh straight to the abode of the gods.
Every Egyptian pyramid except one small Third Dynasty structure at Zawyet el-Maiyitin stands on the west bank of the Nile. That is the side where the sun sets, which Egyptian mythology linked with the realm of the dead.
As early as 4700 BC, tumuli with megalithic monuments were being built in the Saharan region of Niger. Fekri Hassan suggested in 2002 that these monuments, and others in the Eastern Sahara, may have served as antecedents for Egyptian mastabas and pyramids. Tumuli also stood at Predynastic sites such as Naqada and Helwan.
During the Early Dynastic Period, roughly 3150-2686 BC, Egyptians with sufficient means were buried in bench-like mastabas. At Saqqara, Mastaba 3808 dates to the later part of the 1st Dynasty and is attributed to the pharaoh Anedjib. Inside its outer palace facade, excavators found a large step-pyramid-like structure built independently. Remains and inscriptions hint that other similar structures existed in this period.
The first historically documented pyramid belongs to the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser, built between about 2630 and 2610 BC. It and its surrounding complex are generally considered the world's oldest monumental structures of dressed masonry. Egyptologists often credit his vizier Imhotep as the architect. Yet the dynastic Egyptians never credited him with designing the pyramid or with inventing stone architecture. The monument began as a square mastaba-like structure and grew through several added layers into a stepped pyramid. Egyptologists believe the steps formed a gigantic stairway for the soul of the dead king to climb to the heavens.
The move from steps to true pyramids came in the 4th Dynasty, under Sneferu, who built three pyramids. At Meidum, a pyramid was begun as a step pyramid and later converted by filling in the steps and adding a smooth casing of dressed stone. Some think Sneferu's father and predecessor Huni started it, but no record of Huni's name has been found there. Collapses in ancient and medieval times followed. Medieval Arab writers described seven steps, while only the top three survive today. The hill beneath it is no natural feature but the mountain of debris shed when the lower courses and casing gave way.
Sneferu's Bent Pyramid at Dahshur is believed to be the first built as a smooth-sided pyramid from the outset. It was only a partial success, but it is the only major pyramid keeping a significant share of its original limestone casing. Several kilometres to the north stands the Red Pyramid, the first successfully completed smooth-sided pyramid in the world. It rises 104 meters, or 341 feet, and is the third largest in Egypt.
On the outskirts of Cairo, the Giza Plateau holds three great pyramids. They belong to Khufu, also called Cheops, to Khafre, also called Chephren, and to Menkaure, also called Mykerinus. Smaller satellite structures known as Queen's pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza share the site. Several of these pyramids rank among the largest structures ever built.
Khufu's Great Pyramid, built in the years c. 2589-2566 BC, stands 146.7 meters tall, or 280 Egyptian Royal cubits. Khafre's pyramid, from c. 2558-2532 BC, is 136.4 meters tall now and was originally 143.5. Yet Khafre's pyramid looks larger than its neighbor. It sits on higher ground and rises at a steeper angle, though it is smaller in both height and volume. Menkaure's pyramid, from c. 2532-2504 BC, is far more modest at 65 meters, or 125 Egyptian Royal cubits.
Only Khafre's pyramid keeps any of its original polished limestone casing, near the apex. The visible surfaces of the other two are bare stone.
The complex has drawn visitors since antiquity. In Hellenistic times, Antipater of Sidon listed the Great Pyramid among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which helped spread its fame.
In 2013, papyri known as the Diary of Merer turned up at an ancient harbor on the Red Sea coast. They are logbooks written more than 4,500 years ago by an official with the title of inspector. His entries record white limestone from the Tura quarries traveling along the Nile to Khufu's Great Pyramid.
Tura limestone was a special material. Most blocks came from quarries nearby, but prized stones crossed long distances on great barges. White limestone came from Tura and granite came from Aswan.
Recent research at Giza adds to that picture. Sediment cores show a harbor connected to the Nile along the Giza plateau during Khufu's reign. Researchers argue that this port system helped move limestone blocks and other materials on a large scale. They see it as proof of how much Old Kingdom building strategy relied on waterways.
Once stones reached the site, wooden sleds may have carried them. Wetting the sand in front of a sled would reduce friction, because droplets of water form bridges between the grains and make the sand stick together. Workers cut stone close to the construction site, which is shown by the many cutting tools found there.
Surveyors prepared the foundations first. They levelled them with a rough square level and water trenches, and the finished blocks were then set on top.
Shepseskaf, the last pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, built no pyramid. His tomb at south Saqqara is an unusually large mastaba with an offering temple complex, commonly called the Mastabat al-Fir'aun.
