With the Predynastic period and the period Thinite there is a characteristic development of the burial customs of ancient Egyptians which result in the character's most powerful kingdom by digging underground tunnels entering the impressive royal vault and the building of monumental buildings mud brick pointing in the desert Abydos the abode of the king became a god. These structures became increasingly complex both inside and outside their provisions during the ^Second and ^Third Dynasties. The pharaohs of the first lines further develop this architecture and the principles it presided over by building large enclosures designed to serve the king's funerary cult that remained buried away in his cenotaph beneath a monument to the benben The primary mound or more probably the tomb of Osiris.

It is with Djoser of the ^Third Dynasty as the architecture of the royal tombs is a new start together in one complex these two hitherto separate and giving the monument an unparalleled scale. Not only is the architecture of stone, which represents a real technical revolution, but the pyramid shape is born, reflecting the fate of Pharaoh when he joined the abode of gods, signs of a theological revolution. Indeed, the form chosen will very quickly become the main element of the funerary complex to the point that describes the destination and that we speak now of the pyramid complex.

Throughout the Old Kingdom it appears certain the views of the discoveries of the Pyramid Texts that this architecture in response to specific codes, cleverly designed and inscribed in stone even burial vaults in order to add the eternal writing this green stone intended to ensure the immortality of a divine king.

The pyramid complex at ^the Third Dynasty

The pyramid complex of Djoser

Djoser , second pharaoh of the dynasty, inaugurated with its complex of Saqqarah is a new concept that will see rapid change in little more than a century but whose main elements to be pretty much immutable for all who follow the royal funerary monuments. This group of buildings oriented funeral develops along a north and south access was from the south-east of the main enclosure.

The ^third dynasty account after him another four sovereigns who in turn will build more complex initiated and continuing experience giving the pyramid an ever-growing role likely sign of an evolution of religious thought whose dominant the god Ra was the god rising. Apart from the famous complex of Djoser only three were currently identified ^{The pyramid complex at the date of the Fourth Dynasty}

Reconstitution of the complex of Chephren from Uvo Hlscher

With the ^Fourth Dynasty pyramid complex architecture takes a new form. The pyramid is the most important parts and schedules seem crushed by its weight so much that we talk more than the pyramid of these memorials essential for the royal funerary cult. Yet from the date of Snefru that key elements introduced to the previous dynasty will find their final plan with a temple and a low floor upward connecting it to a tall temple or funerary temple attached to the pyramidal monument.

The original enclosure complexes of the ^third dynasty turns into a wall encircling the pyramid, the Pyramid of the ka and the upper part of the temple worship and now designated by Egyptologists as the term peribolus.

Reconstitution of the pyramid complexes of Abusir from Ludwig Borchardt

This general plan will undergo only minor changes throughout the era of the great pyramids. But every architectural element analyzed in detail shows an evolution and the mark of a constant search by the ancient architects. However, two short periods of Egyptian history, the ^Sixth Dynasty and the second half of the ^twelfth dynasty are exceptions to this rule, plans being reproduced complexes of quasi-uniform.

The Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom , to legitimize their rule, will draw their inspiration from their glorious ancestors and reintegrated in their funerary complex elements emerged in the ^Third and ^Fourth Dynasty such as the paneled wall of the Djoser complex or closure systems with the harrow rhomboidal pyramid. The plan previously firmly established and largely devoted pyramid complex undergoing substantial changes. Thus the convention which placed the toughest entry apartments Homes on the north side of the pyramid disappeared during the reign of Sesostris II showing a sign that, now, the desire of rulers to protect their remains predominant.

The temple down

Plan of the temple down the pyramid of Khafre

Home veritable temple or ceremonial funeral processions in honor of the deceased pharaoh, these structures were built on the edge of farmland. One entered through a port built beside a lake or a reservoir fed by a special bypass channel Memphis. It is in these temples what were the rites practiced embalming of the royal dead, and when the funeral ended, what were the daily offerings made for the funerary cult, which was made in the temple above. With the ^Fifth Dynasty temple architecture becomes lower with elegant porticoes with monolithic columns, giving them the appearance of propylaea monumental. They were decorated with reliefs and statues richly endowed royal chapels and included for the worship of the main deities of the kingdom. These temples, which in the early days of the ^Fourth Dynasty , were isolated from the world of the living will place thereafter at the heart of a real city whose role was entirely devoted to worship the king's burial.

Cities of pyramids thus appeared at the foot of the pyramid complexes and you have to imagine for some sites become true dynastic necropolis agglomeration extent facing Memphis , the ancient capital of the kingdom on the opposite side of the main channel.

Any administration had settled down around the temple as well as ports to unload goods from areas associated funerary cult of the king, craft workshops, butchers, bakeries and homes of the priests and servants dedicated to the real foundation funeral, which occupied an important place in the country's economic life. The importance of these cities and their temple home then as the capital itself will eventually take the name of the pyramid of Pepi ^I. , which described his funerary complex, if any evidence of the influence exercised by these groups in the planning of the Old Kingdom.

