Houses of Prayer: The Pyramids
unit by Dr. Deborah Vess
We have a great many artifacts from ancient Egypt, largely because the Egyptians built with stone, and the climate is bery hot and dry in Egypt, which helps to preserve the Papyrus on which they wrote and also -- mummies!
The mania for ancient Egypt started in earnest when Napoleon made an expedition to Egypt during the French revolutionary period, in the late 18th century. While in Egypt, Napoleon's men encountered the magnificent ruins of ancient Egypt, including the Great Sphinx, which was buried up to its chin in sand. According to legend, Napoleon's men knocked the nose off the Sphinx while scrambling to get its measurements. You can see an artist's reconstruction of that event by clicking here.
During this expedition, the French also discovered the Rosetta Stone, which contained a description of an Egyptian pharoah in three langauges: one ancient Greek, another in Egyptian Coptic, and another in Hieratic, a form of Hieroglyphs. Because we knew how to read Greek in the 18th century, we could compare the other two texts in Egyptian and eventually translate them.
The ancient Egyptian culture was a very optimistic culture. The Nile River flooded regularly and predictably, and its silt deposits created fertile land. During the Old Kingdom, there were no outside invasions, partly because the Nile has a series of cataracts which make navigation difficult, and it is surrounded by the Sahara, the world's largest desert, on the west and cliffs on the east. Ancient egyptian culture developed in isolation from other cultures, and produced a stable yet stagnant civilization.
In this enviroment, Egyptians saw life as a positive thing, and viewed the afterlife as a positive extension of life itself. They believed that their deeds were directly related to the quality of their afterlife, as seen in the Book of the Dead. Egyptians memorized such poems as the "Negative Confession," designed to prove to Osiris that they were pure and deserved a pleasant afterlife. Osiris then weighed their deeds on the balance scale of life.
The pharoah was considered to be the living Horus and the Osiris of the underworld, and to have power over life and death. He was fully divine, and his ka, or soul, had to be preserved so that he could live on as Osiris in the afterlife. Egyptians believed that the ka had t o have a ba, or body, to exist, and Egyptians learned to mummify bodies. Our best description of this process comes from Herodotus, a Greek historian of the 5th century b.c.e.
The pyramids were built to house and protect the pharoah's mummy, and are a good example of our course theme: form follows function. The pyramids are also called "stairways to heaven," as they appear to reach forth to heaven. Once a year, Egyptians would have the "opening of the mouth" of the pharoah ceremony, in which the pharoah's mouth would be pried open and he would refertilize the constellation of Isis to ensure a bountiful harvest. The pharoah literally ascended into the heavens to mate with Isis, the goddess of fertility; hence, the pyramids reached into the heavens physically to help his spiritual journey.
There are some 80 remaining pyramids in egypt today. The earliest pyramd was built during the third dynasty for the pharoah Zoser, and is the step pyamid at Saqqarah. The architect was Imhotep, the first recorded architect in history.
The pyramids at Giza are the most well-known and largest of the remaining pyramids. They were built for Khufu (Cheops),. Chefren, and Mycerinus. The pyramid of Cheops is the largest, the pyramid of Chefren is connected to the Sphinx, and the pyramid of Mycerinus is the smallest.
Still has its limestone casing, which was once painted and glistened in the sun. The Muslims plundered it to build mosques in the Middle Ages.
Geologists have noticed water erosion patterns on the sphinx, suggesting it is at least 5,000 years old, as this was the last time there was water in the Sahara region. The Sahara was not always a desert! Also, the sphinx does not perfectly resemble Chefren, but was perhaps already standing and modified to resemble his features.
The Great Pyramid of Cheops has a complex inner structure which has long puzzled those who study it. First, there are the ascending and descending passage ways.
Click here for a close-up view.
The descending passageway leads into an unfinished pit; scholars have speculated that this passageway was either originally meant to be to burial chamber for the pharaoh, or it was meant to deceive potential plunderers.
The ascending passageway, or Grand Gallery, ends in the burial chamber. This chamber was never finished, and the sarcophogus is empty. We do not know what happened to the mummy of the pharaoh.
The stones that line the Grand Gallery are movable; some scholars have speculated that if observers were to sit in each niche during the course of an astronomical year, they could chart the movements of the heavens and so predict the annual flooding of the Nile. Also, the ceremony of the opening of the Pharaoh's mouth was performed when the constellation Orion was visible. The pyramids were also, then, astronomical observatories.
Some scholars have noted that both passageways were aligned with important stars during the time they were built. Some have suggested that the descending passageway was filled with water; someone sitting in a niche in the Grand Gallery could have looked down into the reflection of the srats aligned with the descining passageway, compared the measurements to the stars appearing through the ascending passageway, and so calculated the exat mathematical center of the pyramids and other astronomical facts.
The pyramids served the function of burial tombs, monuments to the pharoah, and astronomical observatories. They reflect the Egyptian emphasis on the afterlife, and their positive outlook on life and the afterlife.
For further exploration, try the following links:
Virtual Tours
an excellent virtual tour of the temple complex at Abydos
Clickable map of the step pyramid of Djoser
Egyptian Art, Architecture, and Mythology
Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Exhibit of Egyptian Artifiacts at the Memphis Museum
Hieroglyphics
a compilation of Egyptian words which are currently known
contains a history of hieroglpyphics and a translation engine! Enjoy!
Papyrus Manuscripts
a wealth of digitized images of papyrus manuscripts.
copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.