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The Last Pyramids Of Egypt
They just don't make pyramids like they used to.
The pyramids of Egypt have fascinated people ever since they were built. The Step Pyramid at Saqqara started things off around 2650 B.C. Later came the iconic pyramids of Giza. What's often forgotten, however, is that pyramid construction continued for more than a thousand years and there are at least 138 built to house the remains of pharaohs and queens. More are still being discovered. Last year, satellite imagery revealed seventeen previously unknown pyramids.
The later pyramids of Egypt tend to be overlooked, and it's easy to see why considering the sad state of most of them. Just take a look at this photo of the pyramid of Senusret II (ruled 1895-1878 B.C.) and photographed by Jon Bodsworth. Like a lot of later pyramids, it was made of mud bricks instead of stone blocks to save money, and that's why it's a giant sad lump today – an interesting lump, though.
The interior tunnels are still intact and archaeologists discovered the nearby village where the workmen lived. Contrary to popular belief, slaves didn't construct the pyramids. Actually, it was trained craftsmen and farmers who didn't have any other work to do when their fields were underwater during the annual flooding of the Nile.
Senusret II was part of the 12th Dynasty, a high point in Egyptian power and civilization. It's strange then that pyramids were in decline. You can see several of these pyramids at Dahsur, not far from Saqqara and an easy day trip from Cairo. One is the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III (ruled 1842-1797 B.C.). It started to collapse almost immediately so he had to build a second one at the Faiyum Oasis near a giant temple to the crocodile god Sobek. This site reopened last year.
Gallery: The Last Pyramids of Egypt
The experimentation with cheaper building methods may have started with Senusret I (ruled 1962-1928 B.C.). Instead of a solid geometric shape, the builders first constructed a network of walls crisscrossing each other and dividing the pyramid into 32 parts. These were then filled with loose stone. A smooth limestone facing was put over the whole thing. It sounded good in theory, but it's another sad lump today.
Perhaps as a compensation for the cheap building styles, the later pyramids had elaborate tricks to stop tomb robbers: dead end tunnels sealed with thick stones; interior chambers made of quartzite, the hardest substance worked in Ancient Egypt; elaborately sealed rooms that contained nothing; and sarcophagi as big as the rooms that held them in order to deny robbers room to work.
Sadly, none of these tricks worked and the pharaohs eventually resorted to hidden underground tombs in places like the Valley of the Kings. After the 12th and 13th dynasties, pyramids went out of fashion. Many of the 13th dynasty rulers didn't bother building one at all. Only a few were made by later dynasties. The last pyramid made for a pharaoh was for Ahmose I around 1525 B.C. It's a pile of rubble now that barely measures 30 feet high. Much later, pyramids briefly became fashionable in the Sudan.
The pyramid was dead, and last year, so was Egypt's tourism industry. It's been gradually rebuilding itself, though. Cruise lines are returning, as are independent travelers. The tourist sights remained mostly unaffected by the unrest and there's not much trouble outside of a few spots in Cairo.
Visitors will have more to see with six tombs at Giza having reopened and Egyptologists hard at work uncovering more ancient wonders. Many of the later pyramids haven't been excavated and while all the ones that have been explored were plundered by tomb robbers centuries ago, there's always a chance that the treasure of a pharaoh remains hidden inside one of them.
Perhaps as a compensation for the cheap building styles, the later pyramids had elaborate tricks to stop tomb robbers: dead end tunnels sealed with thick stones; interior chambers made of quartzite, the hardest substance worked in Ancient Egypt; elaborately sealed rooms that contained nothing; and sarcophagi as big as the rooms that held them in order to deny robbers room to work.
Sadly, none of these tricks worked and the pharaohs eventually resorted to hidden underground tombs in places like the Valley of the Kings. After the 12th and 13th dynasties, pyramids went out of fashion. Many of the 13th dynasty rulers didn't bother building one at all. Only a few were made by later dynasties. The last pyramid made for a pharaoh was for Ahmose I around 1525 B.C. It's a pile of rubble now that barely measures 30 feet high. Much later, pyramids briefly became fashionable in the Sudan.
The pyramid was dead, and last year, so was Egypt's tourism industry. It's been gradually rebuilding itself, though. Cruise lines are returning, as are independent travelers. The tourist sights remained mostly unaffected by the unrest and there's not much trouble outside of a few spots in Cairo.
Visitors will have more to see with six tombs at Giza having reopened and Egyptologists hard at work uncovering more ancient wonders. Many of the later pyramids haven't been excavated and while all the ones that have been explored were plundered by tomb robbers centuries ago, there's always a chance that the treasure of a pharaoh remains hidden inside one of them.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Africa, Egypt, Middle East
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ahmed Gaith May 22nd 2012 11:07AM
In Egypt Everywhere you find a relics that been overlooked and we wish that the details of this pyramids to be published with more pictures to see where they kept the coffin which is not exist now and evidence of any writing that depicts the name of the owner.