From the 5th Dynasty onward, the scale and precision of construction fell sharply. The later pyramids were smaller, less well built and often hastily raised. Abusir, the main royal necropolis of the 5th Dynasty, holds fourteen pyramids. They use low-quality local limestone, which may signal weaker royal power or a less vibrant economy. Most have a rubble core wrapped in steps of mudbrick and an outer limestone casing. The largest, belonging to Neferirkare Kakai, may have begun as a step pyramid about 70 meters high. Builders later turned it into a true pyramid by filling in its steps with loose masonry.
By the end of the 6th Dynasty, pyramid building had largely ended. Large pyramids did not return until the Middle Kingdom, and mudbrick replaced stone as the main material.
At Lisht, Amenemhat I and his son Senusret I each raised a major pyramid. Ten smaller subsidiary pyramids surround that of Senusret I, and one of them belongs to Amenemhat's cousin Khaba II. Senusret II saved labor at El Lahun by using a natural limestone hill 12 meters high as the foundation and core of his pyramid.
Amenemhat III, the last powerful ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty, built two pyramids. One is the Black Pyramid at Dahshur. The other is at Hawara near the Faiyum, and it is believed to be his final resting place.
Piye, the king of Kush who became the first ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, built a pyramid at El-Kurru around 721 BC. He was the first Egyptian pharaoh buried in a pyramid in centuries.
At Nuri, his successor Taharqa built the largest pyramid in northern Sudan, around 664 BC. Estimates put its height at 40 or 50 meters. Taharqa belonged to the Kushite rule based at Napata, which is known as the 25th Dynasty and lasted from 750 BC to 664 BC.
Long after Egypt's own pyramid era, the kingdom was centered on Meroe in a period running approximately from 300 BC to 300 CE. That Meroitic age saw a full pyramid-building revival, with about 180 Egyptian-inspired royal pyramid-tombs raised near the capital cities.
In 1842, Karl Richard Lepsius compiled the first modern list of pyramids, counting 67. One entry, Pyramid 29, was nicknamed the Headless Pyramid. Desert sands buried it again after his survey, and it was found a second time only in an archaeological dig in 2008.
Late in 2008, a previously unknown pyramid appeared in north Saqqara, believed to be the tomb of Teti's mother. It stands about 5 meters high today, though it was closer to 14 meters originally. Many pyramids survive only as rubble or lie under sand, so archaeologists keep identifying new ones.
At Abu Rawash, the Pyramid of Djedefre, son and successor of Khufu, was long thought to have been left unfinished. The current consensus is that it was completed and was about the size of Menkaure's pyramid. Its position beside a major crossroads made it an easy source of stone, and quarrying began in Roman times. Only about fifteen courses of stone remain on the natural hillock at its core.
Human hands have both harmed and tended these monuments. Khaemweset, a son of Ramesses II, carried out one of the earliest known restoration attempts on the pyramids of Userkaf and Unas. Centuries later, Al-Aziz Uthman, the second Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, who ruled from 1171 to 1198, tried to destroy the Giza pyramids. He gave up after damaging only the Pyramid of Menkaure, because the job was too large.
Dahshur, one of the most important pyramid fields outside Giza and Saqqara, was closed off inside a military base until 1996. The most recent pyramid discovered belonged to Neith, a wife of Teti.
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Common questions
What are the Egyptian pyramids?
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures in Egypt, built mostly as tombs for pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. At least 138 have been identified.
Why were the Egyptian pyramids built?
Most Egyptian pyramids were burial monuments for pharaohs and their consorts. Scholars still disagree on the beliefs behind them, though one suggestion is that they worked as a resurrection machine to launch the dead king's soul to the heavens.
What is the oldest of the Egyptian pyramids?
The Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, built between about 2630 and 2610 BC during the Third Dynasty, is the earliest documented Egyptian pyramid. It is generally considered the world's oldest monumental structure of dressed masonry.
How were the Egyptian pyramids built?
Builders took most blocks from nearby quarries and shipped special stones, such as Tura limestone and Aswan granite, on barges along the Nile. Sleds on wetted sand may have carried blocks across land, and surveyors levelled foundations with water trenches.
Why are the Egyptian pyramids on the west bank of the Nile?
The west bank is where the sun sets, and Egyptian mythology linked it with the realm of the dead. All Egyptian pyramids stand there except the small Third Dynasty pyramid at Zawyet el-Maiyitin.
Which Egyptian pyramid is the largest?
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, also called the Great Pyramid, is the largest Egyptian pyramid at 146.7 meters tall. It is the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence.
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