What is the mystery behind the Egyptian Pyramids?
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You can find Mummies in there.
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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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Pyramid-shaped structures were built by many ancient civilizations. The most famous are the Egyptian pyramids — huge pyramids built of brick or stone. Standard Archaeology claims that they were used as tombs for pharaohs, however their many surprising features have birthed many alternative theories, particularly since the great pyramids have never yielded a body. The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the largest in Egypt and in the world. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the only one of the seven to survive into modern times. The ancient Egyptians capped the peaks of their pyramids with gold and covered their faces with polished white limestone, though many of the stones used for the purpose have fallen or been removed for other structures over the millennia.\n\nTo the south of Egypt the Nubians also built pyramids. They built far more than the Egyptians, but they are much smaller. The Nubian pyramids were constructed at a much steeper angle than Egyptian ones and were not tombs, but monuments to dead kings. Pyramids were built in Nubia up until the AD 300s.\n\nThe Mesopotamians also built step pyramids, or ziggurats. In ancient times these were brightly painted. Since they were constructed of mud-brick, little remains of them. The biblical Tower of Babel is believed to be a Babylonian ziggurat.\n\nA number of Mesoamerican cultures also built pyramid-shaped structures. Mesoamerican pyramids were also usually stepped, with temples on top, more similar to the Mesopotamian ziggurat than the Egyptian pyramid. The largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the Mexican state of Puebla. This pyramid is also considered the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world, but it is still being excavated. There is an unusual pyramid with a circular plan at the site of Cuilcuilco, now inside Mexico City and mostly covered with lava from an ancient eruption of Xictli.\n\nPyramids in Mexico were considered sacrificial places (used to kill slaves, in worship of their powerful gods).\n\nThere are other pyramid-shaped ancient monuments found in parts of Georgia.\n\nThere is a pyramid in ancient Rome. The 27-meter-high Pyramid of Cestius was built by the end of the first century BC and still exists today, close to the Porta San Paolo.\n\nThere are quite a few flat-top pyramids in China. The First Emperor of Qin (221 B.C.~), with the terracotta warriors in vicinity, was buried under a large pyramid outside modern day Xi'an. In the following centuries a dozen more Chinese royalties of Han Dynasty were also buried under flat top pyramidal earth works.
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Pyramids 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 was told the pyramids at Giza were constructed by slaves, Herodotus was wrong about any number of things in his reports and may not even have visited Egypt in perso
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There are no more famous ancient sites within Egypt, or for that matter elsewhere in the world, than the Great Pyramids at Giza. They are, without question, the icon most associated with the Egypt. They have been both the main destination for tourists, and a source of imaginative thought to the world for over three thousand years.\n\nHowever, there are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt, many of which are relatively unknown to anyone who is not an ancient Egypt enthusiast. All but a very few are grouped around and near the City of Cairo, just south of the Nile Delta. Otherwise, only one royal pyramid is known in southern Egypt (at Abydos), that being the one built by Ahmose, founder of the 18th Dynasty and Egypt's New Kingdom. It may have also been the last royal pyramid built in Egypt.\n\nHence, major pyramids were not built throughout Egypt's ancient history. The Pyramid Age began with a burst of building, starting with the 3rd Dynasty reign of Djoser. Some of the early kings, most specifically Snefru, built more than one pyramid. Almost all of the kings added to their number through the end of the Middle Kingdom, with the possible exception of the First Intermediate Period between the Old and Middle Kingdoms. After the first Pharaoh of Egypt's New Kingdom, Ahmose, royal pyramid building by Egyptians ceased entirely. Somewhat abruptly the kings of the New Kingdom chose, rather than making their tombs completely obvious, to hide them in the hills of the West Bank of Thebes (modern Luxor).\n\nHowever, smaller pyramids were constructed, for example in the Deir el-Medina necropolis, by private individuals. The Late Period Nubians who ruled Egypt also built relatively small pyramids with much steeper sides, though these were in fact constructed in Nubia itself. This tradition was carried on in Nubia after these southern rulers lost control of Egypt, and eventually, more pyramids were actually built in Nubia than Egypt, though on a much smaller scale.\n\nOther pyramids in the world certainly exist, but their purpose, for the most part, was different than those of ancient Egypt. The most famous outside Egypt are probably those located in Mexico and to the south of Mexico, but these appear to have been built more as temples. In Egypt, all but a select few of the pyramids were built as tombs, sometimes to hold the physical body of a pharaoh (as well as other individuals), or to hold the soul of the deceased (as in the case of the small cult pyramids built next to the larger ones). Otherwise, the purpose of only a few small, regional stepped pyramids remains elusive.