Eric May 26th 2012 1:33PM
I've read a lot of books about ancient Egypt and I've often questioned that when it came to the pyramids, especially the three at Giza, why so large? More than a display of vanity and one-up-manship, my conclusion or theory is that even in ancient times structures were stripped for their stones so they figured the bigger it is the harder it will be to tear it down. Even stripped of it's funerary complex, and casing stones the great pyramid still stands. After the Arab conquest the casing stones were removed and used to build structures in Cairo. That a world treasure could be treated that way is almost unbelievable in the modern world. Part of the causeway and valley temple for the pyramid of Khufu are believed to be below parts of modern Giza.
Gregory Schwartz May 26th 2012 6:57PM
It's a shame how so many foreigners invaded Egypt during WW 1 and WW2. They desecrated the pyramids and played target practice n the Sphynx. That's why the Sphynx face is so distorted! Archeologists during the 1920s and 1930s also robbed graves in the name of "science". They burned mummies to fuel their rail roads!!!! I bet there is a ton of ancient relics out there in private collections that the world will never know about!
Al Schrader May 26th 2012 4:58PM
That one is easy ; sand. If you build anything in Geeza that doesn't have sloping sides, it will become covered with sand....Al-
Eric May 26th 2012 6:15PM
Sand probably was problem but not as it is today. The Giza plateau in ancient times got it's share of sand storms more than likely but there was a wall around the pyramids which is no longer there. I read an article about an Arab official that ordered one of the pyramids dismantled and they gave up after giving it a good try. Recent findings indicate that the pyramid at Abu Rawash north of Giza was completed but later razed to the ground as a source for stone. Only the entrance ramp below the pyramid has survived.
Marilyn May 26th 2012 1:33PM
The pyramids of ancient Nubia (now The Sudan) are not usually highlighted in blogs, but are just as fascinating. There were about 223 pyramids built to honor Nubian kings, queens, priests, etc. in ancient Nubia and some of them still stand today.
Groups of pyramids in this region are at el-Kurru, Meroe and Nuri and though most were robbed in ancient times, rulers were mummified, covered with jewelry and laid in wooden mummy cases. The larger tombs still contain remains of weapons, furniture, pottery, metal vessels and other artifacts.
Katie May 26th 2012 1:34PM
Not sure why the author proclaims that zero slaves built the pyramids. Seems like this is a bit of revisionist history, to go along with recent articles coming out of Egypt and published in the West, that claim a small cemetary of 600 workers are proof they are the true builders. Since it takes 30 years to build even 1 pyramid, and thousands of workers every year, most of which I imagine have to be rotated regularly, it seems a stretch to proclaim you've found all the builders. (And even those bodies indicate extreme fatigue to the bones, arthritis, and a shortened lifespan).
These theories are politically motivated. Egypt doesn't want their skills to go unhearalded, and certainly detest the legacy of slave labor. I shrug my shoulders, because even in US history, there are artisans, experts, scientists, craftsmen and so on, but it doesn't mean there wasn't also slave labor, near-slave labor, indentured servitude and sharecropping. Of course there was, and of course they all built America. It would be as if WE said, oh, the slaves really didn't do much, after all.
One of the researchers compared the pyramid-building to an old-fashioned Amish barn-raising. Happy and willing workers, all volunteers, proud to be Egyptian and contribute to their great society. "That was one heck of a barn", he said. Really? That's all I have to say...really?
Sean McLachlan May 26th 2012 1:59PM
Katie,
There's a lot more evidence than what you cite. For example, numerous inscriptions at the pyramid sights indicate skilled, literate workers, not slaves. Any detailed book on the pyramids will go into this. Here's a good article to start with:
http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/who-built-the-pyramids
The article you quote is linked to below. He does not state that they were willing volunteers. He says the Egyptians paid part of their tax in labor:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/who-built-the-pyramids.html
weatherman31024 May 26th 2012 4:57PM
What's interesting to me is there was no attempt to "out-do" the previous. At Giza the first pyramid was the largest.
...and they're clearly a reference to Orion's Belt. ...at least in "my" opinion.
TJ Beringer May 26th 2012 4:57PM
Ok first off they determined that the pyramids were used for something else other then tombs for pharaohs and queens as they have never found one inside a pyramid. This article completely underminds egyptian history and lacks a lot of facts. I love how they didn't put in the article that they found chemicals on the walls in the great pyramids and hidden shafts and a previously unknown queens chamber. The funny thing was when they tested these chemicals they determined that if the chemicals were pourn down the shafts into the main chamber it would of made hydrogen. The other funny thing is after this discovery the egyptian government sent in a team that scrubbed the walls of the pyramids clean of any evidence of these chemicals . The other thing is after the found evidence of stuctures underneath the pyramids via satellite they have since started building a giant wall around the pyramids and are stopping tourism to the site saying they are trying to "preserve" them. Why is it all of a sudden after these discoveries they decide they need to be preserved after being open for how long? The other thing is they have no evidence nor have they found any tools the egyptians would of used to build the pyramids have had the worlds best arcitects look at them and some of the scupltures they have built and shook their heads on how because even with our best technology they would have trouble doing them in 1 life time and would have trouble moving most of the stones with our best cranes. The true history of what happened in egypt and in many other cultures will forever be tainted by the curse of religion. Read actual history people there are 1000times more mysteries then there are answers and until people get common sense and stop being jesus freaks and allah freaks and jewish freaks we will never get the true answers
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