

The pyramids of ancient Egypt were funerary edifices. They were built over a period of 2,700 years, ranging from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period. But the time at which pyramid building reached its acme, the pyramid age par excellence, was that commencing with the 3rd dynasty and ending at roughly the 6th (c. 2686–2325 bce). During those years the pyramid was the usual type of royal tomb. It was not, as such, an isolated structure but was always part of an architectural complex. The essential components, at least during the Old Kingdom, were the pyramid itself, containing or surmounting the grave proper and standing within an enclosure on high desert ground; an adjacent mortuary temple; and a causeway leading down to a pavilion (usually called the valley temple), situated at the edge of the cultivation and probably connected with the Nile by a canal. Scores of royal pyramids have been found in Egypt, but many of them were reduced to mere mounds of debris and long ago plundered of their treasures.

The prototype of the pyramid was the mastaba, a form of tomb known in Egypt from the beginning of the dynastic era. It was characterized by a flat-topped rectangular superstructure of mud brick or stone with a shaft descending to the burial chamber far below it. Djoser, the second king of the 3rd dynasty, employing Imhotep as architect, undertook for the first time the construction of a mastaba entirely of stone; it was 8 metres (26 feet) high and had a square ground plan with sides of about 63 metres (207 feet) each. Once completed it was extended on the ground on all four sides, and its height was increased by building rectangular additions of diminishing size superimposed upon its top. Thus Djoser’s original mastaba became a terraced structure rising in six unequal stages to a height of 60 metres (197 feet), its base measuring 120 metres (394 feet) by 108 metres (354 feet). This monument, which lies at Ṣaqqārah, is known as the Step Pyramid; it is probably the earliest stone building of importance erected in Egypt. The substructure has an intricate system of underground corridors and rooms, its main feature being a central shaft 25 metres (82 feet) deep and 8 metres (26 feet) wide, at the bottom of which is the sepulchral chamber built of granite from Aswān. The Step Pyramid rises within a vast walled court 544 metres (1,785 feet) long and 277 metres (909 feet) wide, in which are the remnants of several other stone edifices built to supply the wants of the king in the hereafter.

A structure of peculiar shape called the Bent, Blunted, False, or Rhomboidal Pyramid, which stands at Dahshūr a short distance south of Ṣaqqārah, marks an advance in development toward the strictly pyramidal tomb. Built by Snefru, of the 4th dynasty, it is 188 square metres (2,024 square feet) at the base and approximately 98 metres (322 feet) high. Peculiar in that it has a double slope, it changes inclination about halfway up, the lower portion being steeper than the upper. It comes nearer than Djoser’s terraced tomb to being a true pyramid. A monumental structure at Maydūm, also ascribed to Snefru, was a true pyramid, though not originally planned as such. The initial structure was gradually enlarged until it became a gigantic eight-terraced mass of masonry; then the steps were filled in with a packing of stone to form a continuous slope. The entire structure was eventually covered with a smooth facing of limestone; a geometrically true pyramid was the final result. In its ruined condition, however, it has the appearance of a three-stepped pyramid rising to a height of about 70 metres (230 feet). The earliest tomb known to have been designed and executed throughout as a true pyramid is the Red Pyramid at Dahshūr, thought by some to have also been erected by Snefru. It is about 220 metres (722 feet) wide at the base and 104 metres (341 feet) high. The greatest of the Egyptian pyramids are those of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkure at Giza (see Pyramids of Giza).



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