What is a Pyramid?
Egyptian pyramids served as tombs for kings and queens, but they were also places of ongoing religious activity. After a ruler died, his or her body was carefully treated and wrapped to preserve it as a mummy. According to ancient Egyptian belief, the pyramid, where the mummy was placed, provided a place for the monarch to pass into the afterlife. In temples nearby, priests performed rituals to nourish the dead monarch’s spirit, which was believed to stay with the body after death. In the Old Kingdom (a period of Egyptian history from about 2575 bc to about 2134 bc), Egyptian artists carved hieroglyphs on the walls of the burial chamber, designed to safeguard the dead monarch’s passage into the afterlife. These hieroglyphic writings, which include hymns, magical spells, instructions on how to act in front of the gods, and other pieces of useful knowledge, are known as the Pyramid Texts.
Mathematics. Pyramids are one of the fundamental solids used in Euclidean geometry. There are three elements required to make a pyramid. It is a • 3-dimensional figure with • triangular side faces that meet at a common vertex, with • a polygon base. Pyramids are classified by the shape of their base. A triangular pyramid has a triangular base and three triangular side faces. A square pyramid has a square base and four triangular sides. A pentagonal pyramid has a pentagonal base and five triangular sides. A hexagonal pyramid has a hexagonal base and six triangular sides, and so on. Pyramids are referred to as n-sided, where n is the number of sides of the polygon that forms the base. An n-sided pyramid has n triangular faces. Architecture. Pyramids are also a shape favored for architectural construction, both ancient and modern. The ancient cultures that built pyramids include Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, several Mesoamerican cultures, China, and Rome. In Egypt, where pyramids were used
• A tomb. • A temple. • A manmade mountain. • A catchbasin or cistern. • A storehouse of lost Secrets of the Ancients. • The first structural expression of the Pi quantity. • A tabernacle of inscribed prophecies and religious beliefs. • An astronomical instrument set to signify the changes of the seasons. • The physical expression of all prevailing principles of geography and astronomy. • A political device to unify rival territories into one kingdom large enough to build… a pyramid. • A massive ritual stage, designed to give the faithful below an unobstructed view of what is happening at the top. • The structural configuration natural to sun worshippers, who see in a pyramid the shape of sunlight radiating downward from behind a cloud. • The inevitable shape of primitive monuments whose builders want to pile one structure on another on another on another without having the whole thing fall over.
Most people think a pyramid is a 3-dimensional object with a square base and triangular faces meeting at a single point (apex) like the pyramids in Egypt. Well that is only partly true for the pyramids in Egypt are special cases of the more general form of what constitutes a pyramid. There is a very precise, concise way to define what a pyramid is (for the masochist or math-head, click on image to immediate right: Unfortunately, it is in a mathematical terminology that would leave most people scratching their heads and saying “Hunh?” So let’s explain what a pyramid is in plain, simpler language. It will require more words but we’ll sacrifice conciseness for understandability here. A pyramid is a 3-dimensional object with a base and triangular faces. Its base is a polygon, a word which literally means many angles like in polygamy (many marriages). Now the polygon is a closed figure meaning that any two lines forming adjacent sides must meet at a common point called a vertex. A polygon i
