The Pyramids (Blogpost #4)

When our loved ones die we should bury or give them a funeral to show respect. A reason for this is that the dead person needs to preserve his body for the afterlife. Another is that some religions believe that man came from soil and soil he shall return. We bury our dead because we want to protect the body and if we will not bury the dead their is a possibility that scavengers would eat them. Lastly, we should bury the dead because it can cause a lot of disease if it will be exposed that will cause more dead bodies.

Not all buries their dead because some cultures would dissolve or burn the bodies and scatter them to the winds or into the water but some keeps the ashes on a small jar. The tradition of burying the dead on boxes or coffins started from the Egyptians. The purpose of this is to protect the body and help it for the afterlife. The pyramids were built as a symbol of the Egyptian society but it serves as a burial chamber for the pharaohs. The pyramids are filled with religious symbols and hieroglyphs the tells the story of the dead body inside.

In the article The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt by David Down from answersingenesis.org states that there are about 100 pyramids and 17 of them are great pyramids.

The Pyramids were used to prove that the bible is not right because the pyramids were built before Noah's flood and it should be buried under lots of sediments. The first two dynasties of Egypt did not built pyramids for their pharaohs instead they buried them in chambers underneath mud-brick edifices called Mastabas. On the third dynasty, King Zoser had his mastaba made with rough blocks of stone then it was added six stages to make it the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. It is believed as to be the first pyramid made in Egypt.


Seneferu, the king of the fourth dynasty, is known as the greatest builder of pyramids. He built the first pyramid with the true pyramid shape at south of Saqqara but the outer stones collapsed leaving it only with a step-pyramid core. Seneferu built another pyramid called the Bent Pyramid near to Saqqara at Dashur. It is called the Bent Pyramid because the lower half of it has an angle of 54 degrees and its upper half is only 43 degrees.




Seneferu was not satisfied so he then built another one which is the Red Pyramid at Dashur.

Seneferu's son Khufu built the largest pyramid of all on the Giza Plateau. It is known as the Great Pyramid and it needed a lot of workforce to finish. The pyramid is made out of an estimated number of three million blocks and each of these blocks was said to be perfectly squared.

King Khafre and King Menkaure built their pyramids on the Giza Plateau. Khafre's pyramid is almost as high as Khufu's but has a steeper angle.

Menkaure's was only a quarter of the others and was said that it was not finished.

Amenemhet III built the last great pyramid of Egypt and the pharaoh is believed to be the foster father of Moses. The daughter of this pharaoh, Sobekneferu, was the last ruler of the dynasty. It was believed that she would always go to the river but not to take a bath but to pray to Nile fertility god, Hapi, for a baby. When she found the basket that contains Moses she thought it was an answer to her prayer. When Moses was 40 years old, he showed sympathy to the Israelite slaves by killing one of their oppressors.  Moses was sent to the distant land of Midian by the pharaoh and when Sobekneferu died the dynasty ended.

The pharaohs had a beautiful life and even their dead body receives honor and is being surrounded with a lot of expensive grave goods. Their bodies are kept on a good structured building that until now stands very strong. The main purpose of a cemetery is to bury the body and to protect it. Another is so it can be visited and to record the past just like the grave markers where the facts about the dead is stated.

Hapi (Nile God)

Pyramids is a tribute to the egyptians civilization by the Nile base on the article What were the Purposes of the Pyramids in Egypt? by Cody Hodge from humanities360.com

Pyramids were built as a symbol of Egyptian society and for the burial chambers of the pharaohs. The symbols painted on the walls inside the pyramid serves as a guide for the pharaoh on the afterlife and along his journey he would be questioned and this symbols would help him to answer. The shape and location of the pyramids are based on their religion. They believed that the Earth was created from a primordial mount so they used the pyramids to represent it. Another reason is to represent the descending rays of sunshine. The location of the pyramids is on west bank of the Nile river because this is where the sun sets and they believed that this is where the kingdom of the dead is located.