Travel Advices and Tourism Reviews

Egyptian Pyramids

The Pyramids of Egypt are all vestiges bequeathed to us by the Egyptians of antiquity, the most prodigious and famous monuments of this civilization, and in particular, the three great pyramids of Giza, the tombs or cenotaphs of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre Micerino, and whose construction dates back to the great majority of scholars, the period known as the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The Great Pyramid of Giza, built by Cheops (Khufu) is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Background

The mastaba, almost prismatic construction, it was the burial of the kings of the Archaic period in Egypt. The reasons for the passage of the pyramids mastabas not well known, but generally mentions the desire to reach heights increasingly significant to express the importance and power of the deceased pharaoh.

Classical pyramids

This type of pyramid is the stage that leads, in the final stage of evolution, to the classic pyramids of smooth surfaces, of the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2500 BC), the most famous are the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Micerino, built on the plateau of Giza, near Cairo.
Other pharaohs of Dynasty IV began construction of their pyramids, as Djedefre (Abu-Rawash) and Neb-ka (Zawyet el-Aryaman) but remained unfinished. The last Pharaoh Shepseskaf, erected a monument as a large stone sarcophagus in Saqqara.
V Dynasty kings most complex erected pyramids at Saqqara and abuse, the smaller and technically inferior. Continued erecting at Saqqara Teti, Pepy I, Merenre Nemtyemsaf I and Pepi II, Dynasty VI.

The so-called First Intermediate Period of Egypt some rulers continued the tradition, as Neferkare Neby, Jui, Iti, or Meryk, but scarcely any remains.

It is in the Middle Kingdom (Dynasty XII, c. 1990 BC) when lifting the last major pyramids, but with cores of mud and stone cladding, now collapsed.

The New Kingdom pharaohs chose to build great temples and hypogea in the area of Thebes.
Pyramids smaller and more stylized stone, were erected by the dignitaries of the XXV Dynasty (c. 747 BC), in Napata and Meroe (Kush).