\n\nWhile pyramids were, for the most part, tombs for the Pharaohs of Egypt, one must nevertheless question the reason that Egyptian rulers chose this particular shape, and for that matter, why they built them so large. Today, we believe that they chose the shape in order to mimic the Benben, a pyramid shaped stone found in the earliest of temples, which itself is thought to symbolize the primeval mound from which the Egyptians believed life emerged. This also connected the pyramid to Re, the Sun God, as it was he, according to some of the ancient Egypt mythology, who rose from the primeval mound to create life.\n\nAs far the great size of many of the pyramids in Egypt, we can really only surmise that the Pharaohs were making a statement about their own power and perhaps, about the glory and strength of their country. However, it should also be remembered that many of the latter pyramids were not nearly as large as the Great Pyramids at Giza (and elsewhere).\n\nPyramids evolved. The first of them was not a perfectly formed pyramid. In fact, the first Pyramid we believe that was built in Egypt, that of Djoser, was not a true pyramid at all with smooth sides and a point at the top. Rather, its sides were stepped, and the top of the pyramid truncated with a flat surface (as best we know). As the Egyptian pyramids evolved, there were failures as well glorious fail
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That's a very good (and sligthly difficult) question! People have been interested in the history of Egypt for a long time, in fact it was all the rage in ancient Greece after Herodotus wrote a sort of travel book on the region in the 5th century BC!\nDespite this, and all the research and archealogy in the region over the years, there's still a lot we don't really know about early Egypt...\n\nPeople were probably beginning to settle down along the Nile as long ago as 6000 BC, and the size of settlements apprently began to grow quite rapidly after around 4000 BC. After about 3500 BC there's evidence of towns with bud-brick buildings and what we now call Egypt seems to have been split loosely into  two smaller kingdoms: Lower Egypt, along the north of the Nile and its delta, and Upper Egypt, along the southern part of the Nile river.\nThe exact details are a bit of a mystery, but around 3100 BC a King from Upper Egypt defeated the King of the Delta and united the country for the first time.\n\nBefore the unification we call the 'Predynastic period' and after this came the 'Early dynastic period', which could be considered the beginning of a single reign of Egypt.\n\nThere were many more dynasties in Egypt, including a period we call 'The Old Kingdom', which is when Egypt's most famous landmarks were built - the pyramids!\n\nIf you want to know more, there's a very good website from the British Museum at http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html
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The ancient Egyptians were perfectly capable of using the basic mathematics necessary for the construction and layout of most pyramids. Despite the superb accuracy of the layout and plan, this was not impossible for them to achieve, nor did it require calculus. While no mathematical texts from the Old Kingdom survive, texts from the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period demonstrate a clear familiarity on the part of the Egyptians with basic arithmetic, geometry, and trigonometry.\n\nThere is absolutely no evidence that alien help was needed to construct the pyramids, which were intended as tombs for Egyptian kings.\nSome of the best evidence for human responsibility, and specifically Egyptian human responsibility dating to the 4th Dynasty, for the construction of pyramids comes from the site of Giza itself. Giza is the place most people think of when they think of Egyptian pyramids, though there are numerous pyramids in other areas of Egypt and Nubia and the Giza pyramids are by no means the earliest pyramids constructed in Egypt.\nAlso of significance are a number of inscriptions associated with the so-called "Great Pyramid" of Khafre at Giza. One of the inscriptions on a stone block making up the pyramid gives the name and regnal year of Khafre. Others bear the names given to crews of workmen responsible for moving the stone blocks into place. At least one of these inscriptions is located in an area almost impossible to reach - frequently the inscription is examined using a mirror - thus making it highly unlikely that it was a later addition.\n\n\n\n\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 Kin
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The latest in graphix design is called "The Egyptian Technology". Computer researchers are now exploring the depts of the pyramids to find out how the pharoah and his people came up with the 3-D option of making pyramids. However the martian government has now offended the researchers in this regard. The martians claimed that the pharoahs how are now in mars have opposed to the research because of the fact that it involves opening of the graves. The pharoahs believe that once the tombs are opened then they have to come back. They quite like the life in mars better than the life here in earth. Hence, the researchers have now takent he matter to the highest authority on earth, that is the UNO. The UN supreme court will now have to solve a dispute between the martians and the humans..\n\n\n---x--\nto answer your question - WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION!
