Mesopotamia
Chogha Zanbil is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran.
The Mesopotamians built the earliest pyramidal structures, called ziggurats.
In ancient times, these were brightly painted. Since they were
constructed of sun-dried mud-brick, little remains of them. Ziggurats
were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians
for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex which
included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised
platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC. The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period.
The latest Mesopotamian ziggurats date from the 6th century BC. Built
in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the
ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks
made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the
outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have
had astrological
significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed
bricks. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven. It is assumed that
they had shrines at the top, but there is no archaeological evidence
for this and the only textual evidence is from Herodotus.
Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side
of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. The
Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies.
They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods
and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on
the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their
responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The
priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society.
Egypt
Main article: Egyptian pyramids
The most famous pyramids are the Egyptian pyramids
— huge structures built of brick or stone, some of which are among the
world's largest constructions. The age of the pyramids reached its
zenith at Giza in 2575-2150 B.C. As of 2008, some 135 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest in Egypt and one of the largest in the world. Until Lincoln Cathedral was finished in AD 1311, it was the tallest building in the world. The base is over 52,600 square metres in area. While pyramids are associated with Egypt, the nation of Sudan has 220 extant pyramids, the most numerous in the world.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is the only one to survive into modern times. The Ancient Egyptians covered the faces of pyramids with polished white limestone, containing great quantities of fossilized seashells.[10] Many of the facing stones have fallen or have been removed and used to build the mosques of Cairo.
Most pyramids are located near Cairo, with only one royal pyramid
being located south of Cairo, at the Abydos temple complex. The pyramid
at Abydos, Egypt were commissioned by Ahmose I who founded the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom.
The building of pyramids began in the 3rd Dynasty with the reign of King Djoser. Early kings such as Snefru
built several pyramids, with subsequent kings adding to the number of
pyramids until the end of the Middle Kingdom. The last king to build
royal pyramids was Ahmose, with later kings hiding their tombs in the hills, like in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor's West Bank.
In Medinat Habu, or Deir el-Medina,
smaller pyramids were built by individuals. Smaller pyramids were also
built by the Nubians who ruled Egypt in the Late Period, though their
pyramids had steeper sides.
Sudan
Main article: Nubian pyramids
Nubian pyramids were constructed (roughly 220 of them) at three sites in Sudan to serve as tombs for the kings and queens of Napata and Meroë. The pyramids of Kush, also known as Nubian Pyramids, have different characteristics than the pyramids of Egypt. The Nubian pyramids were constructed at a steeper angle than Egyptian ones. They were monuments to dead kings and queens. Pyramids were still being built in Sudan as late as AD 300.
Nigeria
One of the unique structures of Igbo culture was the Nsude Pyramids,
at the Nigerian town of Nsude, in Abuja, northern Igboland. Ten
pyramidal structures were built of clay/mud. The first base section was
60 ft. in circumference and 3 ft. in height. The next stack was 45 ft.
in circumference. Circular stacks continued, till it reached the top.
The structures were temples for the god Ala/Uto,
who was believed to reside at the top. A stick was placed at the top to
represent the god's residence. The structures were laid in groups of
five parallel to each other. Because it was built of clay/mud like the
Deffufa of Nubia, time has taken its toll requiring periodic
reconstruction.
Greece
Main article: Greek pyramids
Pausanias
(2nd century AD) mentions two buildings resembling pyramids, one,
twelve miles southwest of the still standing structure at Hellenikon, a common tomb for soldiers who died in a legendary struggle for the throne of Argos
and another which he was told was the tomb of Argives killed in a
battle around 669/8 BC. Neither of these still survive and there is no
evidence that they resembled Egyptian pyramids.
There are also at least two surviving pyramid-like structures still available to study, one at Hellenikon
and the other at Ligourio/Ligurio, a village near the ancient theatre
Epidaurus. These buildings were not constructed in the same manner as
the pyramids in Egypt. They do have inwardly sloping walls but other
than those there is no obvious resemblance to Egyptian pyramids. They
had large central rooms (unlike Egyptian pyramids) and the Hellenikon
structure is rectangular rather than square, 12.5 metres by 14 metres
which means that the sides could not have met at a point. The stone used to build the pyramids was limestone quarried locally and was cut to fit, not into freestanding blocks like the Great Pyramid of Giza.
There are no remains or graves in or near the structures. Instead,
the rooms that the walls housed were made to be locked from the inside.
This coupled with the platform roof, means that one of the functions
these structures could have served was as watchtowers. Another
possibility for the buildings is that they are shrines to heroes and
soldiers of ancient times, but the lock on the inside makes no sense for
such a purpose.
The dating of these ‘pyramids’ has been made from the pot shards
excavated from the floor and on the grounds. The latest dates available
from scientific dating have been estimated around the 5th and 4th
centuries. Normally this technique is used for dating pottery,
but here researchers have used it to try to date stone flakes from the
walls of the structures. This has created some debate about whether or
not these ‘pyramids’ are actually older than Egypt, which is part of the Black Athena controversy.
