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Pyramids

The pyramids were built thousands of years ago. They were built to honor their Pharaohs, Gods and Goddesses. These days, they are one of the greatest tourist attractions.

2,201 Questions

Why were pyramids so important to ancient Egyptians?

The Pharaoh used this as a form of relief work - they hired the farmers to build the pyramids during the flood season when they had no work on their farms and would otherwise be bereft of subsistence - a win-win arrangement: the Pharaoh got his tomb built and paid for it out of the state granaries, and the farmers got food during the off season.

How big were the blocks of stone the Pyramids were made from?

The Great Pyramids of Giza were constructed out of giant stone blocks weighing an average of about 1.5 tons (1360 kg). The largest stones weigh nearly 90 tons (81600 kg). The 144,000 white limestone exterior stones (casing stones) also varied in size and thickness.

How did the ancient Egyptians make mud bricks?

Answer 1

["They used a ramp and put the brick on a piece of wood attached too rope and pulled it up the ramp to the pyramid."]

Answer 2

Correction: if one were to interpret the question with a greater grammatical attention, "how did the Egyptians acquire the bricks" would be the topic of discussion rather than the construction method- a subject of much debate even today.

The Egyptians acquired their bricks from carving monolithic blocks from the limestone earth that existed beneath a superficial layer of sand. A relatively low-grade limestone was used for the core structure of the pyramid followed by a higher-grade, white, polished casing of "white stone".

During the Cretaceous period, Egypt was covered with seawater. Eventually rich minerals hardened, that were once the sea floor, in absence of this water.

What class of Egyptians built the pyramids?

Thy used nails, chisels, mallet, archedian screw, crane, bricks, cement, measurement, plumb line, lever, ramps, saw and that is about it.

Who constructed the pyramids of ancient Egypt?

The construction of a pyramid is always attributed to a particular pharaoh not that he did any of the work himself. He would command his chief overseer of public works to bring together all the materials and manpower required for the task. A workforce of thousands would be required ranging from architects, priests, scribes (who supervised the actual work); craftspeople including masons (the most important), carpenters, ropemakers and smiths; thousands of slaves to do heavy unskilled work of quarrying, moving the stones and putting them in place. Most, if not all of these slaves were naked.

When was Cleopatra tomb built?

She was born in 69 BC, but no one knows the EXACT date. The most accurate guess would be in early October. She lived from 69 BC to 30 BC, including during the reign of Julius Caesar as ruler of Rome (49-44 BC). Cleopatra was born in January of 69 BC.

Are Egyptian tombs the same as pyramids?

A pyramid is a tomb, a temple is a temple.

The pyramid contains the treasures and body of the pharaoh. No one else is allowed in.

The temple is filled with priests and priestesses.

A pyramid is pyramid shaped, a tomb is not.

Why do Egyptians mummify their dead?

The Egyptians mummified the dead because they believed the persons soul would leave the body at death and return. The soul needed to be able to recognize the body to live forever and therefore they used the mummification process.

What is king menes known for?

Some historians consider Menes do have been the first king after Egypt's unification. He is claimed to have joined upper and lower Egypt into a single state around 2925 BCE. He is also credited with the finding of the capitol of Memphis, near Cairo.

What covered the outside of a pyramid?

sand of course man you're DUMB & it was also clay and brick

How did the ancient egyptians try to stop the thieves finding the tombs?

a lot of stuff like trap doors and booby traps so that robbers couldn't rob all of the kings stuff

the egyptians put jewels, servants, dishes, pets. they put everything in the tomb they thought the Pharaoh would need in the afterlife.

Why are Mayan pyramids so mysterious?

One reason is that due to the fact that they were so intelligent they made their temples and pyramids so astronomically great. If you look at one of their temples it has for sides, and on each side their is 91 steps.

91 times 4 (sides) = 364

and when you add in the top step

364+1= 365

it equals the solar calenders days, as there is 365 days in most years.

Why were the pyramids of Giza made?

