The Age of Pyramids

曹雪

Early pharaohs（法老）and other wealthy Egyptians（埃及人）had burial tombs made of mud bricks. These tombs are called mastabas（石室墳墓）. Mastabas looked like very large benches（長椅）. They had flat roofs and slanted sides.

The mummy wasn’t actually kept in the mastaba. It was buried underneath， in a room called a burial chamber（墓室）. Sometimes the burial chamber was as much as eighty feet below the mastaba.

The First Pyramid

第一座金字塔

The first pyramid was created by an Egyptian architect（建筑師）named Imhotep.

Imhotep’s pharaoh was King Zoser. King Zoser wanted the most wonderful burial place that had ever been built. So， Imhotep planned a giant stone mastaba for King Zoser. It would be the largest mastaba in all Egypt.

As the giant mastaba was being built， King Zoser decided he wanted something even better. Imhotep didn’t know what to do. He started to make the stone mastaba bigger. Then he got another idea.

Imhotep decided to put a smaller mastaba on top of the first one. He put another mastaba on top of that—then another and another. Finally， Zoser’s burial place was a stack of six mastabas.

Imhotep had created the first pyramid.

Imhotep’s pyramid was nearly 200 feet high. After he died， the Egyptians worshiped Imhotep as one of their gods.

Step pyramids were built for several pharaohs who ruled after King Zoser. Then Egyptians began to build another kind of pyramid.

The new kind of pyramid started as a step pyramid. But once it was built， the steps were filled in to make the sides smooth.

Some people think this smooth-sided pyramid was made to look like a ray of sunlight. It is the pyramid shape we know best today.

The Pyramids of Giza

吉薩金字塔

The most famous Egyptian pyramids are the three smooth-sided Pyramids of Giza. They were built more than 4500 years ago. All three are still standing today.

The largest of the Giza Pyramids is call the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid is nearly 500 feet tall.

The Great Pyramid was built for a pharaoh named Khufu（胡夫，古埃及第四王朝法老）. In 1954， Egyptologists（埃及學家） found a wooden boat buried near the Great Pyramid. The boat was over 140 feet long！ They think it was probably the barge that led Khufu’s funeral procession and carried his mummy（木乃伊） to its tomb.

Building the Pyramids

修建金字塔

It took many years to build a pyramid. It also took thousands of workers.

Egyptologists think the workers used wooden rollers to move giant stone across the desert. Some of these stones weighted over 4000 punds！

No one really knows exactly how the workers put the giant stones in place. Most Egyptologists think they built large ramps（坡道） to raise the stones up the sides of the pyramid. When the pyramid was finished， the ramps were torn down.

Many people think the work on the pyramids was done by slaves. This is not true. Almost all the work was done by farmers during the flood season.

The farmers were paid to help build the pyramids. But most of them worked for a reason more important than money. They believed building the pyramids would help them get to the Next Life when they died.

The Great Sphinx

獅身人面像

The Great Sphinx guards the Pyramids of Giza. A sphinx is a make-believe（虛構的;想象的） creature with the body of a lion and the head of a hawk（鷹）， a ram（公羊）， or a person.

The Great Sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh named Khafre. King Khafre’s pyramid is next to the Great Pyramid of King Khufu.

The Great Sphinx was caved from a rock mountain. It is the largest statue from ancient times still standing today.