The Pyramids
The Pyramids
Overview
The ancient Egyptian people decided to construct huge tombs in order to shelter and safeguard the part of Pharaoh’s soul that was present with the corpse. These huge tombs were beautifully carved into solid rock and topped by a flat roof structure known as mastabas. Most of the times, heaps of dirt topped the entire structures giving a completely different shape to these tombs. More likely, these tombs were later named pyramids and were re-modeled on a pointed stone known as benben. These benben’s symbolized the sun rays: the ancient text claims that pharaohs reached the heaven through the sun beams.
Why Were Pyramids built?
It is believed that most of the ancient Egyptians were tradition passionate with dying and death due to the great pyramids and tombs which were being found all through the country. Actually, these high-status monuments were being built in order to draw out their lives in the course of death. In order to completely realize why these high-status monuments were constructed it is important to understand the values of the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians actually believed that the dead people would go on to the other world which was filled with cheerfulness and a better life.
Due to this reason, the ancient Egyptians used to keep the dead bodies preserved for the other world. This later led to the procedure of mummification. Every dead body was mummified and wrapped in soft fine linen. This procedure of mummification was performed over the dead body for burial for its utmost valued possession. Some of these valued possessions included jewelry or any other valuable items. The burial rituals is said to be of great significance to all the Egyptian citizens. There were three important ceremonies of mummification practice which include the ritual purity, preparing the dead body for its infinity of rest and the opening of the mouth ceremony. .
The first important ceremony the ritual purity was to ensure that the dead body was entirely cleansed. The second ceremony was to prepare the dead body for its infinity of rest, was performed for the mummification procedure. The third ceremony which is the opening of the mouth ceremony was perhaps the most important because the dead body was the subject to be laid in the front of the statutes which resembled him or her. By utilizing the ritual tradition and magic, the mouths of those statutes were touched with chisel, adze and also rubbed with milk.
Construction of the Pyramid
It was estimated that over 30,000 workers built the Pyramids at Giza, which took almost 80 years. Most of the construction work took place when the Nile River was flooded. Gigantic limestone blocks were made to float from the quarries exactly at the base of the Pyramids. These limestones were then polished by hand and carved accurately given them exact shape. It almost took more manual labor to construct this immense pyramid. The Architects accomplished a perfect shape of the pyramid by running down the ropes from the outer corner of the pyramid up to the summit. This was done to ensure that every stone was correctly positioned.