What was the motivation of the Egyptians for building the pyramids?
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This answer is about pyramids in Egypt. Pyramids were also constructed in ancient Greece and Mesoamerica. Flat topped pyramids were constructed in ancient China.\n\nPyramids in Egypt served as tombs, initially only for kings and close members of the royal family, but eventually came to be used (in much smaller forms) by the general populace.\n\nThe pyramid is thought to have developed out of the mastaba tomb. Mastaba is an Arabic word, meaning bench, which was applied to the flat-topped, slope sided superstructures of tombs. The pyramid is also thought to be associated with solar worship and the "ben-ben" stone which played a major role in sun worship and was vaguely pyramid shaped.\n\nIn the 3rd Dynasty, several mastabas were stacked forming the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. By the 4th Dynasty in the reign of Snefru attempts at building a true pyramid were underway. The pyramids of the 4th and 5th Dynasties, including those at Giza, essentially reflect the further refinement of the pyramid, the chambers within it, and the associated temple complexes. Eventually the standard style was an orientation of east to west (significant in Egyptian religion), with a pyramid temple, located directly on the east side of the pyramid, and a causeway leading to the "valley temple" located near the Nile at the edge of the cultivation.\nWhile it is accepted by reputable Egyptologists that pyramids served as burials for kings, the exact details of the theology behind them remains unclear. One idea, popularized I believe by Dr. Mark Lehner, one of the foremost experts on Egyptian pyramids, is that pyramids served as "resurrection machines" providing all the necessary means for eternal life with the gods for the dead king.\nIn the late 5th Dynasty in the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara, we have the first appearance of formal texts within the pyramid itself - the appropriately-named Pyramid Texts. These texts are somewhat esoteric and are essentially a collection of spells, stories, and guides relating to the Underworld. Initially these texts were limited to royalty. In succeeding pyramids, elements of the Pyramid Texts were included in the "Coffin Texts" of the First Intermediate and Middle Kingdom and in the "Book of the Dead" of the New Kingdom - texts available to a broad spectrum of society.\n\nPyramid construction continued in the Middle Kingdom - again limited to royalty, but not on the grand scale of the Old Kingdom. The last known royal pyramids located in Egypt are that of King Ahmose, founder of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom (ca. 1550 BCE) and the pyramid-cenotaph constructed for his grandmother, Queen Tetisheri. Both are located at Abydos.\n\nIn the New Kingdom, pyramids came to be part of tombs for reasonably wealthy private individuals - frequently added to the exterior portico area of rock-cut cliff tombs or appearing as architectural elements of brick constructed tombs in varous parts of Egypt.\n\nThe Napatan and Meroitic kingdoms in Nubia (modern Sudan) also used the pyramid for royal burials at sites such as El-Kurru and Nuri. While the Napatan kings ruled Egypt for a time during the 25th Dynasty and were buried in pyramids, those pyramids were located in Nubia proper.\n\nPyramid construction relied on highly skilled teams of workmen who were housed nearby the pyramid fields - in the Old Kingdom located in the general vicinity of the ancient capital Memphis at sites now knows as Giza, Saqqara, Meidum, and Dashur. A few pyramids in the Middle Kingdom were located near the Fayum, roughly Middle Egypt.\nIn addition to the full-time workmen, there was likely a seasonal labor requirement asked of the lower classes of Egyptian society - a sort of taxation, often referred to by the French term "corvee" labor. This is distinct from slavery. While the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (writing over a thousand years after the construction of the pyramids at Giza) reported that he
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The Faith our Lord Agon. In our great temples we build pyramids made of pure gold. Then we sacrifice the unbelievers there blood flows on the steps of gold and sparkles. We rejoice as our holy warriors priests cut the throats of the pigs who do not worship Lord Agon. \n\nI might have made this up. Once up on a time there were these silly little people called the Aztecs.
