To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death.
Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him. From the beginning of the Dynastic Era B. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around B. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines where Djoser could enjoy his afterlife.
After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed probably due to their relatively short reigns. No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid , is the only surviving structure out of the famed Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Though Khufu reigned for 23 years B. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring feet long and 66 feet high. In the 18th dynasty c. It is the shortest of the three pyramids feet and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties. Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby.
On the walls of Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids are inscriptions known as the Pyramid Texts, an important source of information about Egyptian religion. The scarcity of ancient records, however, makes it difficult to be sure of the uses of all the buildings in the pyramid complex or the exact burial procedures.
It is thought that the king's body was brought by boat up the Nile to the pyramid site and probably mummified in the Valley Temple before being placed in the pyramid for burial. There has been speculation about pyramid construction. Egyptians had copper tools such as chisels, drills, and saws that may have been used to cut the relatively soft stone. The hard granite, used for burial chamber walls and some of the exterior casing, would have posed a more difficult problem. Workmen may have used an abrasive powder, such as sand, with the drills and saws.
Knowledge of astronomy was necessary to orient the pyramids to the cardinal points, and water-filled trenches probably were used to level the perimeter. A tomb painting of a colossal statue being moved shows how huge stone blocks were moved on sledges over ground first made slippery by liquid. The blocks were then brought up ramps to their positions in the pyramid.
Finally, the outer layer of casing stones was finished from the top down and the ramps dismantled as the work was completed. These workers appear to have travelled over much of Egypt, possibly as far as the Sinai Desert, carrying out various construction projects and tasks that had been assigned to them. This raises the question of whether they were part of a more permanent professional force rather than a group of seasonal agricultural workers who would return to their fields.
According to the papyri, the workers were given a diet that included dates, vegetables, poultry and meat, said Pierre Tallet, an Egyptology professor at Paris-Sorbonne University who is deciphering the papyri and is co-leader of the team that found them. In addition to the healthy diet, the papyri describes members of the work team regularly getting textiles that were "probably considered as a kind of money at that time," Tallet told Live Science.
Additionally, officials in high-ranking positions who were involved in pyramid construction "might have received grants of land," said Mark Lehner, director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates AERA , a research institute based in Massachusetts.
Historical records show that at times in Egypt's history, land grants were given out to officials. However, it's unknown whether land grants were also given to officials involved with pyramid construction. Lehner's team has been excavating a town at Giza that was lived in and frequented by some of the workers who were constructing the pyramid of Menkaure. So far, the archaeologists have found evidence that this town's ancient inhabitants used to bake large amounts of bread, slaughter thousands of animals and brew copious amounts of beer.
Pyramids originated from simple rectangular "mastaba" tombs that were being constructed in Egypt over 5, years ago, according to finds made by archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie. A major advance occurred during the reign of the pharaoh Djoser reign started around B. His mastaba tomb at Saqqara started off as a simple rectangular tomb before being developed into a six-layered step pyramid with underground tunnels and chambers. Another leap in pyramid-building techniques came during the reign of the pharaoh Snefru reign started around B.
Rather than constructing step pyramids, Snefru's architects developed methods to design smooth-faced, true pyramids. It appears that Snefru's architects ran into trouble. One of the pyramids he constructed at the site of Dahshur is known today as the "bent pyramid" because the angle of the pyramid changes partway up, giving the structure a bent appearance. Scholars generally regard the bent angle as being the result of a design flaw.
Snefru's architects would correct the flaw; a second pyramid at Dahshur, known today as the "red pyramid" — so named after the color of its stones — has a constant angle, making it a true pyramid. Snefru's son, Khufu, would use the lessons from his father and earlier predecessors to construct the "Great Pyramid," the largest pyramid in the world.
The pharaohs appointed a high-ranking official to oversee pyramid construction. In , a team of archaeologists discovered papyri dating to the reign of Khufu at the site of Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea.
Text on the papyri stated that in the 27th year of Khufu's reign, the pharaoh's half-brother, Ankhaf, was the vizier highest official to serve the king in ancient Egypt and "chief for all the works of the king," archaeologists Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard wrote in the journal Near Eastern Archaeology.
While the papyri said that Ankhaf was in charge during the pharaoh's 27th year, many scholars believe it's possible that another person, possibly the vizier Hemiunu, was in charge of pyramid building during the earlier part of Khufu's reign.
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