Pyramids

Imagine living in Ancient Egypt about 3,000 B.C. Imagine a society teeming with life and happiness. Imagine looking around and seeing beautiful buildings, fields of crops, and the great pyramids with their white limestone façade blazing in the sun of the midday. It would be quite the experience to have lived back then.

The history of Egypt begins with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into one united kingdom. The first ruler under this new system was Menes. Thirty other dynasty's would follow. To further unify Upper and Lower Egypt Menes founded a capital city where the two met: at the apex of the Nile, where it fans out into the silt plain. This city was named "White walls" by the Egyptians but later called Memphis by the Greeks. It is here at Memphis that the great pyramids where built.

The pyramids were built to house the dead pharaoh of that time. Death was seen by the Egyptians as just the beginning of a journey to the other world. In Egyptian society each individual believed that his eternal life was dependant on the continued existence of their king, a belief that made the building of the pyramid a concern of the entire kingdom. Many people would be called to duty to work on the pyramids and man

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The ramp provided a way to get the king up into the pyramid after being embalmed and floated to the site. The structure of the pyramid was that of six steps all of larger size if you were to decending from the top of the pyramid. After the main Granite part of the pyramid was finished the Limestone capping would be placed on the pyramid from the top down. The funeral procession would proceed up the ramp into the ceremonial chamber where the priest would bless the king. As the pyramid grew, the ramps grew along with it curling up and around the pyramid on all four sides. It stands 448 feet high and still has some of the original limestone at the top.

The first pyramid was the step pyramid of King Zozer built at Saquarra in 2750 B. The tomb, like those that followed, was meant to be a replica of the royal palace. All the blocks were checked for dimensions with special rods made specifically for that purpose. There were no real doors because it was believed that the king, in the afterlife, would be able to move about without the help of structural passageways. In all, around 2,300,000 blocks of stone are used to build a pyramid, with a workforce of around 30,000 people. The burial chamber was built first and contained the largest and heaviest blocks, some weighing around 40-60 tons a piece. Most of the blocks used for the main structure weighed about two and a half tons.

Furniture and riches not to mention body parts of the dead king were buried with him in the pyramid, so that in the afterlife the king would be able to have all the comforts that he had in his life.

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