Pyramids
The ancient Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for the pharaohs and their queens. The pharaohs were buried in pyramids of many different shapes and sizes from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom.
There are a lot of pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The three largest and best-preserved of these were built at Giza at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. The most well-known of these pyramids was built for the pharaoh Cheops. It is known as the ‘Great Pyramid’.
The first step in building a pyramid was to choose a suitable site. This had to be on the west side of the Nile because the west was where the sun set and where the dead were thought to enter the underworld. The pyramids also needed to be situated on the high ground, away from the danger of flooding at the time of the Nile’s inundation.
However, it could not be too far away from the bank because the river would be used to transport blocks from different places.
