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Pyramid

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture

   A pyramid is any three-dimensional structure where the upper surfaces
   are triangular and converge on one point. The base of a pyramid is
   usually quadrilateral or trilateral (but generally it can be any
   polygon shape), meaning that a pyramid usually has three or four sides
   (but theoretically there is no limit to the number of sides a pyramid
   can generally have), but all pyramids must have trilateral sides. The
   measurements of these triangles uniformly classify the shape as
   isosceles and sometimes equilateral.

   A pyramid's design, with the majority of the weight closer to the
   ground, means that less material higher up on the pyramid will be
   pushing down from above. This allowed early civilizations to create
   stable monumental structures. For thousands of years, the largest
   structures on Earth were pyramids: first the Red Pyramid in the Dashur
   Necropolis and then the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the only remaining
   Wonder of the World.

Ancient monuments

   The ancient pyramids of Egypt
   Enlarge
   The ancient pyramids of Egypt

   Pyramid-shaped structures were built by many ancient civilizations.

Egyptian pyramids

   The most famous pyramids are the Egyptian pyramids — huge structures
   built of brick or stone, some of which are among the largest man-made
   constructions.

   Pyramids functioned as tombs for pharaohs. The Great Pyramid of Giza is
   the largest in Egypt and one of the largest 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.

   The inspiration for Egypt's pyramids is a subject of debate. Some
   Egyptologists have seen King Djoser's Step Pyramid as a symbolic
   representation of ancient Egypt's stratified society. A more recent
   hypothesis by Patricia Blackwell Gary and Richard Talcott ("Stargazing
   in Ancient Egypt," Astronomy, June 2006, pp. 62-67) derives the shapes
   of the pyramid and of the obelisk from natural phenomena associated
   with the sun (the sun-god Re being the Egyptians' greatest deity). The
   pyramid and obelisk would have been inspired by previously overlooked
   astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset: the zodiacal
   light and Sun pillars, respectively.

   Most Egyptians prepared for death; they tried to provide a secure
   resting place that would last an eternity. Although this was their
   wish, it did not work that way. Often times the weather and tomb
   robbers were the main culprits that destroyed many tombs. Most tomb
   robbers, who were believed to be the tomb builders, often reentered the
   tomb after it was sealed, unwrapping the mummy and removing all amulets
   and stones. The coffins made of wood, which also held many precious
   stones, where also picked and destroyed. After destroying the tomb,
   many of the mummies would be taken out and burnt for fuel or sold as a
   souvenir product. Although tomb robbers were the main culprits, modern
   cultures also influenced the desecration of many mummies.

Nubian pyramids

   Nubian pyramids were constructed (roughly 220 of them) at three sites
   in Nubia to serve as tombs for the kings and queens of Napata and
   Meroë.

   The Nubians 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 to AD 300.

Mesopotamians pyramids

   The Mesopotamians also built pyramids, called 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 have been a Babylonian ziggurat.

Mesoamerican pyramids

   A number of Mesoamerican cultures also built pyramid-shaped structures.
   Mesoamerican pyramids were 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 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 Cuicuilco, now inside Mexico City and mostly covered with lava from
   an ancient eruption of Xictli.Pyramids in Mexico were often used as
   places of sacrifice.

France

   There is a Roman era pyramid built in Falicon, France.

Ancient Rome

   Pyramid of Cestius
   Enlarge
   Pyramid of Cestius

   There 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. Another one, named Meta Romuli,
   standing in the Ager Vaticanus (today's Borgo), was destroyed at the
   end of the 15th century.

China

   There are a few flat-top pyramids in China. The First Emperor of Qin
   (circa 221 B.C.), with the terracotta warriors in the vicinity, was
   buried under a large pyramid outside modern day Xi'an. In the following
   centuries about a dozen more Han Dynasty royals were also buried under
   flat top pyramidal earth works.

Ancient Greece

   There are several structures in Greece that archaeologists have called
   pyramids. Dotted throughout the landscape are remains of buildings that
   were described by ancient travelers as pyramids. They were first
   excavated by the Americans and the Germans in the early 1930s and the
   1990s.

   Pausanias, a Greek traveler in the second century A.D. described
   several of the structures as pyramids. One of these pyramids was
   located in Helliniko,Ελληνικό in Greek,a village near Argos near the
   ancient ruins of Tiryns. The story surrounding the monument was that it
   was built as a polyandria, a common grave, for those soldiers who had
   fallen in the struggle for the throne of Argos back in the 14th Century
   B.C. He described the structure as something that resembled a pyramid
   with the decorations of Argolic shields, showing the military
   connection to it. Another pyramid that Pausanias saw on his journeys
   was at Kenchreai, another polyandria dedicated to the Argives and
   Spartans who lost their lives at the Battle of Hysiai in 669 B.C.
   Unfortunately neither of these structures remain fully intact today to
   test how closely they resembled the pyramids of Egypt nor is there any
   proof that they even resembled an Egyptian pyramid at all.

