Tut's Mask

When Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's tomb he unearthed what has become the most famous mask in the world. Made in Tutankhamun's image, from two sheets of gold, the mask's profile shows a strong resemblance to his grandmother Queen Tiye. Its expression is sad but peaceful. The mask was decorated with bands of glass paste imitating lapis lazuli and adorned with semi-precious stones and glass. The emblems on the forehead (vulture and cobra) and on the shoulders (falcon heads) were symbols of the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt and of divine authority. His eyes, made from quartz and obsidian, are outlined with lapis lazuli to give the effect of kohl eye paint.

Tutankhamun's Tomb

Tutankhamun's tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings between the tombs of Rameses II and Rameses IV. Although robbers probably entered the tomb at least twice in antiquity, its contents were virtually intact when it was discovered by Howard Carter.

The design of Tutankhamun's tomb is typical of that of the kings of the eighteenth dynasty. At the entrance to the tomb there is a flight of stairs leading to a short corridor. The first room is the antechamber where many of the household items for Tutankhamun's voyage to eternity were found. Off this room is an annex, and at the far end is an opening that leads to the burial chamber. This chamber was guarded by two black sentry-statues that represent the royal ka (soul) and symbolize the hope of rebirth -- the qualities of Osiris, who was reborn after he died.

The burial chamber contains Tutankhamun's sarcophagus and coffin. Its walls are painted with scenes of Tutankhamun in the afterworld - the ritual of "opening the mouth" to give life to the deceased, the solar bark on which one travels to the afterworld, and Tutankhamun's ka in the presence of Osiris.

Off the burial chamber is the Treasury room, where a magnificent gilded canopic shrine was found. This was the most impressive object in the Treasury. Howard Carter explains what he saw when he first looked into the Treasury:
Facing the doorway, on the farther side, stood the most beautiful monument that I have ever seen - so lovely that it made one gasp with wonder and admiration. The central portion of it consisted of a large shrine-shaped chest, completely overlaid with gold, and surmounted by a cornice of sacred cobras. Surrounding this, free-standing, were statues of the four tutelary goddesses of the dead - gracious figures with outstretched protective arms, so natural and lifelike in their pose, so pitiful and compassionate the expression on their faces, that one felt it almost sacrilege to look at them.
Howard Carter, The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen
A gold chest held four canopic jars containing the dead pharaoh's viscera (internal organs -- lungs, stomach, intestines and liver). Four goddesses protected the shrine -- Neith to the north, Selkis to the south, Isis to the west and Nephthys to the east. Also found in this room were thirty-five model boats and a statue of Anubis, a god represented as having the head of a jackal. For conservation purposes, all these treasures have been removed to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Mummification

The ancient Egyptians believed in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. This belief was rooted in what they observed each day. The sun fell into the western horizon each evening and was reborn the next morning in the east. New life sprouted from grains planted in the earth, and the moon waxed and waned. As long as order was maintained, everything was highly dependable and life after death could be achieved provided certain conditions were met. For example, the body had to be preserved through mummification and given a properly furnished tomb with everything needed for life in the afterworld.

Mummification, the preservation of the body, was described in the ancient Pyramid Texts. With the death of Osiris, god of the dead, the cosmos fell into chaos and the tears of the gods turned into materials used to mummify his body. These materials included honey, resins and incense.
Before mummification evolved, the corpse was placed in a sleeping fetal position and put into a pit, along with personal items such as clay pots and jewellery. The pit was covered with sand, which absorbed all the water from the body, thus preserving it. Burial pits were eventually lined with mud bricks and roofed over, and the deceased were wrapped in animal skins or interred in pottery, basket ware or wooden coffins. With these "improvements", decay was hastened because the body no longer came in contact with the hot sand. To solve this problem, the internal organs of the deceased were removed and drying agents were used to mummify the body.