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It seems to be a toss up between ancient Hindu scripture or some of the earliest Egyptian writings like the book of the dead.\n\nThe Hindu stuff is fascinating. It sounds like the same things that the quantum physics guys are saying. Makes you wonder how the Hindus knew this stuff 4000 years ago.\n\nLove and blessings Don
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No. Humans built the pyramids. The building of the pyramids was recorded and is not a mystery. People who say that aliens did it are denying humankind of some of their greatest achievements. We're a brilliant species, why not be proud of it?
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IF... and that's a HUGE IF... there are structures or pyramids on Mars, the only explanation would be that some sort of civilization erected those structures.\n\nIn other words, ALIENS.
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the greatest mystery known to man. ...\n\nSPAM
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There were many theories regarding relationships between Egypt and Mezoamerican cultures.  Yes, there are pyramids, but it only makes sense to worship the sun and what better way to worship than to build structures that point TOWARDS the sun?  \n\nBack in the 70s and 80s a man named Thor Heyerdal built boats out of papyrus and sailed them from Cairo to Yucatan.  He proved that they COULD have sailed to the Americas, but there never was any conclusive evidence of it.  By now, with genetic mapping, someone would have tried to link the Maya or Aztec markers to Pharaonic times.  I have not heard or seen anything to persuade me otherwise.  \n\nIt is much more likely that peoples from later than the Egyptians, with an empire based on sailing and trade, reached the Americas.  Those would be the Phoenicians.  With their origins in the far Eastern Mediterranean (present day Lebanon), a branch split off and founded the empire of Carthage in northern Africa.  They had a trading and sailing monopoly in the ancient world, and a large enough power base that the Greeks gave them a wide berth, and it wasn't until the Romans that they were subdued.  \n\nBut I digress.  Phoenician sailing vessels were rowing galleys with a large sail, similar to a Viking ship, but with several tiers of rowers.  Biremes (two rows) triremes (three tiers), all the way to quintiremes (five), were capable of carrying hundreds of troops.  They were technologically advanced enough that they could have reached the Americas.  Again, no proof.\n\nAs for Atlantis, who knows where Atlantis is.  Some say it was in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.  If that is the case, that was not very far from Egypt, or Northern Africa, but pretty durn far away from Mexico.\n\nSo to asnwer your question:  There is no conclusive evidence of any relationship between the Aztecs or Mayas and the Egyptians.  A pyramid is a fairly basic shape, pointing skyward at the "sun god".  Could simply be coincidence.
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A) There are 3 great pyramids at Giza. I'm supposing you mean the largest, the one for Khufu or Cheops as the Greeks called him.\n\nB) Its purpose was twofold. One, to hold in security for eternity the fleshly remains of the Pharaoh and two, to allow his spirit, or ka, to ascend to the heavens with ease and to find its way back home with equal ease.\n\nC) There are those who maintain that simply because the pyramid was unadorned, unfilled with either treasure OR mummy, that it must have had some other purpose, perhaps mystical or paranormal. Sorry. A far more likely explanation was that it was left unfinished when news came that an earlier pyramid had been successfully broken into and robbed. Khufu didn't think quite so highly of HIS final resting place after that and probably made arangements for his body and his goodies to be interred someplace a lot more secret than a 450 ft. tall 3 acre monument one can see from the moon!
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Nor inside ANY of the ancient egyptian monuments made prior to the Roman invasion in 52 B.C. The egyptians used another mechanism:Mirrors!\nYes they used a complicated system of mirrors to reflect the day light all the way inside the huge monuments they've built, which were siometimes several hundereds of feet high (like the pryamids, which aremore than 80 pyramids, the most famous of which,the biggest, but not the oldest, are the 3 giza pyramids) or far below the ground(tutemoses grave and other similarly fabulous graves in valley of the kings, or dug several meters deep inside solid granite mountains (like "Dir El Bahary" temple of hatshipsut)\nYes, as agatha christie said,they did it with mirrors :)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_egypt
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They have pyramids.\n\nCoach