| By :
Tomer Harel
The pyramids of Egypt stand as a testimony to their culture, lifestyle and religion. The pyramids have always been a mystery to people of other cultures because of their unusual size and strange structure. To our amazement, many of these structures have endured the test of time, weather and attacks by other countries. Ancient Egyptians believed that a pharaoh became Osiris, king of the dead, when he died. The new Pharaoh would then become Horus, god of the heavens and protector of the sun god. The rising and setting of the sun was their symbol of this important daily cycle. They also believed that a part of the pharaoh's spirit would stay within his body. Therefore, they believed that the corpse had to receive proper care in order to allow the new pharaoh to be able to carry out his duties as the king of the dead. Each pharaoh was then mummified in order to preserve his body for the afterlife. They also put food, furniture, gold and other materials in with the body so that he would have them in his afterlife. Not all Egyptians tombs were pyramids. Prior to the pyramids, they build tombs that carved into bedrock and then put a flat roofed structure on the top. Sometimes, they covered the tops with mounds of dirt. It is possible that the shape of the pyramid evolved from these tomb mounds. Another theory is that the pyramids were modeled after the sun's rays. They believed that the pharaohs could reach heaven through the sunbeams bouncing off the top point of the pyramids. While we often see pictures of slaves or foreigners building the pyramids, excavations prove that the workers were other Egyptians who lived in nearby villages. They would work under one of pharaoh's supervisors. The people from these villages worked as butchers, bakers, brewers and possibly even some sort of health care facilities. Pharaoh also had permanent workers that were hired exclusively for the building of the pyramids. It took a time span of over eighty years to build the pyramids, with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 workers. It is believed that this occurred while the Nile River was flooded. The flooding made it possible to float huge limestone blocks from quarries right to the base of the pyramids. The stones would then be polished by hand and put into their correct place with the use of ramps. It still remains a mystery as to how the exact shape of the pyramids was achieved. Architects believe that it took more than man-power to accomplish this. The workers possibly used ropes to line the stones up correctly and maybe even other pulley type devices to acquire the desired location of each block. While archeologists and architects have been able to answer many of the questions about the pyramids, there are still mysteries. The beautiful edifices stand as a remembrance to the strong culture and religion of the ancient Egyptians. The mystery behind them truly serves as one of the reasons that they are popular to tourists even today. It's truly amazing to consider the amount of time, work and dedication that went into the building of such amazing, beautiful monuments.
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