Pyramids were built in Ancient Egypt as tombs, or burial places, for Egyptian pharaohs, or kings. They believed that the pyramids made you immortal. The Ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife, so it was very important to them to protect the bodies of their pharaohs.

In order to keep the body of the pharaoh safe, the insides of the pyramids were like mazes with secret doors and dead-end passages. The pharaoh would be near the bottom or even underground. Other rooms contained things like jewelry and furniture that the Pharaoh might want in his next life (or afterlife).
They built pyramids so that when they put the Mummies inside, they don't rot or get eaten by animals. They were also built so they could keep a lot more of the Mummie's treasure inside.
the ancient egyptians are believed to be religious and honored their dead. The pharohs were honored by a wonder today called pyramids. After a pharaohs death they were buried in the pyramids.
They were built to house their dead king's body with all his possessions including: his coffin, mummified pets, gold, jewelry, and any other items. Pyramids had many rooms, dead ends, and endless hallways built to confuse any grave robbers hoping to find the tomb of the deceased king and steal his riches.

The were built because in the afterlife, it made the deceased buried with it immortal.
tombs for royal pharaohs.
To symbolize Ra the sun god was born or created.

It depends on who built them. Some were built as burial chambers, some as temples and some just for decoration.

Pyramids were mostly built as tombs for the Egyptian Pharaohs because the Egyptians believed that there was an after life. In the pyramid's there were the belongings to the pharaoh.
It depends which civilisation you're referring to.

The Egyptians built pyramids mostly as tombs for the Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom eras. The oldest Egyptian pyramid is the Pyramid of Djoser, constructed in 2630BC.

Pharaoh tombs were previously being raided by thieves, so Imhotep came up with the solution to build pyramids with confusing mazes, dead-ends, secret rooms and booby traps.

The Mayans are another great example of pyramid builders. Building a pyramid in the Mayan Empire was so much more difficult than building pyramids in Egypt, because the Mayans had to somehow travel with huge stones through deadly rainforests teeming with obstacles and predators. How they managed to do that is still a mystery to us.

The Mayan temples began to appear at the height of the Mayan Empire. The oldest Mayan pyramid according to archaeological carbon dating, dates back to around 3,000BC. Which is older than the Egyptian pyramids.

Aztec pyramids, also known as Mesoamerican pyramids, were built around 1100AD. Aztec pyramids were not only built for religious reasons, but they were also built to be the centre of their cities, symbolising the "mountain of the city" which, in Aztec belief, brings wealth and fertility to the citizens.

The Ancient Mesopotamians, Ancient Assyrians and Ancient Sumerians also built pyramid-like structures called Ziggurats.

Ziggurats were generally religious temples influenced by astronomy.

Ziggurats began to appear around 2,200BC.

Ancient Babylonians are also known to have built an incredible pyramid called Etemenankia. However this structure has become a victim of time and conflict, being reduced now to just a few columns and the multi-coloured base that the pyramid once stood on. Therefore we do not know much about the Babylonian pyramid or how old it is.

The Ancient Chinese also built pyramid mounds above burial chambers of their emperors, full of terracotta armies and treasures. The Ancient Chinese pyramids were mostly made from dirt, therefore carbon dating on the older Chinese pyramids is pretty much useless, since the dirt obviously existed before the pyramids did. Many of the Chinese pyramids were purposefully surrounded by trees and vegetation to camouflage them into their surroundings. Because of this, many hundreds of Chinese pyramids remain hidden today or even completely destroyed by nature itself. The oldest Chinese pyramid was built in around 1,050BC. However, as stated above, carbon dating on these pyramids are very difficult.
they built them to represent the tombs ,that is the pyramids.

