Pyramid Era Research Paper

Beginning of Pyramid era: From the beginning of the Dynastic Era (2950 B.C.), royal coffins were carved into rock and covered with mastabas which were precursors to the pyramids. Mastabas is a flat-roofed rectangular structures called. The earliest pyramid constructed as a smooth-sided pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur. It had red limestone of its stonework. The pyramids were originally covered with highly polished white limestone. These stones reflected the sun’s light which made the pyramids shine. With the casing stones covering the entire pyramid, it could have been seen from the mountains in Israel and maybe even from the moon. On average, each pyramid would have taken 200 years to build, which means there were often not just one

It held the record for an incredible and unparalleled 3871 years! The Giza pyramids are guarded by the Great Sphinx, which is the largest monolith statue in the world. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the face of the Pharaoh Khafra. There was an attempt to destroy the Giza pyramids in the 12th century. Al-Aziz, a Kurdish ruler and the second Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, tried to destroy them but had to give up because it was too big of a task. However, he did succeed in damaging Menkaure's Pyramid where he left a large cut in its north face.

The three Giza pyramids are exactly aligned with the Constellation of Orion. It could have been intentional because Orion is associated with Osiris, the god of rebirth and afterlife. The Great Pyramid of Giza is uses about 2,300,000 stone blocks and weigh anywhere between 2 to 30 tons with some blocks weighing over 50 tons. There are no hieroglyphics found in the pyramids even though many people associate pyramids and hieroglyphics together. No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza. They are located on a plateau of the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day

The quality and size of the pyramids declined over the fifth and sixth dynasties along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, pyramid builders started to inscribe accounts of events in the king’s reign on the walls of the tomb. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt. The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II (2278-2184 B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years. When he began to rule, non-royal administrative officials grew and the Old Kingdom prosperity was decreasing. Pepy II’s pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter (172 feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy’s death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great