The Egyptian pyramids are one of the largest buildings so far, and they have become one of the most influential and enduring symbols of ancient Egyptian civilization. Most of these pyramids were built during the period of ancient Egypt and Middle Egypt.
Most research data show that the number of Egyptian pyramid structures ranges from 865,438+0 to 65,438+065,438+02, and most scholars prefer a higher number. In 1842, Karl Richard Lepsius made a list of Egyptian pyramids. At that time, he counted 67 pyramids, but in his later archaeological career, he identified and discovered more pyramids.
Many inaccurate counts are related to many poorly preserved small gold pagodas and gravelly tombs. It is usually difficult to confirm whether tombs are pyramid-shaped structures, but they do exist and have been studied and identified by archaeologists. Most of them will classify and group these difficult-to-confirm relics, and the most important observation area is from north to south.
The main purpose of the pyramid is the Pharaoh's tomb, which has the function of protecting the Pharaoh, transforming the Pharaoh from a man into a god's safety facility and ascending the Pharaoh to heaven. Pyramids have powerful religious purposes, and ancient pharaohs spared no expense in money, labor and price to complete them.
65438+On February 26th, 2007, the head of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities announced that Egypt would pass laws applicable to all parts of the world, requiring those who copied Egyptian monuments such as the pyramids or the Sphinx to pay copyright fees as maintenance fees for thousands of Egyptian pharaoh monuments, but artists from all countries are not prohibited from copying pharaoh monuments and Egyptian monuments in various periods to gain benefits through painting or other means, as long as these works are not 100%.
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Development and evolution
The pyramids are the tombs of ancient Egyptian kings. These rulers were called "pharaohs" in history. Ancient Egyptians' devout belief in God made them form a deep-rooted "concept of the afterlife" very early. They even think that "life is only a short stay, and after death it is a permanent enjoyment". Therefore, the Egyptians regarded the underworld as a continuation of earthly life. Influenced by this concept of the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians made sincere and confident preparations for their own death when they were alive.
Every rich Egyptian should be busy preparing his grave and decorating it with all kinds of things in order to gain eternal life after death. As far as Pharaoh or aristocrat is concerned, he will spend several years, even decades, building a mausoleum, and will also order craftsmen to continue to use tomb murals and wooden models for sailing, hunting, feasting, and what servants should do, so that he can live comfortably as before after his death.
According to legend, before the third dynasty in ancient Egypt, both princes and ministers and ordinary people were buried in a rectangular tomb made of mud bricks, which the ancient Egyptians called "Mastaba". In ancient Egypt, it was called Piremus, which means a lot. Later, a clever young man named Imhotep invented a new building method when designing a mausoleum for the Egyptian Pharaoh Zuosai.
He replaced the mud brick with the square stone picked from the mountain, constantly revised the design scheme of building the mausoleum, and built a six-story trapezoidal pyramid-this is the prototype of the pyramid we saw.
In ancient Egypt, the pyramids were trapezoidal and layered, so they were also called hierarchical pyramids. This is a tall pyramid building with a square base and a triangle on each side, which looks like the Chinese character "gold", so we call it "pyramid". The tower mausoleum designed by Imhotep is the first stone mausoleum in Egyptian history. The Zossel Pyramid in Sakala is a typical example of this pyramid. Built in 2750 BC, it is the first huge building built entirely of stone in Egyptian history.
After King Zuo Sai, the Egyptian Pharaoh followed his example and built a mausoleum for himself before he died. Since then, ancient Egypt has set off a wind to build pyramids. Because the pyramids originated in the ancient kingdom period, and the largest pyramids were built in this period, the ancient kingdom period of Egypt is also called the pyramid age. Why did the pharaohs of ancient Egypt build the mausoleum into the shape of a pyramid, which is the golden shape in Chinese characters?
It turns out that at the earliest time, the pharaohs in Egypt were prepared to use Mastaba as their permanent residence after death. Later, during the second and third dynasties, the ancient Egyptians came up with the idea that the king would become a god and his soul would ascend to heaven after his death. In the inscription of the pyramid later discovered, there is a sentence like this: "Build a ladder for him (Pharaoh) so that he can go to heaven from there." The pyramid is such a ladder. At the same time, the pyramid form also expresses the worship of the sun god, because the symbol of the ancient Egyptian sun god "La" is the light of the sun. The pyramid symbolizes the sunlight that penetrates the sky. Because, when you stand on the road to Kize and look west from the perspective of the pyramid ridge, you can see that the pyramid shines on the earth like the sun.
There is a sentence in the inscription of the pyramid: "The sky extends its own light to you, so that you can climb into the sky, just like pulling your eyes." Later, the worship of the obelisk by ancient Egyptians also had such significance, because the obelisk also represented the light of the sun.
After the fourth dynasty, although other pharaohs built many pyramids, their scale and quality could not be compared with the above pyramids. After the Sixth Dynasty, with the division of the ancient kingdom and the decline of Pharaoh's power, the resistance of the Egyptian people and the robbery of some people, Pharaoh's "mummies" were often dragged out of the pyramids, so Egyptian pharaohs stopped building pyramids and dug secret graves on the mountains.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia: Pyramid