Pharoahs and others believed that they could take their bodies and worldly possessions to the next world. Usually, they started construction on their pyramid many years before their death. The internal rooms and routes were closely held secrets. Quite possibly, there was a desire to leave evidence of the strength of their power for posterity.
it was for keemstar
for when the most powerful people died
So the dead pharoah had somewhere to "rest" and to contain all his treasures. Also pharoahs may have had them built as a sign of greatness.
Many Egyptologists have somewhat different views on exactly why the ancient Egyptian kings built Pyramids as their tombs, but all of them seem to agree that it had to do with their worship of the sun god, Re (Ra). Most believe that the Pyramid was symbolic of the Benben, a mound that rose from the waters during the creation of the earth, in ancient Egyptian mythology, which was closely associated with Re as the creator god.
it is because they needed a place to bury the dead pharaohs.
The Pahroah's were buried
The pyramids were essentially used for burying chambers.
The reason that Egyptians started building pyramids is that they wanted to keep away the robbers and thieves from the the kings body,his jewels,and his internal organs.

A pyramid also marked where the person was buried (otherwise, it would be hard to spot their grave in the desert of Egypt).

Shortly after coming to the throne Pharaoh would command his overseer of public works and architects to prepare a burial place in keeping with his status as a god-king. The chosen site was usually one on the edge of the cultivated land in an already established pyramid field. The royal survey team set to work marking out the site. Great care was taken in orientating the site to the four points of the compass and in levelling the site to provide a foundation for the pyramid. When the slaves had cleared away the sand and rubble highly skilled masons were called in to level the foundations. This was done by cutting a grid of channels and filling them with water. The rock was then cut back to the water level to make it perfectly flat. Finally the water was drained away and the channels filled with rubble.

Some of them were free men doing particular tasks such as masons, tool makers, carpenters, scribes and supervisors. Many of course were unskilled slave labourers. The slaves could expect to be fed and watered but little else. They are naked, too low in status to wear clothes.

Through the Pharaoh's reign, the construction site teemed with workers of all kinds toiling in the hot sun to complete the monument before the king's death. Day after day, year after year, the quarries rang with the sound of hammer and chisel on stone. The sun baked bodies of the slaves stand out dark against the honey coloured stone. After they had cut deep enough to define a block, they packed the riven rock with pieces of porous wood. A slave boy pours water on the wood in the hole. The wood expands so fast that the block splits out with a crack. After the stone blocks are extracted from the quarry face they are lowered onto sledges. A mark is made on the stone by a scribe. This aided them to place the blocks in the pyramid just as they came out of the quarry ensuring a better fit than random blocks without further finishing.

From dawn to dusk, gangs of slaves drag the sledges loaded with stones each weighing about 2,500kg to staging areas at the base of the pyramid. Most of the stone blocks proceed up the ramp without future handling. Only a fraction of the stone blocks needed to be cut to precise dimensions by the masons. The slaves begin hauling the loaded sledges slowly up the clay and rubble ramp. Whether it was a single long or spiralling ramp depends on the size of pyramid. The noise on the ramp was one of chanting slaves and the rumble of heavy sledges. Water or oil is poured under the runners of the sledges to reduce friction to ease their passage up the ramp.

When the sledges reached the working level teams of slaves called setters shifted the blocks from the sledges into their designated positions using simple levers, brute force and experience gained from years of hard labour. Once the stones had been delivered the hauling gang would make their weary way down the ramp carrying their sledge, in order to make the same back breaking journey up as they would several times a day.

Other slaves are employed in maintaining and extending the ramps as the pyramid grew. These ramps are made of rubble, bound together with marl (a type of clay) and laid with planks to ease the passage of the sledges. Rows of slaves are seen breaking up waste material from the quarries, mixing them with the clay and loading the finished mixture into baskets. Individual baskets are loaded onto the shoulders of slaves for delivery to the ramp builders on the pyramid.

Granite came from Aswan located 640km to the south. Granite was used for the lining of the burial chamber and the internal passage leading to it or in some instances the lower courses of the pyramid. These blocks were the largest in size used on the structure, for example, some of the granite stones used on the Great Pyramid at Giza weighs in at 70 tonnes. Copper chisels used for quarrying limestone could not be used, a harder material was required. Balls of dolerite, a hard, black igneous rock, were used in the quarries of Aswan to extract the hard granite. This is a place of great heat, dust and noise a hellish place to be sent to work. These dolerite "pounders" were used to pulverize the stone around the edge of the granite block that needed to be extracted. Teams of naked slaves pound away in the blazing sun for weeks in order to expose enough stone for the block to be extracted from the quarry. At the bottom, they ram wooden pegs into slots they have cut, and fill the slots with water. The pegs will expand and split the rock with a resounding crack much more impressive than anything heard with the softer limestone. Long lines of slaves, their bare bodies covered in the dust of the quarry and gleaming with sweat, drag the loaded sledges along a causeway to the river. Here the great stones hewn with so much effort and suffering will be loaded onto barges and floated down the river.

