subject: What Are The Egyptian Pyramids? [print this page] Well let's start off with the easy stuff first, they are quite simply, as named, a pyramid shape (a polyhedron with a polygonal base connected to an Apex at the top!). So that was the easiest part, quite simply the shape of these Egyptian Pyramids. Something else to note about the shape is that it has four sides not like a Tetrahedron which only has three.
Right well that was boring, what else is there, let's try something trickier and a little more interesting from now on. Did you know that there are actually around 138 pyramids in Egypt and that the most famous ones in Giza are 'not' the oldest? In fact the Pyramid of Djoser built in the third dynasty which started around 2700BC. Could you even name which of the most famous Pyramids in the world is the Largest? Well this beats in Giza is called the Pyramid of Khufu, and is the only one of these pyramids to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Quite simply and you probably do know this, the Pyramids were used as 'Tombs' to place dead kings (Gods known as Pharaohs). What you may not have known was this next upcoming piece of glistening information. The actual shape that the Pyramid represents for the Egyptians is something similar to what they describe as a 'Primordial Mound' from which the Earth was created; the sides of the Pyramid represent the suns rays.
So what about the size of these Monuments, how big was the largest of all these Pyramids (Khufu). The Great Pyramid of Giza as it is better known stands currently at 138 metres tall, to put it into perspective, that's about 18 times the height of a 2 story house, including the roof! The Great Pyramid also consists of around two million three hundred thousand limestone blocks, weighing from 25 to 80 tonnes!
Pyramids in Giza and in many other locations in Egypt, look as though they were built with steps in place. Now first of all they were, but most were not intended to look like this. After the Blocks had all been laid, they were then coated with plaster and finally a limestone smooth coating. Over the many years the limestone has eroded, and you are left with the heavy blocks that lay underneath it!
There were some however that were built have this stepped approach, as in a stairway, but many of them did have the smooth limestone surface. The clearest and most obvious of all of these was the Dahshur Pyramid outside of Giza. So maybe now you would like to check these Pyramids out for yourself?
