The Building of Egyptian Pyramids - Essay Example

There are very few wonders of the Ancient world that are left. Some were destroyed as the result of war and others were destroyed due to a natural phenomenon. The last megaliths of a once-great Egyptian society are the pyramids. These megaliths are scattered throughout Egypt. Since the decline of ancient Egyptian civilization, many researchers, conquerors, etc. have visited Egypt in the hopes of discovering the unknown secrets of the pyramids. However, despite the advances in science, there are many things that Egyptologists are unable to discover and understand in regard to the sophisticated structure and significance of the Pyramids, as well as the hypothesis of how these massive structures were built with prehistoric technology.

As a result, there are many different types of shops and buildings that have been uncovered showing how the Egyptians were able to support and supply such a massive workforce. The pyramids were not static structures but rather evolved over time as the Egyptians became more and more sophisticated in the field of mathematics, materials construction, and architecture. The first pyramids were less sophisticated and represented more rectangular flat structures called mastabas. This is why there is an observable trend in the change in the construction of the periods between the Old Kingdom and the New Kingdom as better methods of construction were discovered. Pharaoh Djoser constructed the first pyramid. His pyramid was made of mud brick and other materials that were soon replaced with stone architecture. In addition, his building plan left the burial chamber and passageways below the surface and they were eventually plundered. Subsequent burial chambers in the next pyramids were built deep within the heart of the pyramid with a subsequent mirage of multiple mazes.

            In order to protect the contents and body of the Pharaoh that was buried, Egyptian architecture started looking at improving security systems in order to protect them. The most common method was the creation of booby traps in order to keep grave robbers from reaching the burial chamber by either scaring them away or killing them. There were also decoy chambers designed in order to make robbers think they were in the real chamber. The use of multiple mazes also created additional protection by offering many different routes, some of which lead to dead ends designed to confuse those that entered the tomb without permission.

            The culture of the Egyptians was built around the concept of the afterlife. Despite the oxymoronic nature of this concept, the Egyptians spent a great deal of time concentrating on arrangements for when they died. One of the big concepts, which shaped the reason why the pyramids were constructed, was that the people who died and moved on to the afterlife would still have corporeal needs. As a result, the pyramids were built with storage rooms in order to accommodate everything that a person might need with them in the afterlife. This ranged from food to clothing to other items that might prove useful. There were also reports that other people, such as wives and pets, were also buried with the individual so that they could continue on in the afterlife with their social convoy.

            After the decline of the Egyptian Empire, western societies such as the French and British arrived and saw these massive megaliths. They were intrigued and began to study them. One of the conquerors who contributed a great deal to the study of Egyptology was Napoleon. He ordered complex and intricate data to be taken on the pyramids so that they could be studied. In addition, during Napoleon’s time in Egypt, he discovered one of the most important ancient artifacts in Egyptology, the Rosetta Stone. This singular slab is what allowed translators to find the meaning behind Egyptian hieroglyphics but also showed that the Egyptians had also been in contact with the Greeks. As a result, it was hypothesized that mathematical concepts, such as the Pythagorean Theorem, might have actually been developed through the work and understanding of the mathematics and architecture required to build the pyramids. As the pyramids were studied in greater detail, more and more developed an understanding of how they were able to construct such massive structures.

            The true purpose of the pyramids has long been disputed. The most obvious reason is the fact that they serve as burial chambers, however, religion, philosophy, and metaphysical theories have also been used to support their reasoning. Due to the Egyptian’s belief in magic and the supernatural, theorists believe that there is a greater purpose to the pyramids rather than just architecture.