4/19/13
Culture History
Artifact Analysis
Egyptian Pyramids

The ancient pyramids is a site that has inspired perplexed and fascinated people for centuries. From travelers and conquerors of ancient times, to Tourists and archeologists of modern times, the pyramids are a wonder and beacon of ancient man’s achievement. Tombs of early Egyptian kings were bench-shaped mounds called mastabas. Around 2780 B.C., King Djoser's architect, Imhotep, built the first pyramid by placing six mastabas, each smaller than the one beneath, in a stack to form a pyramid rising in steps. The steps symbolize the transcendent man and the journey from earth to the heavens. The pyramid itself represents the axis mundi or center of the world. It is the connection between the earth and the heavens. The step pyramid is believed to be one of the first pyramids and like later pyramids they contained rooms tunnels and tombs. After the step pyramids, they began to take a different shape. Pyramids became more smooth and triangular. A step pyramid was built and filled with limestone. The largest and most famous of all the pyramids was the Great Pyramid at Giza. The pyramid's base covered over 13 acres and its sides rose at an angle of 51 degrees 52 minutes and were over 755 feet long. It originally stood over 481 feet high; today it is 450 feet high. Also located at Giza is the famous Sphinx, a massive statue of a lion with a human head. Pyramids were not the only things present in the area, buildings such as temples, chapels, tombs, and huge walls populated the area. Among these were remnant of funerary boats and ancient texts. These texts are believed to be some of their religion, history, and records of the deceased. There are also not only remnants of technology they created but highly detailed schematics carved into walls. The Egyptians had a lantern, designed very similar to the Baghdad battery. Basically it was a copper vase plated with silver, excavated from Sumerian sites in southern Iraq, dating back to at least 2500 BCE. When the vases were lightly tapped, a blue patina or film separated from the surface, which is characteristic of silver electroplated onto copper base. This is believed to be inherited from Parthians who inherited it from the earliest known civilizations. There is also a lot of debate regarding exactly how the pyramids were even built in the first place. Egyptians had copper tools such as chisels, drills and saws that was used to cut soft stone. The hard granite would not have been so easily cut by such tools. Some say they do not believe they would have been able to do this work, seeing as in modern times we barely have the technology to pull off such elaborately detailed stone work. Some skeptics even go as far to say the ancient Egyptians had help from other worldly beings, who brought technology for them to use. These arguments are both interesting and inspiring, given that the pyramids all six of them are precisely aligned with a cluster of six stars in outer space on Orion’s