Canopic jars. One of Horus's four sons was represented on the lid of each jar. The human-headed Imsety looked after the liver; Hapy, a baboon, guarded the lungs; Duamutef, a jackal, protected the stomach; and Qebehsenuef, a falcon, cared for the intestines.Royal Ontario Museum
The practice of mummification began in Egypt in 2400 B.C. and continued into the Graeco-Roman Period. During the Old Kingdom, it was believed that only pharaohs could attain immortality. Around 2000 B.C., attitudes changed, however: everyone could live in the afterworld as long as the body was mummified and the proper elements were placed in the tomb. But since mummification was expensive, only the wealthy were able to take advantage of it. Although mummification was not a strict requirement for resurrection in the next world, it was certainly regarded as a highly desirable means of attaining it. The prayers in the Book of the Dead were intended to help the deceased make a successful transition to the afterlife.
The art of mummification was perfected in the Third Intermediate Period (1070-712 B.C.). Around 450 B.C. (Late Period), the Greek historian Herodotus documented the process:
As much of the brain as it is possible is extracted through the nostrils with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is dissolved with drugs. Next, the flank is slit open . . . and the entire contents of the abdomen removed. The cavity is then thoroughly cleansed and washed out . . . Then it is filled with pure crushed myrrh, cassia, and all other aromatic substances, except frankincense. [The incision] is sewn up, and then the body is placed in natron, covered entirely for 70 days, never longer. When this period . . . is ended, the body is washed and then wrapped from the head to the feet in linen which has been cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum which is commonly used by the Egyptians in the place of glue.
Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies
Natron, a disinfectant and desiccating agent, was the main ingredient used in the mummification process. A compound of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate (salt and baking soda), natron essentially dried out the corpse. Obtained from dried-up river beds, it was packed around and inside the body in linen bags, and left for 35 to 40 days to draw moisture out of the tissues. By removing the organs and packing the internal cavity with dry natron, the body tissues were preserved. The body was filled with Nile mud, sawdust, lichen and cloth scraps to make it more flexible. Small cooking onions or linen pads were sometimes used to replace the eyes. Beginning in the third dynasty, the internal organs (lungs, stomach, liver and intestines) were removed, washed with palm wine and spices, and stored in four separate canopic jars made of limestone, calcite or clay. Prior to this, the abdominal contents were removed, wrapped and buried in the floor of the tomb. However, the heart was left in the body because it was considered the centre of intelligence.

Materials used in mummification:
1-linen
2-sawdust
3-lichen
4-beeswax
5-resin
6-natron
7-onion
8-Nile mud
9-linen pads
10-frankincense

Mummification tools:

Brain hooks(replicas based on examples from the Rijksmuseum, Leiden)

Oil jar(Royal Ontario Museum 948.1.17)

Funnel(replica)

Embalmer's knife(Smithsonian Institution 221.389)

The corpse was then washed, wrapped in linen (as many as 35 layers) and soaked in resins and oils. This gave the skin a blackened appearance resembling pitch. The term "mummification" comes from the Arabic word mummiya, which mean bitumen, a pitch substance that was first used in the preservation process during the Late Period. The family of the deceased supplied the burial linen, which was made from old bed sheets or used clothing.
In the Middle Kingdom, it became standard practice to place a mask over the face of the deceased. The majority of these were made of cartonnage (papyrus or linen coated with gesso, a type of plaster), but wood and, in the case of royal mummies, silver and gold, were also used. The most famous mask is Tutankhamun's.

The ancient embalmers used very few tools, and once their work was completed, they sometimes left them in or near the tomb. The basic tool kit included a knife to make the abdominal incision, hooked bronze rods to extract brain matter, a wooden adze-like tool to remove internal organs, and a funnel to pour resins into the cranial cavity through the nose.

The Egyptians mummified animals as well as humans -- everything from bulls and hawks to ichneumons and snakes. Some have been found in large quantities, while others are rare. Many species were raised in the temples to be sacrificed to the gods. Autopsies on cats show that most had had their necks broken when they were about two years old. Cats were highly valued members of the ancient Egyptian household. They destroyed the rats and mice that would otherwise infest granaries, and assisted in hunting birds and fishing. In the nineteenth century, vast quantities of cat mummies were sent to England to be used as fertilizer.
This practice reached its height during the eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C. in Thebes, where the present-day cities of Luxor and Karnak are located. The purpose of mummification was to keep the body intact so it could be transported to a spiritual afterlife

The Great Sphinx at Giza

The Great Sphinx at Giza, near Cairo, is probably the most famous sculpture in the world. With a lion’s body and a human head, it represents Ra-Horakhty, a form of the powerful sun god, and is the incarnation of royal power and the protector of the temple doors.

