Read time: 5 minutes

There’s an old proverb about the pyramids from the 12th century:

Man fears time; time fears the pyramids. 

It’s sobering to be reminded just how old they are: Cleopatra lived closer in time to today than she did to the construction of the Great Pyramid.

Mysterious, silent, and thoroughly iconic — over 4,000 years after their construction, the pyramids of Egypt never cease to enchant and inspire.

Man’s effort to reach towards the heavens is what creates culture itself, and no achievement shows this like the Great Pyramid: the last-standing of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

How did they achieve it? By incrementing and improving over centuries…

From Mud to Mastaba

Around 3150 BC, a ruler known to history as Narmer unified the scattered African groups congregating around the Nile River’s life-giving waters. 

Once united, these tribal groups grew in power and organization. Motivated by a vivid afterlife mythology, early Egyptian rulers constructed tombs in the form of “mastabas,” low, rectangular mud-brick buildings that covered the burial chamber tunneled below.

It wasn’t until 2630 that one visionary changed history. Imhotep, a polyglot priest in the court of King Djoser and overseeing construction of the King’s tomb, had an idea: he ordered a second rectangular platform to be built on top of the first.

He added a third, then a fourth. By King Djoser’s death, the tomb consisted of six layers of descending size, creating the first rough pyramid.

The blocky shape of this “Stepped Pyramid'' is more familiar in the ziggurats of Mesopotamia and temples of Mesoamerica. However, Djoser’s pyramid is about 500 years older and 100 feet taller than the great Ziggurat of Ur…

Practice Makes History

Generations of pharaohs after Djoser followed his example and attempted to construct stepped pyramids of their own, but due to their short reigns, none of them completed their tombs.

During the reign of King Sneferu (2613-2589 BC), though, the world saw the wonder of the first smooth-sided pyramid — but it didn’t come easily. 

Sneferu was seized by the idea of adding smooth sides to a stepped pyramid. His first attempt to do so was flawed by trying to build the smooth-sided outer layer on sand, which gave way during construction and caused a partial collapse. This “False Pyramid” is still visible at Meidum today. 

Next, Sneferu tried building a smooth-sided pyramid from the ground up. He founded this one on rock, but designed it with such steep sides that the limestone blocks began to slide out from under the structure’s weight. Hastily altering the design to incorporate a shallower angle, Sneferu completed the so-called “Bent Pyramid,” but he remained unsatisfied. 

Sneferu’s final attempt at construction created the “Red Pyramid.” Though its angle is shallower than the iconic Giza pyramids, giving it a squat appearance, it made history as Egypt’s first true pyramid — a landmark moment which successive pharaohs were eager to build on. 

Wonders of the World

Sneferu’s son and successor, Khufu, elevated his father’s legacy by creating the true icon of Egypt: the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

Standing over 480 feet high, it remains the largest pyramid in the world. It’s surrounded by the pyramids of his son and grandson (in successively diminishing height) and three small pyramids for Khufu’s queens. The Giza necropolis also includes a small suburb of mastabas in which Khufu’s court officials are buried, as well as the 66-foot tall Great Sphynx.

The pyramids were the emblem of Egypt’s prosperity, confidence, and cultural progress. They served not just as funeral monuments, but as symbols of Egypt’s evolving power and identity.

A Veil of Simplicity

The pyramids are stark but not at all simplistic. While the slopes of each pyramid lie at differing angles (between 50 and 56 degrees), the Great Pyramid is especially unique in that its proportions are based on the Golden Ratio. 

These proportions endow the Great Pyramid with its mysterious magnetism. More than a monolith, its stripped-down structure comprises myriad mathematical harmonies that, while a viewer may not be able to identify or explain, he cannot help but feel.

Some analysts even claim that the comparison between the angle of the Great Pyramid and the angle of the typical sand dune also echoes the Golden Ratio, creating a mystical harmony between the architecture and its surroundings… 

Reaching for the Sun

Mountains are universal places of worship for virtually all world religions. From the Temple of the Sun in Mesoamerica to the Ziggurats of the Middle East, most all great temples imitate this shape.

These mountain-shaped structures all tell the universal story of civilization: each generation must build on what came before, taking previous achievements to new heights. Standing on the shoulders of its forebears, a culture can build a legacy that dazzles the world — and at the same time, reaches toward heaven. That’s why the pyramid is the ultimate symbol of culture rising out of chaos.

This story of culture-building plays out in the story of the pyramids: no single generation alone achieved the glory that has lasted 4,000 years. Sons built on their fathers’ work, learned from their mistakes, and trusted their accomplishments. In time, this chain of tradition built a civilization like no other, leaving a legacy that has outlasted millennia. 

In the face of such a staggering accomplishment, we have to ask ourselves: how can each of us build on the personal and cultural legacy that we’ve inherited? 

Art of the Week

Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign (1798-1801) incited Europe’s nineteenth-century love of Egypt’s mysterious and mystical past. 

As Napoleon led his troops up to the pyramids, he reminded his army, “From the heights of the Pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.” 

Louis-François Lejeune captured the hectic triumph of Napoleon’s Battle of the Pyramids, but the pyramids in the background exert a haunting presence.

They hint that while Napoleon may have triumphed today, the pyramids have seen many great rulers come and go — and watched the sands of time swallow them all.