At any one time as many as 30,000 workers may have been involved on this massive project. Some of them were professional craftsmen most however were slaves.

How many pyramids did the Eygptians build?

All of Egypt's pyramids are sited on the west bank of the Nile and most are grouped together in a number of pyramid fields.The German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-84) produced the first modern list of pyramids in 1842. He identified 67. A great many more have since been discovered, in November 2008 118 pyramids had been identified. The location of Pyramid 29 for example, the so-called "Headless Pyramid", was lost for a second time when the structure was buried by desert sands subsequent to Lepsius' survey. It was only rediscovered again during an archaeological dig conducted in 2008.

Many pyramids are in a poor state of preservation or buried by desert sands. If visible at all they may appear as little more than mounds of rubble. As archaeological techniques improve Egyptologists are continuing to identify and study previously unknown pyramid structures.

The most recent pyramid to be discovered is that of Queen Sesheshet, mother of 6th Dynasty Pharaoh Teti, located at Saqqara. The discovery was announced by the Egyptian Council of Antiquities, on 11 November 2008.

This data may now be out of date.

Why did robbers break into ancient Egyptian pyramids?

You may have heard the expression "You can't take it with you"? The ancient Egyptians believed otherwise. Their kings and nobles were buried with valuable goods, including gold and gems, so that they would have these things in the afterlife. If you're a robber, that's a pretty attractive target.

Why did the Egyptians use sandstone to build pyramids?

1. It was available close to the pyramid site 2. Limestone is quite a soft stone so easy to work with copper tools

What floated the pharaohs to heaven?

The Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt used big floating boats that looked like covered gondolas to "float" to the afterlife. They did not actually sail down the river to get to the afterlife though, they used the boat as a ritual purpose. After the boat sailed down the river then they would get to the pyramid where they would embalm him. Then finally they would bury him in a coffin that had all the things they would need in their afterlife.

Why were the pyramids of the Aztec and Maya built?

the ancient mayans did not build the pyramids ancient egypt did

How did Egyptians move heavy blocks?

It is believed Egyptians used many tools and devices that are still in use today.

Ferries

Ramps

Pulleys

Cranes

Ropes

and a lot of man power.

Some believe that the Egyptians even placed their blocks inside giant wooden wheels and rolled them up the ramps. ^_^

What was inside an ancient Aztec temple?

There will be nothing Inside an Aztec temple. It will be a vaulted empty chamber made with stone blocks.

Before the spanish came there used to be one or more statues of Gods, HuitziLopochtli (God of War) or Tlaloc(God of Rain),etc.

There might be some blood stain on the wall and floor which you can detect with a camcorder.

Some chamber like the one in Chichen Itza even has a big snake and some human skeletons plus some treasure in it.

What is a sarcophagus?

A sarcophagus is a stone container for a coffin or body. The word comes from Greek "sarx" meaning "flesh", and "phagein" meaning "to eat", so sarcophagus means "eater of flesh"....

Sarcophagi were usually made by being carved, decorated or built ornately. Some were built to be freestanding above ground, as a part of an elaborate tomb or tombs. Others were made for burial, or were placed in crypts. In Ancient Egypt, a sarcophagus was usually the external layer of protection for a royal mummy, with several layers of coffins nested within.
Sarcophagus: a coffin-like structure, hollow, used as a way to respect the dead by egyptians

What is the pharaoh do?

Answer
A Pharaoh's job is to rule the Kingdom of Egypt and be the leading figure of their religion since he was considered son or daughter of a god or goddess.