The Sphinx is the oldest and longest stone sculpture from the Old Kingdom. During the eighteenth dynasty, it was called "Horus of the Horizon" and "Horus of the Necropolis", the sun god that stands above the horizon. In later times, many sphinx images were carved in smaller sizes or in cameos with the faces of the reigning monarchs. The face of the Great Sphinx is believed to be that of Chephren, the fourth-dynasty pharaoh who built the second-largest pyramid in the Giza triad. In the image of the Sphinx, the pharaoh was seen as a powerful god.
Carved out of a natural limestone outcrop, the Sphinx is 19.8 metres (65 feet) high and 73.2 metres (240 feet) long. It is located a short distance from the Great Pyramid.
Between the enormous paws is a stele that records a dream Tuthmosis IV had when he was a prince. He dreamt that he stopped to rest in the shadow of the Sphinx during a hunting expedition in the desert. While asleep, the Sphinx spoke to him, saying that he would become king if he cleared away the sand that all but buried the Sphinx. When he became king, Tuthmosis IV cleared the sand and erected a stele that tells the story of his dream. After the work was completed, a chapel was built next to the Sphinx to venerate this sun god.
Down through the ages, attempts have been made to protect the Sphinx from the effects of wind and sand erosion. A restoration project is currently under way to replace the stone casing that once protected this monument.
Sphinxes are sometimes represented with a female face. For example, a sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut was sculpted with her face and a pharaoh's beard. Queen Tiy, wife of Amenhotep III, was the first to have a truly female sphinx sculpted in her likeness. Besides a female face without a beard, her sphinx had breasts and wings.
The Sphinx differs from other deities in that it has an animal body and a human head, whereas most other deities have human bodies and animal heads. One explanation for this anomaly is that the Sphinx is the earthly representation of the constellation Leo, which has a lion’s body. Images of the sphinx are found in various sizes and shapes, as the collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the temples throughout Egypt attest.
The Giza Pyramids and Sphinx have been the focus of attention for New Age seekers, following a pronouncement by the American psychic Edgar Cayce. In a trance state, Cayce spoke of vaults at the base of the Sphinx and a Hall of Records. He suggested that a secret passage exists under the Sphinx. This is supposed to lead to a tomb where the annals of the lost continent of Atlantis are hidden for safe keeping.
Despite the intrigue surrounding this psychic reading, modern archaeologists have not yet found any evidence of a secret passage under the Sphinx. This story, however, continues to stir the imagination and contribute to the mystique of ancient Egypt

Re, the Sun God

The sun god was considered the central and original power of creation. The daily rising and setting sun offered tangible evidence of the sun’s power to fall into the western sky and be reborn each morning in the eastern sky.
Re brought the concept of Maat -- the principle of truth (Right) and balanced justice -- to the Egyptians. This fundamental concept became the cornerstone of the Egyptian civilization. The cosmic journey of the sun, symbolized by the scarab (dung beetle that pushes the sun disc across the sky), would continue as long as the cult of the sun god and Maat were respected. In the beginning stages of the deities, the kingship of Re was transferred to other forms of the sun god - to Shu, then Geb and, finally, Osiris.
On earth, the kings of the Old Kingdom were considered the mortal embodiment of the sun god. In other words, a king was a god on earth, and his right actions prevented the world from falling into chaos.
The sun god is also known as Ra-Horakhty (the "Horus of the Horizon") and Atum (the "All"), the substance from which all creation unfurled. Re-Horakhty is identified as a god with a human body and falcon head who wears a crown in the form of a sun disc surrounded by a cobra, or a crown made from ram horns and ostrich feathers. Atum is depicted as King of Egypt and Lord of the Universe and wears the Double Crown of Egypt. All these forms of the sun god represent the promise of resurrection, an answer to the dilemma of human mortality.
The cult of the sun was maintained by the Egyptian kings over the centuries. They built pyramids (symbols of the stairway to the sun or the angled rays of the sun) and later solar temples in honour of the sun gods. When a king died, his actions were judged in the afterworld by Osiris, a form of the sun god and ruler of the underworld. If they were considered just, the king was transformed into a form of the sun god.