The basis for their use of thermoluminescence in order to date these
structures is a new method of collecting samples for testing. Scientists
from laboratories hired out by the recent excavators of the site, The Academy of Athens,
say that they can use the electrons trapped on the inner surface of the
stones to positively identify the date that the stones were quarried
and put together.
Mary Lefkowitz
has criticised this research. She suggests that some of the research
was done not to determine the reliability of the dating method, as was
suggested, but to back up an assumption of age and to make certain
points about pyramids and Greek civilization. She notes that not only
are the results not very precise, but that other structures mentioned in
the research are not in fact pyramids, e.g. a tomb alleged to be the
tomb of Amphion and Zethus near Thebes, a structure at Stylidha
(Thessaly) which is just a long wall, etc. She also notes the
possibility that the stones that were dated might have been recycled
from earlier constructions. She also notes that earlier research from
the 1930s, confirmed in the 1980s by Fracchia was ignored. She argues
that they undertook their research using a novel and previously untested
methodology in order to confirm a predetermined theory about the age of
these structures.
Liritzis responded in a journal article published in 2011, stating
that Lefkowitz failed to understand and misinterpreted the methodology.
Spain
The Pyramids of Güímar refer to six rectangular pyramid-shaped, terraced structures, built from lava stone without the use of mortar. They are located in the district of Chacona, part of the town of Güímar on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The structures have been dated to the 19th century and their original function explained as a byproduct of contemporary agricultural techniques.
Local traditions as well as surviving images indicate that similar
structures (also known as, "Morras", "Majanos", "Molleros", or
"Paredones") could once have been found in many locations on the island.
However, over time they have been dismantled and used as a cheap
building material. In Güímar itself there were nine pyramids, only six
of which survive.
China
Main article: Chinese pyramids
There are many square flat-topped mound tombs in China. The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (circa 221 BC, who unified the 7 pre-Imperial Kingdoms) was buried under a large mound outside modern day Xi'an. In the following centuries about a dozen more Han Dynasty royals were also buried under flat-topped pyramidal earthworks.
Mesoamerica
Main article: Mesoamerican pyramids
A number of Mesoamerican cultures also built pyramid-shaped structures. Mesoamerican pyramids were usually stepped, with temples on top, more similar to the Mesopotamian ziggurat than the Egyptian pyramid.
The largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the Mexican state of Puebla.
This pyramid is considered the largest monument ever constructed
anywhere in the world, and is still being excavated. The third largest
pyramid in the world, the Pyramid of the Sun, at Teotihuacan is also located in Mexico. There is an unusual pyramid with a circular plan at the site of Cuicuilco, now inside Mexico City and mostly covered with lava from an eruption of the Xitle Volcano in the first century BC. There are several circular stepped pyramids called Guachimontones in Teuchitlán, Jalisco as well.
Pyramids in Mexico were often used as places of human sacrifice. For the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed about 80,400 people over the course of four days.
North America
Many pre-Columbian Native American societies of ancient North America built large pyramidal earth structures known as platform mounds. Among the largest and best-known of these structures is Monks Mound at the site of Cahokia,
which has a base larger than that of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Many of
the mounds underwent multiple episodes of mound construction at
periodic intervals, some becoming quite large. They are believed to have
played a central role in the mound-building peoples' religious life and
documented uses include semi-public chief's house platforms, public temple platforms, mortuary platforms, charnel house platforms, earth lodge/town house platforms, residence platforms, square ground and rotunda platforms, and dance platforms. Cultures who built substructure mounds include the Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, Plaquemine culture and Mississippian cultures.
Roman Empire
The 27-metre-high Pyramid of Cestius was built by the end of the first century BC and still exists today, close to the Porta San Paolo. Another one, named Meta Romuli, standing in the Ager Vaticanus (today's Borgo), was destroyed at the end of the 15th century.
There is also a Roman era pyramid built in Falicon, France. There were many more pyramids built in France in this period.
Medieval Europe
Pyramids have occasionally been used in Christian architecture of the feudal era, e.g. as the tower of Oviedo's Gothic Cathedral of San Salvador.
India
Many giant granite temple pyramids were made in South India during the Chola Empire, many of which are still in religious use today. Examples of such pyramid temples include Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, the Temple of Gangaikondacholapuram and the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram. However the largest temple pyramid in the area is Sri Rangam in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu.The Thanjavur temple was built by Raja raja Chola in 11 century. The Brihadisvara Temple was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site
in 1987; the Temple of Gangaikondacholapuram and the Airavatesvara
Temple at Darasuram were added as extensions to the site in 2004.
Indonesia
Next to menhir, stone table, and stone statue; Austronesian megalithic culture in Indonesia also featured earth and stone step pyramid structure called Punden Berundak as discovered in Pangguyangan, Cisolok and Gunung Padang, West Java.
The construction of stone pyramid is based from the native beliefs that
mountain and high places is the abode for the spirit of the ancestors.
The step pyramid is the basic design of 8th century Borobudur Buddhist monument in Central Java. However the later temples built in Java were influenced by Indian Hindu architecture, as displayed by the towering spires of Prambanan temple. In the 15th century Java during late Majapahit period saw the revival of Austronesian indigenous elements as displayed by Sukuh temple that somewhat resemble Mesoamerican pyramid.
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