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People in ancient prehistoric Egypt followed the pattern of hunter-gatherer to cattle-raiser/farmer, followed similarly by peoples all over the world then as well as now.  When we today think of ancient Egypt and its glories, we usually think of the treasures and monuments of kings, the wealth and grandeur of noble tombs, and the texts left by scribes. But it was the farmer and laborer, the "peasants" of the time, who formed the backbone of the Egyptian way of life. \nEgypt has always been an agricultural country. Husbandry has been the foundation of its economy, the welfare and prosperity being at all times depending on the produce of the soil. The peasants were the backbone of the nation, yet they left us hardly any record of their own lives. This is not surprising since they were non-literate. They left no written accounts of the essential aspects of their lives, aspirations, hopes and what they thought of their lot compared to the wealthier classes around them.\n\nThe evidence that we do have that allows a picture of the life of the farmer comes to us from the paintings on the tomb walls of wealthier landowners and bureaucrats, depicting life in their households and estates, texts and records, especially those from the Ptolemaic period written in Demotic script, and archaeological evidence such as seed baskets, hoes, plows, sickles and winnowing scoops, related household utensils such as ropes, baskets, and sieves, as well as small-scale wooden models of houses and gardens and even people working.\n\nIt was believed that the god Osiris was the first farmer, the king who taught the people farming techniques and the domestication of animals. His wife the goddess Isis taught the people how to make beer and bread. With Osiris for their role-model and deity, the people offered back the products of the land to the gods.\n\nThe first farmers combined the exploitation of pockets of wild grains, with the hunting and domestication of native species of sheep, goats and cattle. The wadis, fertile areas, throughout Egypt, provided grazing as well as cover for game such as antelope, gazelle, ostrich and hare. Fish filled the Nile River and ducks, geese and other birds thronged the marshes and reeds.\n\nNot only was grain vital to feed the people, but, since the Egyptians at that time had no form of currency, grain was part of a barter economy. That is, prices of basic commodities were expressed in terms of measures of grain.\n\nBread and beer were the chief components of the Egyptians’ daily diet, eventually even being depicted as the first offering in the funerary offering formula, or hetep di nisu. Though there are several words in the ancient Egyptian language for grain, one term in particular graphically describes the significance of grain in the life of the people. This word was ankhet, describing corn as "that which gives life."\n\nOther names of important grains which were cultivated are found on a stele listing offerings. There are two varieties of barley, called it shema and it mehi, emmer, called bedet, wheat, called sut, and another grain called in Egyptian besha.\n\nThe earliest evidence for the cultivation of grain crops in the Nile Valley comes from the Predynastic period, in the region known as the Faiyum. This oasis north-west of modern Cairo is fed by a branch of the Nile river. Its lake was known as Mer Wer or Great Lake, hence its Hellenized name of Moeris. During the 12th Dynasty, kings built pyramids and summer palaces in this region. Later on during the Ptolemaic period, the greatest increases in both available agricultural land and population occurred in the region, and in the Roman period, the Faiyum was one of the principal grain producing areas of its Empire.\n\nEmmer wheat, barley and flax, from whence linen was made and linseed oil was derived, were the first grains cultivated, and continued to be the most important crops through dynastic history. Both emmer and barley were used for brea
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Anything's possible. It has been theorized that humans were the slaves of an alien race and left to populate the earth. Plenty use Egyptian mythology to base their answer, and actually do so quite effectively. So sure, why not?