   There are two surviving pyramid-like structures still available to
   study, one at Helleniko and the other at Ligourio,a village near the
   ancient theatre Epidaurus. With these two pyramid’s base stones
   remaining, it is possible to determine that Grecian pyramids existed,
   but were not used as the Egyptians used them. These buildings were not
   constructed in the same manner as the pyramids in Egypt. The buildings
   at Helleniko and Ligourio were no more than 100 feet tall and were
   surrounded by walls, with the base of the Helleniko pyramid being nine
   meters by 7 meters. The stones used to build the pyramids was limestone
   quarried locally and were cut to fit together, not into freestanding
   blocks like the Great Pyramid of Giza. The base of the structure also
   differed from the Egyptians pyramids as they were rectangular, not
   square. This simple construction shape made it very difficult to make
   the top of the building come together in a point. As such, it makes
   more sense that these structures could have been peaked by a roof or
   platform.

   They also differ from Egypt’s monuments in that the functional roles of
   these buildings were not funerary tombs, but they gave a service to the
   living. There are no remains or graves in or near the structures.
   Instead, the rooms that the walls housed were made to be locked from
   the inside. This coupled with the platform roof, means that one of the
   functions these structures could have served was as watchtowers.
   Another possibility for the buildings is that they are shrines to
   heroes and soldiers of ancient times, but the lock on the inside makes
   no sense for such a purpose.

   The dating of these ‘pyramids’ has been made from the pot shards
   excavated from the floor and on the grounds. The latest dates available
   from scientific dating have been estimated around the 5th and 4th
   centuries. There are many researchers who have given dates to the
   structures that pre-date the pyramids at Giza, but the method to obtain
   these dates was thermoluminescence of the stone. Normally this
   technique is used for dating pottery, but here researchers have used it
   to try and date stone flakes from the walls of the structures. This has
   created some debate about whether or not these ‘pyramids’ are actually
   older than Egypt, which is part of the Black Athena controversy. The
   basis for their use of thermoluminescence in order to date these
   structures is a new method of collecting samples for testing.
   Scientists from laboratories hired out by the recent excavators of the
   site, The Academy of Athens, say that they can use the electrons
   trapped on the inner surface of the stones to positively identify the
   date that the stones were quarried and put together.

   The problem with this method is that they date the pyramids with a
   margin of error of up to over 700 years. This method dated the
   Helleniko pyramid to 2730 B.C. with an error factor of plus or minus
   720 years. It also dated the Ligourio pyramid to 2260 B.C. with an
   error of plus or minus 710 years. Though these initial dates are
   indicative of these structures being built before the pyramid complex
   at Giza, it also means that they could have been built well after
   Khufu’s Great Pyramid was erected. Some archaeologists, however, have
   indicated that these samples may have been very select in their choice
   of which stones to sample. Further excavations of the site at Helleniko
   reveal that it was constructed on a previously existing structure,
   giving a possibility that the new methods of dating may be a
   misinterpretation.

   Along with these two structures there are 14 more pyramid-like
   buildings, or their remains, scattered throughout the rest of the
   country side of Greece. These sites do not get as much attention as the
   two at Helleniko and Ligourio as they are the only ones mentioned in
   surviving accounts of ancient travelers.

Modern pyramids

   The Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California
   Enlarge
   The Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California

   Pyramids have occasionally been used in Christian architecture of the
   feudal era, e.g. as the tower of Oviedo's Gothic Cathedral of San
   Salvador. In some cases this leads to speculations on masonic or other
   symbolical intentions.

   An example of a modern pyramid can be found in Paris, France, in the
   court of the Louvre Museum. The Louvre Pyramid is a 20.6 meter (about
   70 foot) glass structure which acts as an entrance to the museum. It
   was designed by the American architect I. M. Pei and completed in 1989.

   The Transamerica Pyramid in Downtown San Francisco, California.

   The 32-story Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee (built in 1991) was
   the home court for the University of Memphis men's basketball program,
   and the National Basketball Association's Memphis Grizzlies until 2004.

   The Walter Pyramid, home of the basketball and volleyball teams of the
   California State University, Long Beach, campus in California, United
   States, is an 18-story-tall blue pyramid.

   The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, United States, is a 30-story pyramid with
   light beaming from the top.

   The Summum Pyramid, a 3 story pyramid in Salt Lake City, Utah, used for
   instruction in the Summum philosophy and conducting rites associated
   with Modern Mummification.

   The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Gallery

   The Louvre Pyramid, a modern pyramid built as an entrance to the Louvre
   Museum in Paris

   The Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee

   Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas

   The Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California

   The Summum Pyramid in Salt Lake City, Utah

   Transamerica Pyramid

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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