Amun Re

Amun-Re, a form of the sun god, is sometimes depicted as a sphinx or a human with the head of a hawk. The disk of the sun is a symbol of this god.
The word Amun means "the hidden" or the "hiddenness of divinity", whereas Re means "the sun" or the "divinity in the power of the sun". The god Amun-Re is a representation of these two ideas: the ever-present invisible power and radiant light of the divine force that sustains life.
To trace the origin of Amun-Re, we must go back to the Old Kingdom and Heliopolis, where the god Re first appeared as the primary manifestation of the sun god. Re is depicted with the head of a falcon surmounted by the sun disk during his passage across the sky, and with the head of a ram during his nocturnal voyage in the underworld. This local god rose in prominence to become a national god, resulting in the erection of sun temples throughout the land. In the fourth dynasty, the pharaohs began to consider themselves manifestations of this god. Later, during the Middle Kingdom, when Amun became the most important god, Re was fused with him to become Amun-Re.
Re is sometimes spelled Ra; and Amun-Re is sometimes written as Amen-Ra or Amun-Ra.

Amun

Chief of the gods during the New Kingdom, Amun was depicted as a man with two tall plumes rising above his headdress, or as a ram or a goose. He, his wife, Mut, and their son, Khonsu, represented the Theban Triad, the sacred family of Thebes. Amun rose in prominence but did not become a state deity. He was associated with the god Re and venerated as the god Amun-re.

Amemet

Depicted with the rear of a hippopotamus, the fore of a lion and the head of a crocodile, Amemet "devoured" the hearts of those judged guilty when their hearts were weighed in the afterworld.

Osiris

Osiris is one of the principal Egyptian gods who first appeared in funerary texts during the Pyramid Age, when the practice of mummification began (2400 B.C.). He presided over the court that determined the fate of kings when they died. He is portrayed as a mummified man wearing a tall white crown adorned with two ostrich feathers.
According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris was murdered by his brother Seth then brought back to life by the love of his sister and wife, Isis. This myth describes the forces of destruction that initiated the process of mummification. The love of Isis is symbolic of regeneration and the promise of eternal life. The cycle of destruction, death and rebirth was repeated each year in the annual flood of the Nile, the river that provided the essential ingredients needed to sustain life, giving birth to one of the first civilizations.
Osiris and Isis had a son named Horus. Together they represent a holy family: god, goddess and divine child. In the New Kingdom, the main temples throughout Egypt venerated a holy family modelled on the Osiris, Isis and Horus triad.
Osiris is also equated with the miracle of the Nile and the rich harvest, as the text from the sarcophagus of a high priestess of Amun named Ankhnesneferibra attests:
Hail, you are the maker of grain, he who gives life to the gods with the water of his limbs, and bread to every land with the water that takes form under him.

Anubis

Anubis was a jackal-headed deity who presided over the embalming process and accompanied dead kings in the afterworld. When kings were being judged by Osiris, Anubis placed their hearts on one side of a scale and a feather (representing Maat) on the other. The god Thoth recorded the results, which indicated whether the king could enter the afterworld. Anubis is the son of Osiris and Nephthys.

Hieroglyphs

The word hieroglyph literally means "sacred carvings". The Egyptians first used hieroglyphs exclusively for inscriptions carved or painted on temple walls. This form of pictorial writing was also used on tombs, sheets of papyrus, wooden boards covered with a stucco wash, potsherds and fragments of limestone.

Hieroglyphics are an original form of writing out of which all other forms have evolved. Two of the newer forms were called hieratic and demotic. Hieratic was a simplified form of hieroglyphics used for administrative and business purposes, as well as for literary, scientific and religious texts. Demotic, a Greek word meaning "popular script", was in general use for the daily requirements of the society. In the third century A.D., hieroglyphic writing began to be replaced by Coptic, a form of Greek writing. The last hieroglyphic text was written at the Temple of Philae in A.D. 450. The spoken Egyptian language was superseded by Arabic in the Middle Ages.
Hieroglyphs and their cursive equivalents
Taken from: G. Steindorff and K. Seele, When Egypt Ruled the East, Chicago: 1942, p.122
It was not until the nineteenth century that Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered. Several people had been trying to crack the code when the brilliant young Frenchman, Jean-François Champollion discovered the secret to this ancient writing. A decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, on March 27, 196 B.C. was inscribed on the Rosetta Stone in three scripts: hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek. After Thomas Young deciphered the demotic text, Champollion used the information to break the code of the hieroglyphic text in 1822. In 1828, he published the famous "Précis" that marked the first real breakthrough in reading hieroglyphs.