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The Seven Wonders of the World \n\nThe Pyramids of Egypt are three pyramids at Giza, outside modern Cairo. The largest pyramid, built by Khufu (Cheops), a king of the fourth dynasty, had an original estimated height of 482 ft (now approximately 450 ft). The base has sides 755 ft long. It contains 2,300,000 blocks; the average weight of each is 2.5 tons. Estimated date of completion is 2680 B.C. Of all the Ancient Wonders, the pyramids alone survive.\n\nThe Hanging Gardens of Babylon were supposedly built by Nebuchadnezzar around 600 B.C. to please his queen, Amuhia. They are also associated with the mythical Assyrian queen, Semiramis. Archeologists surmise that the gardens were laid out atop a vaulted building, with provisions for raising water. The terraces were said to rise from 75 to 300 ft.\n\nThe Statue of Zeus (Jupiter) at Olympia was made of gold and ivory by the Greek sculptor Phidias (5th century B.C.). Reputed to be 40 ft high, the statue has been lost without a trace, except for reproductions on coins.\n\nThe Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus was begun about 350 B.C., in honor of a non-Hellenic goddess who later became identified with the Greek goddess of the same name. The temple, with Ionic columns 60 ft high, was destroyed by invading Goths in A.D. 262.\n\nThe Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was erected by Queen Artemisia in memory of her husband, King Mausolus of Caria in Asia Minor, who died in 353 B.C. Some remains of the structure are in the British Museum. This shrine is the source of the modern word mausoleum.\n\nThe Colossus at Rhodes was a bronze statue of Helios (Apollo), about 105 ft high. The work of the sculptor Chares, who reputedly labored for 12 years before completing it in 280 B.C., it was destroyed during an earthquake in 224 B.C.\n\nThe Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria was built by Sostratus of Cnidus during the 3rd century B.C. on the island of Pharos off the coast of Egypt. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 13th century.\n\n(Some lists include the Walls of Babylon in place of the second or seventh wonder.)\n----------------------------------------------\nThe Seven Wonders of the Modern World\n\nPeople have put together many lists of the seven ancient wonders of the world. But this "seven wonders" list celebrates monumental engineering and construction feats of the 20th century. It was chosen by the American Society of Civil Engineers.\n\n    *1. Empire State Building—Finished in 1931, it towers 1,250 feet over New York City. Until the first tower of the World Trade Center was finished in 1972, it was the world's tallest building.\n    * 2. Itaipu Dam—Built by Brazil and Paraguay on the Parana River, it is the world's largest hydroelectric power plant. Completed in 1991, it took 16 years to build this series of dams whose length totals 7,744 meters. It used 15 times more concrete than the Channel Tunnel.\n    * 3. CN Tower—In 1976, it became the world's tallest freestanding structure. It looms about one-third of a mile high (1,815 feet) above Toronto, Canada. A glass floor on the observation deck lets you look 342m down to the ground. Don't worry: the glass is strong enough to hold 14 hippos!\n    * 4. Panama Canal—It took 34 years to create this 50-mile-long canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The amount of digging required and the size of its locks helped make it the most expensive project in American history at that time-and the most deadly: About 80,000 people died during construction (most from disease).\n    * 5. Channel Tunnel—Known as the Chunnel, it links France and England. It is 31 miles long, and 23 of those miles are 150 feet beneath the seabed of the English Channel. High-speed trains whiz through its side-by-side tubes.\n    * 6. North Sea Protection Works—Because the Netherlands is below sea level, a series of dams, floodgates and surge barriers have been built to keep the sea from flooding the country during storms. The biggest part
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probably because they weren't designed by humans in the first place, I have asked many people how they can seem to think that we could have cut and scored laser precision rocks like that and put them in a pyramid formation and have them last 6,000 years plus when we don't have buildings that will last that long made out of steel. the only conclusion I can come up with is they were built by alien technology, not only that how could that same design be on two different continents, there have even been pyramids discovered in a lake in Wisconsin as well recently
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The Egyptians everyday life were much different than ours.\n\nIn villages, peasants live in houses made of sun dried mud bricks. Their homes had only three rooms and some Egyptians had to live in tents. They would sleep on the roofs of their houses to stay cool.\n\n\nThese links will provide more information about Egypt:  \nhttp://www.egyptheart.org/\nhttp://neferchichi.com/
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When it came to building the Pyramids one first must develop the idea, make the decision based upon planning and available resources. The man power required and the support teams. Before recruitment of the labor force study the cost of transport and gathering of materials and employment of the managers in order to get things moving. You have to feed these people too. Additional resources in social behavior is a plus.
