need to unite the competing tribes of Upper and Lower Egypt,
so the pyramids became a massive public-works project to
give people pride in the nation’s accomplishments. Some of
the pyramids’ blocks of stone even contain inscriptions from
the workers, with names like “Enduring Gang” and “Vigor-
ous Gang,” suggesting that work groups took part in healthy
competition over the work.
Th e pyramids have given rise to eccentric, if not fantastic
theories. Some people believe that the pyramids are cursed,
because a disproportionate number of archaeologists and
others have died from illness or accident aft er working in
them, and many other have suff ered rashes, fevers, nausea,
weakness, and other physical problems. Scientists, though,
off er more prosaic explanations for these occurrences: that
the sealed pyramids could house fungi or bacteria that cause
illness or that the researchers could have been exposed to poi-
sonous herbs, plants, or scorpions or to excessive amounts of
radiation from uranium in the pyramids’ chambers.
THE SPHINX
One of the most recognizable statues in the world is the Great
Sphinx of Giza. Th e Sphinx, depicting the body of a lion and
the head of a man, is the largest statue in the world made out
of a single block of stone. It is believed to have been carved
sometime during the third millennium b.c.e., most likely
during the Fourth Dynasty (from 2723 to 2563 b.c.e.) Many
historians believe that the head depicts King Khafre, and
the Sphinx may have been built under Khafre’s orders. Th e
Sphinx is immense at 260 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 65 feet
tall. It faces to the east and may have been built as a guardian
for the pyramids on the Giza Plateau that lie behind it. An ad-
joining temple was constructed using blocks weighing up to
200 tons that were cut out during the carving of the Sphinx.
TOMBS
Th e ancient Egyptians revered the pharaohs as gods, so they
built elaborate and permanent tombs to ensure that the pha-
raoh enjoyed a prosperous aft erlife. In the earlier centuries
of the Old Kingdom (roughly 2700 to 2200 b.c.e.), tombs for
royalty consisted of simple mastabas. Th ese tombs were not
decorated in any way. It was not until the Th ird and Fourth
Dynasties that pyramids were built to serve as tombs for the
pharaohs. Th e Fourth Dynasty pyramids were built without
decorations as well. Not before the Fift h Dynasty of the Old
Kingdom were pyramids decorated, and they were more mod-
est in size. Th e decorations consisted largely of hieroglyphic
writing. Th is writing was intended to give the deceased in-
structions on how to have a safe journey to the aft erlife.
Th e most elaborate tombs were built during the New
Kingdom period (roughly 1600 to 1100 b.c.e.) in the Valley
of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Th ese tombs were
built deep underground, primarily to hide them from tomb
robbers. Robbery was a problem, for the tombs contained
treasures such as vases, jewelry, gold masks, and similar
items, oft en made of gold. Th ese tombs were decorated with
detailed paintings depicting the journey to the underworld.
Th e most famous of these tombs is that of King Tutankha-
mun, better known to the world as King Tut. Tutankhamun
was a relatively minor king who died young aft er ruling for
only about nine years, probably in about 1325 b.c.e. Little is
known about his life. His tomb was discovered near Luxor,
Egypt, in 1922 by the archaeologist Howard Carter. Th e fi nd
remains signifi cant not because the tomb itself was very
elaborate—the tombs of other kings hold more interest for
archaeologists—but because robbers had never discovered it,
so archaeologists recovered about 3,500 items from the tomb.
Since then exhibits of these objects have toured the world.TEMPLES
In modern life, the word temple is used most oft en to refer
to a house of worship. In ancient Egypt, however, buildings
that were called temples oft en served a number of purposes.
Some were “mortuary temples,” built to commemorate a dead
king or to serve as a permanent residence for his soul, such as
the so-called ka temples. Others were built primarily for po-
litical purposes. Th e temples at Abu Simbel, including one to
Nefertari (1300–1250 b.c.e.) and one to her husband, Ramses
II (1302–ca. 1210 b.c.e.), seem to have been built primarily to
remind neighboring countries to the south of Egypt’s great-
ness. Another class of temples, called Sed festival temples,
was built to celebrate the king’s jubilee. Others had several
purposes, such as serving as administrative centers and for-
tresses. Even those that had primarily a religious purpose
were not “houses of worship” like today’s churches and tem-
ples. Th ey were thought of more as houses for the gods and
were built to serve the symbolic needs of these gods. People,
though, did not necessarily assemble in the temples for any
kind of organized worship conducted by priests.
Heliopolis Unfortunately, many of the temples of ancient
Egypt are lost. Historians and archaeologists know about
them primarily from surviving records or in some cases from
ruins that indicate the size and overall shape of the temple.
One example of a lost temple is that at Heliopolis, one of the
three major cities of ancient Egypt (aft er Th ebes and Mem-
phis). Heliopolis, now covered by the suburbs of Cairo, was
an important center for learning. In particular, it was a cen-
ter for the study of astronomy, and its high priest was even
referred to as the Chief of Observers (of the heavens). It is
known that Heliopolis was the site of a magnifi cent “sun tem-
ple,” or temple devoted to the worship of the sun gods Atum
and Re-Horakhty as the source of all creation.
Archaeologists theorize that other sun temples built dur-
ing the Fift h Dynasty were probably modeled aft er the one at
Heliopolis. Th ey know that six such temples were built, but
to date only two have been discovered. One of these temples,
at Abu Ghurob, was built by Niuserre, the sixth king of the
Fift h Dynasty. Th is temple was constructed on a mound and
surrounded by a limestone wall. At the eastern edge of the
surrounding desert was a large pavilion with an elevated58 architecture: Egypt