Hieroglyphs are written in columns or in horizontal lines. They are generally read from right to left and from top to bottom. Sometimes, the script is read from left to right. The reader can determine the orientation by looking at the animal and human figures -- they face towards the beginning of the text. For example: if a figure faces right, the text should be read from right to left.
Words and names written in hieroglyphs were believed to have magical powers. For this reason, funeral texts and the names of the deceased were written on coffins and tomb walls. This meant that the gods would hear the prayers and the individuals would be protected from harm. A name written in hieroglyphs embodied a person's identity. If it was obliterated, the person's identity was lost, along with his or her means to continue living in the afterworld. The names of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Queen Hatshepsut, for example, were removed from temple walls by their successors

Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings is famous for its royal tombs. These beautifully painted tombs have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. For over a thousand years, the kings, queens and nobles of the New Kingdom (1500-1070 B.C.) were buried in this valley, which is the world’s most magnificent burial ground.

The tombs were cut into the limestone rock in a remote wadi (a dried-up river valley) on the west side of the Nile, opposite the present day city of Karnak. Their walls were painted and sculpted with magnificent murals depicting scenes of daily life and the land of the gods. The chambers were filled with treasures -- everything from furniture to food, statues, boats and jewels, which a person needed to sustain life into eternity. The royals and their courtiers hoped to find refuge from robbers and their enemies, who caused such havoc in the pyramid tombs of their predecessors.

The Valley of the Kings was located in the ancient necropolis of Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom. Two branches separate the valley into the Western Valley and the Valley of the Monkeys. The Theban Peak, shaped like a pyramid, can be seen high above the burial grounds. This is perhaps one of the reasons the pharaohs chose this remote location.
The valley contains hundreds of tombs, many of which have yet to be excavated and others that have not yet been found. The most famous tomb (KV No. 62) belongs to the boy king Tutankhamun. It was discovered on November 22, 1922 by the English archaeologist Howard Carter. Here is a quote from Carter’s diary describing his reaction as he first peered into the tomb’s antechamber.
I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold - everywhere the glint of gold . . .


When Lord Carnarvon, the English patron who financed Carter’s work, could no longer stand the suspense, he asked, "Can you see anything?" Carter replied, "Yes, wonderful things."
This famous quote sums up the excitement of this incredible discovery that took the world by storm. The awe-inspiring beauty of Tutankhamun's treasures has generated enormous interest in the history of Egypt. These treasures are the quintessential symbol of this remarkable civilization

Luxor Temple

This temple is located a mile south of Karnak Temple. Karnak and Luxor temples were once joined by an avenue lined with two rows of human-headed stone sphinxes, guardians of the temple gates and the underworld. Today, the remains of this avenue can be seen outside the entrance to Luxor Temple.

The temple stands on the site of a New Kingdom building commissioned by Amenhotep III in approximately 1380 B.C. A hundred years later, Rameses II added a great pylon gateway and an open courtyard. Unlike Karnak Temple, this temple was not enhanced by later pharaohs.

Since all the temples were built from an original design dictated by the gods, they have a similar look to them. For this reason, it is easy to confuse one temple with another

Karnak Temple

Located at the northern end of the town of Luxor, Karnak Temple has three main sacred areas that honour three gods: Montu, an ancient local warrior god; Amun, the chief god of Thebes; and the goddess Mut, wife of Amun. Amun, Mut and their son, Khonsu, were members of the sacred family known as the Theban Triad.

The construction of Karnak Temple began in the Middle Kingdom and was completed during the New Kingdom, some 1,600 years later. Every successive king of this era added to the temple, which covers two hectares (five acres) of land. It is a complicated site with four courtyards, ten pylons, a sacred lake and many buildings.

