Profile Essay on the Egyptian Pyramids

Meeting one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World at the desert plains of Egypt lies the immense remnants of Jewish civilization. Making a dominant impression on the representation of the great pyramids of ancient Egypt portrays the great endeavor of human civilization works passed down to the historical description of beauty and heritage. The construction of the four-sided pyramids with squared flat bases made the imposing structures impressive to civilization epochs as purposive symbolism in ancient Egyptians life.

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The extraordinary feat of engineering and the innovative impression has transported the fascinating purpose of the pyramids in Egypt's historical representation of culture and heritage, especially, on the enormous sizes of the constructions as posed by the building materials and the finished products. Egypt's pride in the great work engineered by the ancient civilization to give birth to the remarkable world wonders that have made an impressive contribution to the exploration of Egyptian history and culture (Isler, 2001). The Egyptian pyramid is positioned on the Giza Plateau in Egypt and symbolized significant social and cultural representation of the people in the twenty-sixth century BC because they were erected as tombs for the pharaohs and other royal members of the community. This only surviving of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the tallest human-made building before 1885 before the completion of the Washington Monument that competed in the height properties. To-date the most magnificent pyramid of the others still houses the remains of the pharaoh Khufu - Cheops - the other two most magnificent pyramids housed the remains of Khufu's son - Khafra and his grandson after that - Mankaure (Verner, 1997). The construction made a spectacle inspiration of passion and dedication of the engineers of the day to build the development that stands four hundred and eighty-one feet from the ground. Moreover, contemporary construction and archeologist experts estimate that the buildings were composed of a total of two and a half million blocks made of limestone and granite that were quarried on the southeast quarry site from the pyramid location. The dimension properties of the pyramids are estimated to have an average weight of 2.5 tons each and one hundred and sixty-four feet wide as well as an upward gradient of sixty degrees. This unique quality of the construction properties makes the pyramid have a significant impact on the ancient Egyptian history as well as the contemporary understanding of their culture and religion as well as social stratification of the people. In this sense the pyramids contribution to the knowledge of the Seven-Wanders of the World.

Learning about the historical representation of the pyramids built during the reign of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom in the pharaoh leadership in Egypt. This period Egypt faced severe foreign threats to weaken their military strength causing the rulers to switch the agricultural human resources that were the primary economic activity and dependency of the people to build the pyramids feasibly. Sneferu the first king ion the four dynasties built the Bent and Red pyramids positioned on the Southlands of Dahshur in Saqqara. Later Khufu's son during his reign oversaw the building of the complex pyramid located at the western cemetery. All these significant rulers were determined to leave a legacy on their contribution to the preservation of the royal heritage after the demise of the rulers' in the four dynasty regime.

The archaeologist's certainty on the associate the construction of the pyramids with slavery to provide sufficient labor for the ten to fifteen years of development with an estimated forty thousand workers during the Khufu reign on the Giza plateau. During the same period, three smaller pyramids were built to serve as the tombs that house the remains of Khufu's wives. Later upon his death, Khufu was buried in The Great Pyramid in the king's chamber that also has the grand gallery. The Great Pyramid together with the other pyramids built later by Khafra and Menkaure dominated the site that is today prided for the spectacle scenery attracting the world the beauty and magnificent view of the pyramids rising on the Giza plateau (Smith, 2004). Again the pyramids form a fantastic view because of the small stones of Mastabas surrounding the area to represent the tombs of family members of the royal class, officials and religious priests who were gifted by the pharaoh.

The fascinating Egyptian pyramids have over the years remained mysterious in their symbolic representation of the significant factors of the Egyptian culture. This well-built architecture construction positioned in Giza plateau on the west banks of the great Nile River to make the long debatable evidence on the age of the pyramids to know the exert dates of their building. Moreover, the debate on the exert personality who build the pyramids gives contradicting theoretical understanding on how the pyramids were built in the reign of one pharaoh lifetime. In the bid to understand the situation and places the numerous workers used to build the pyramids lived poses questions. Inscriptions found on the outer side of the pyramids offer hints on the type of people who worked on the construction projects. Although the inscriptions are not comprehensive details on the workers to give comprehensive information, the archeological remains exhumed from the mass gravesites on the sides of the pyramids show the magnitude of the workers. All this information provide speculations on the characteristics of the workers without precise details on their origin as well as their total number; therefore, most historians use estimates to give information on the working conditions that gave birth to the construction of one of the living Seven-Wonders of the Ancient world. Due to lack of substantial information about the workers participating in the building of the pyramid, therefore, has given rise to speculations on the legitimacy of their ethnicity as well as the possibilities of slavery to pump cheap or free labor to the massive projects constructions.

The unique elements of the pyramid are the shape that is over the years presumed to have a meaningful religious statement. Some scholarly speculations and arguments perceive that the shape of the pyramid emulated the sun rays to have an ethical implication of the king's soul to climb and join the gods to the sky. This speculator believes portray the strong religious beliefs on the life after death and the significance of the things the Egyptians did during their life attributed to what will happen to them after their death. The pharaohs considered their will to get the pathway to the sky to meet with the gods after their demise was accelerated through the high heights of the pyramids. Again, the pyramid symbolism represented the primordial mound on the Egyptians' thought and believed in the creation of the earth. The cultural and religious beliefs that the dark area in the night sky gives the natural gateway into the heaven. Thus, the pharaohs created their pathway to the heavens by constructing the pyramids in the mythological realm of the life after death.

Nevertheless, the pyramids did not stand alone on the ground on the Giza plateau yet, and they were placed with other groups of the building including massive walls, chapels, temples, as well as other social significant tombs for other members of the society. In the scarcity of the ancient records on the issues to do with the construction and additional relevant information regarding with the development of the pyramids within the supposed fifteen years of edifice does not give present archeologists and scholars to know the accurate information about the pharaoh idea in the construction of the pyramids. At the end of the pyramid era in the post-fifth and sixth dynasties saw the decline of the king's power and wealth and saw many Egyptians inscribe their dissatisfaction on different aspects of the pyramid constructions and related concerns on the outside perimeter of the pyramids. The creation of these pyramid text formed other significant elements in the representation of the ancient Egyptian culture and religion. During this periods tomb robbers took advantage of the neglect accorded to the pyramids and started stealing the valuable larger placed in honor of the past dynasties.. in the contemporary era today the pyramids draw millions of people globally each year to get a grasp of the towering grandeur as well as the enduring allure of the historical riches displayed in the monuments of the Egyptian pyramid enclosure.

Works cited

Isler, Martin. Sticks, Stones, and Shadows; Building the Egyptian Pyramids. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.

Smith, Craig B. How the Great Pyramid Was Built. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2004.

Verner, Miroslav. The Pyramids. New York: Grove Press, 1997.