Pyramids of Egypt
There are about eighty pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The three largest and best-preserved of these were built at Giza at the beginning of the Old Kingdom.
The most well-known of these pyramids was built for the pharaoh Khufu. It is known as the 'Great Pyramid'.
Egyptologists have developed many theories about why the tombs of the early pharaohs were built in the pyramid shape. Here are three different ideas:
The pyramid represented the first land to appear at the beginning of time- a hill called 'Ben-Ben'.
The pyramid had sloping sides so that the dead pharaoh could symbolically climb to the sky and live forever.
The pyramid represented the rays of the sun.
The Great Sphinx is a large human-headed lion that was carved from a mound of natural rock. It is located in Giza where it guards the front of Khafra's pyramid.
Legends have been told for many years about the Great Sphinx. These stories tell about the powers and mysteries of this sphinx.
Critics use
the pyramids to claim the Bible can’t be right.
They say the pyramids were
built long before Noah’s Flood, so the Flood must have only been a local
affair, not global like the Bible says. Otherwise, the pyramids would be buried
under lots of sediment.
For the first two dynasties, the earliest
settlers did not build pyramids. Instead, kings were buried in chambers
underneath mud-brick edifices, called mastabas.
However, in the third dynasty,
King Zoser had a vizier (chief minister) called Imhotep, who used rough blocks
of stone, instead of bricks, to build the king’s mastaba. Then he added six
stages making the famous Step Pyramid of Saqqara, on the west bank of the River
Nile, 20 km (12 miles) south of modern Cairo Egypt
Khufu’s son, Djedefre, carried on the family
tradition, and built a pyramid at Abu Roash, a few kilometres northwest of Giza
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| Egypt's gift - The Pyramids |
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