An avenue of sphinxes with curly-horned rams’ heads leads to the entrance to the first pylon. The sphinxes represent a form of the sun god, Amun-Re. Between their paws is a small figure of Rameses II, who won the famous Battle of Qadesh against the Hittites in Syria (1274 B.C.).

Temples

Over a long period of time, the Egyptians built numerous temples along the Nile. Two of the most famous, at Karnak and Luxor, are featured in the IMAX® film Mysteries of Egypt. These impressive structures, with their huge columned halls and pylon gateways, were built to honour the dead and venerate local and national gods.

Temples were places where the gods and their divine energy could reside, separated from everything else in the world. According to the Egyptian creation legend, the first temple came into existence on a mound of land that rose up from the primeval sea, called Nun. The first form of life to appear on that mound was a plant on which the falcon, Horus, first perched. Another version of this story describes the lotus flower as the first plant on which the sun emerged. Following this, human beings were created. This moment was called the First Occasion. As sentient beings, the Egyptians reciprocated by building temples to revere and nourish the gods.

The design of the first temple was laid down by the gods, and each successive temple was a copy of the first one. The design encouraged the gods to bring divine energy into the earth’s plane. Priests worked at the temples, conducting the daily rituals in honour of the deities and pharaohs to whom the temples were dedicated

The Pyramid:Metaphor of the Human Psyche

Jungian psychologists use the pyramid shape to illustrate stages in the development of the human psyche from immaturity to maturity. With its four sides and central apex, the pyramid is a model for archetypes (universal patterns in human behaviour).
Here is a quote from King, Warrior, Magician and Lover, by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette. It explains how the pyramid metaphor can be used to illustrate aspects of masculine psychology.
The four archetypes of boyhood, each with a triangular structure, can be put together to form a pyramid that depicts the structure of the boy’s emerging identity, his immature masculine Self. The same is true of the structure of the mature masculine Self . . .
. . . the adult man does not lose his boyishness, and the archetypes that form boyhood’s foundation do not go away. Since archetypes cannot disappear, the mature man transcends the masculine powers of boyhood, building upon them rather than demolishing them. The resulting structure of the mature masculine Self, therefore, is a pyramid over a pyramid . . . Though images should not be taken literally, we are arguing that pyramids are universal symbols of the human Self.
In a note on page 15, the authors state that the Self-structure in women is also pyramidal in form. When the pyramids of the masculine Self and the feminine Self are placed end to end, they represent the Jungian Self, which embraces both masculine and feminine qualities

Pyramid Construction

Pyramids were constructed by large work gangs over a period of many years. The Pyramid Age spans over a thousand years, starting in the third dynasty and ending in the Second Intermediate Period. The Greek historian Herodotus was told that it took 100,000 men 20 years to build the Great Pyramid at Giza. Scholars today, however, think it may have been built by only 20,000 men over 20 years.
A pyramid's large square base creates a very stable structure. A number of astronomical observations were used to precisely align its corners with the four cardinal points. Approximately 80% of the building materials are found in the lower half. This means that relatively few stone blocks were hauled to the upper levels. Since pyramids are solid, no walls or pillars were required to support the structure. Despite its simple design, a pyramid is an incredible engineering feat. Several theories attempt to explain how pyramids were constructed, but for now, the mystery has yet to be solved.



One theory suggests that causeways were used to haul the stone blocks on wooden sleds up the side of the pyramids. The ramps were lubricated with water to reduce friction when hauling the blocks. As few as 10 men were needed to drag a stone block up a ramp. There may have been several ramps on each side of the pyramid at different levels, and a ramp may have been coiled around the pyramid as it grew in height. Once a stone block reached its desired level, wooden rockers may have been used to manoeuvre it into position.
Another theory suggests that a wooden crane with a counterweight on one end may have been used to lift the blocks from one level to the next. This theory has been disputed, since the Egyptians did not have access to trees that were strong enough for this type of work. The average weight of the stone blocks used to build the Great Pyramid at Giza has been estimated at 2.5 tonnes (2.5 tons). Such an enormous weight would undoubtedly break a wooden crane before the block could be lifted.
Another possibility involves the use of pulleys to hoist the blocks up the ramps and fulcrums to manipulate the blocks into place. Pulleys were used on ships at the time.