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the regularity and richness of the annual nile river flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. a unified kingdom arose circa 3200 b.c. and a series of dynasties ruled in egypt for the next three millennia. the last native dynasty fell to the persians in 341 b.c., who in turn were replaced by the greeks, romans, and byzantines. it was the arabs who introduced islam and the arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries. a local military caste, the mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of egypt by the ottoman turks in 1517. following the completion of the suez canal in 1869, egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. ostensibly to protect its investments, britain seized control of egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the ottoman empire continued until 1914. partially independent from the uk in 1922, egypt acquired full sovereignty following world war II. the completion of the aswan high dam in 1971 and the resultant lake nasser have altered the time-honored place of the nile river in the agriculture and ecology of egypt. a rapidly growing population (the largest in the arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. the government has struggled to ready the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure. \n\nlocation: northern africa, bordering the mediterranean sea, between libya and the gaza strip, and the red sea north of sudan, and includes the asian sinai peninsula  \n\ngeographic coordinates: 27 00 n, 30 00 e  \nmap references: africa  \n\narea:    \ntotal: 1,001,450 sq km \nland: 995,450 sq km \nwater: 6,000 sq km  \n\narea - comparative: slightly more than three times the size of new mexico  \nland boundaries: total: 2,665 km border countries: gaza strip 11 km, israel 266 km, libya 1,115 km, sudan 1,273 km  \n\ncoastline: 2,450 km  \n\nclimate: desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters  \nterrain: vast desert plateau interrupted by nile valley and delta  \n\nelevation extremes:   \nlowest point: qattara depression -133 m \nhighest point: mount catherine 2,629 m  \n\nnatural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc  \n\npopulation: 77,505,756 (july 2005 est.)  \nage structure: 0-14 years: 33% (male 13,106,043/female 12,483,899) 15-64 years: 62.6% (male 24,531,266/female 23,972,216) 65 years and over: 4.4% (male 1,457,097/female 1,955,235) (2005 est.)  \n\nnationality:   \nnoun: egyptian(s) \nadjective: egyptian  \n\nethnic groups:   \neastern hamitic stock (egyptians, bedouins, and berbers) 99%, greek, nubian, armenian, other european (primarily italian and french) 1%  \n\nreligions:   \nmuslim (mostly sunni) 94%, coptic christian and other 6%  \n\nlanguages: arabic (official), english and french widely understood by educated classes  \n\ngovernment type: republic  \ncapital: cairo\n\nand so much more on by source...
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There are many pyramids. They are mostly made of rock; some have dirt fillings.  You need to be more specific to get a better answer.
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I would want to go back to hmm lemme see Egyptian Period! To know the secrets of building pyramids and stuff :-)Really fascinating!!!
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The Egyption. see source
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Which pyramid at Cairo are you referring to? Where abouts on the pyramid?\n\nAre you referring to the hieroglyphs? Hieroglyphs adorn most ancient buildings and tombs (Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Abu Simbel, etc.).
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http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/egypt_pyramids.htm
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Go to the tourism website of EGYPT !!! The main attraction is the left overs of old civilization,, and how Nile was used for agriculture and trade routes ....it is also possible to say that BECAUSE OF NILE WE HAVE PYRAMIDS... This all attracts tourists
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I don't have any solid research but I imagine there were at least a few general reasons:\n\nTo spread out a kingdom because individuals and their livestock needed more land, OR to accomodate growing populations in a certain kingdom/city/empire.\n\nTo provide a safer buffer from enemies, that is, cities in the center of an increasing territory for better protection.\n\nTo secure resources or trade routes\n\nTo convert other people to the expanding religion\n\nTo populate newly/randomly discovered territories\n\nI am editing now, I suppose those things could have been the reason in the very earliest of times but in prehistoric societies, I bet survival sums it up pretty well. Maybe not expansion but certainly the nomadic thing...pick up and move to beat the weather or a threatening pack of animals, to find food or land appropriate to grow food and support livestock. Territory would certainly have had something to do with it, if there was a serious enough pissing contest with a threatening enough adversary, such as an unfriendly neighboring clan, a settlement of people might pick up and move to give themselves more safety by giving the big guy wider berth.
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The aztecs were building pyramids long before the egyptians in South America!