The pyramids were probably not built by slaves because slave labour was not widely used in Egypt at the time. Peasant farmers, however, were required to spend a number of weeks working on construction projects. This provided the paid labour needed to build these gigantic structures. Since the fields were under water during the summer, wages earned in building the gigantic pyramids supplemented the family's income.
Pyramids did not stand alone; they were part of a funerary complex. The complex includes a processional causeway that links a funerary temple to the pyramid, solar barques buried on the four sides of the pyramid, and mastabas and smaller pyramids where the family of the king and nobles were buried.

The pyramid built by King Sahure (2491-2477 B.C., Old Kingdom) is the largest of the three at Abousir and the one that is best preserved. Today, it is a mound of rubble, but the mortuary temple on the east face is still discernible. Its striking features are the red granite date-palm columns and the deeply incised hieroglyphs of the king's name and titles on the huge granite blocks.

The First Pyramids

The Pyramid Age began during the Old Kingdom (2650-2134 B.C.), when the first pyramids were built by King Djoser in the third dynasty. Construction of pyramids continued until 1640 B.C. During the first and second dynasties, Egyptian kings were buried in mastabas. The deceased were laid to rest in an underground chamber at the bottom of a shaft, and a flat-topped tomb was placed over them. King Djoser established a powerful centralized administration based in the city of Memphis, not far from the present-day city of Cairo. One of his officials was the famous architect and scholar Imhotep, who designed the Step Pyramid, a pharaoh's tomb at Saqqara that looks like a stairway to heaven. This tomb is an elaboration of the original mastabas, with its central burial chamber. In the fourth dynasty, the Pharaoh Snefru built the first geometrically true pyramids at Dahshur, south of Saqqara. He started by adding a smooth casing over the steps of two pyramids that were built by his predecessors. He then built two pyramids of his own. The pyramids built during the fifth dynasty had a core of rubble and mud bricks, and a limestone facing. When the limestone was removed, the core collapsed. Why the pharaohs chose a pyramid for their tombs is still a mystery. Perhaps the shape originated from the creation story, in which the world is conceived as a flat plane with four corners representing the north, east, south and west. When the sky rose up, forming an invisible central axis like a pole or tree in the centre, the world took on the shape of a pyramid. The pyramid may also represent the primeval mound that rose out of chaos and provided a resting place for the sun god, Re. Its peak may symbolize the point where sacred energy from the sky world enters the human world. Another theory suggests that when Re became more important in the Egyptian religion, the pyramid (like the obelisk) represented a ray of the sun.

Pyramids

The spectacular pyramids that have made Egypt so famous are truly one of the world's greatest architectural wonders. One of the oldest mysteries surrounding ancient Egypt concerns the building of the pyramids. How did humans move such massive blocks of stone using only Stone Age tools? The Egyptians left thousands of illustrations depicting daily life in the Old Kingdom. Curiously enough, none of them show how pyramids were built.

A pyramid is a tomb, a four-sided stone structure that symbolizes the sacred mountain, humanity’s universal striving to reach the heavens. The ancient belief in raising the human spirit towards the gods is the quintessential purpose behind the construction of pyramids. Even today, pyramids are metaphors for humanity’s search for higher consciousness.
The IMAX film Mysteries of Egypt features the pyramids at Giza, just west of Cairo. They are surrounded by smaller pyramids, mastabas (tombs of nobles and courtiers), funerary temples, processional ramps and the Great Sphinx. Several theories attempt to explain the construction of the pyramids, but no one knows for sure how they were built. This is one of the great mysteries of ancient Egypt

Architecture

The ancient Egyptians built their pyramids, tombs, temples and palaces out of stone, the most durable of all building materials. Although earthquakes, wars and the forces of nature have taken their toll, the remains of Egypt’s monumental architectural achievements are visible across the land, a tribute to the greatness of this civilization. These building projects took a high degree of architectural and engineering skill, and the organization of a large workforce consisting of highly trained craftsmen and labourers.
Apart from the pyramids, Egyptian buildings were decorated with paintings, carved stone images, hieroglyphs and three-dimensional statues. The art tells the story of the pharaohs, the gods, the common people and the natural world of plants, birds and animals. The beauty and grandeur of these sites are beyond compare. How the ancient Egyptians were able to construct these massive structures using primitive tools is still a mystery.