The roadway

The remoteness of the various devices making up the royal funerary complex found, dating from the reign of Snefru , a solution with the invention in a long road paved with two parallel walls. It was once thought that these roads were open but the discoveries at Saqqara and Abu Sir contradict this return and we must now imagine them as real corridors plunged into some dark and penetrating through the desert to the pyramid and its mortuary temple.

Its length varied according to the site chosen for building the pyramid that was more or less distant from the edge of cultivated land and therefore the channels that could serve the port and the temple site during construction of the complex. So for Cheops , although its exact location was lost under the modern city of Giza , one can estimate more than 730 meters length of the road connecting the two parts, with the recent discovery of the remains of the temple floor reception in the heart of the city. With that of Unas at Saqqara are the longest certified road safely so far .

This floor, which led to the mortuary temple processions of offering providing daily goods and goods required to worship the King, was therefore a colossal work to build, requiring significant land raisers to make up the uneven terrain as well as foundations sometimes impressive as evidenced by the example of the pyramid complex of Sahu in Abu Sir.

It was also used by the funeral procession once completed the rites of mummification in the temple and down the King's body placed in a sarcophagus inside. Its walls were decorated with reliefs depicting the events of the reign and supported a roof which was built in the openings to illuminate the long road to the royal cemetery.

So during the funeral for the last time the sovereign traversed the long corridor of his reign, passing scenes tracing its history as its buildings in honor of the gods or some dramatic steps in the construction of his tomb complex, its glorious hunts, which attended his victorious wars in a religious attitude and sustaining the royal family and the whole assembly of nobles of the kingdom came to pay homage to the god king ever winner of chaos. Finally, all his people there was also figuratively frozen in the attitudes needed to grow, harvest, raise livestock, hunt birds, catch fish in abundance and produce whatever was necessary to its survival in the afterlife.

The temple above

Simple chapel overlooking a courtyard in which the king's funerary stele with the pyramids of Snefru , the temple grows up in a masterful way with his successor at Giza. Its main access is through the floor and it also has stores to house the equipment of religion and royal statues, a large courtyard surrounded by porticos for the purifying ritual offerings to the king made daily. This court opened onto the inner part of the temple containing the false door stele to facilitate the passage of the ka of the king of the world to another. True object of worship funerary stele was this high was housed in a second open court or in an indoor hall.

plan of the temple top of the pyramid of Khafre

This provision of the main elements of the temple will not find top of evolution in its complexity. With the V ^th dynasty is at the heart of the temple up to five niche chapel which contained five Naoi housing five statues of the king appeared in the form of the five principal deities of the country . The receiving party of the temple grows further with the addition of more stores and an architecture similar to the elegance of the temple down, but above a wealth of material that takes precedence over gradually colossal architecture of ^Fourth Dynasty. Granite for monolithic columns of different orders, limestone finely carved in high relief for walls supporting ceilings carved with golden yellow stars on a blue night, Basalt or alabaster for soil ... Real expeditions are organized in the eastern desert to Sinai or more traditional careers to Aswan and then back to find these materials by loading whole whose arrival time for the event-will be depicted on the reliefs of the pavement of each complex .

Canal systems are formed in the ground of the temple to help drain the water poured on plenty lustral offerings in the main courtyard of the monument. Similarly, massive lion-headed gargoyles are fixed on the top of the wall to help drain the scarce rainwater that could befall the desert from time to time and thus threaten the painted decoration of the sanctuary which the symbolic key participant fully to the worship that was made there.

The pictorial art indeed reached a peak during this period will be seen for a long time as the culmination of ancient Egyptian art to the point where the distant successors of the ^XXVI dynasty which inaugurates the Saite period, will be guided by any point.

The boat pits

Some pyramid complexes, dating from the ^IVth dynasty , integrate pits boat , which were already present in the funerary complexes of the ^first dynasty. The pyramids of Khufu and Khafre in count five, the pyramid of Sesostris III ( ^twelfth dynasty ) certainly more. By the ^fifth dynasty , only two pyramidal complexes have delivered the Neferirkare complex and complex of Unas.

Subsidiary Pyramids

Satellite pyramid of pyramid Meydum

Already Meydum , completing the monument built by Huni its predecessor, Snefru endows the subsidiary of a pyramid complex near the southern face of the royal pyramid. Smaller, it has on its north side access to a gallery leading to a furnished room in it. As from that time, each will have such a pyramid pyramid schedule that Egyptologists call a pyramid-power satellite without ensuring its destination and its role in the complex with precision . What is certain is that it is systematically located south of the royal pyramid, often to the southeast, included in the scope of peribolus that girded both part of the temple worship and the pyramid, and always include a device underground sort of copy of the royal vault. Miniature pyramid, the hypothesis whether the avatar of the tomb complex south of the ^Third Dynasty is probative. Anyway, this element is increasingly attached to the top of the temple complex which invites us to think he figured prominently in the rituals that took place there.

satellite pyramid (G1B)
Pyramid of Cheops

With Cheops there is first to build pyramids of similar size and to house royal remains and divine forces of his wives. There are three for his complex, with a height exceeding twenty meters and each with a ramp leading to a vault underneath the monument built. Imitated in this by a number of his successors, it is noted that they were systematically built outside peribolus generally with an independent access . The chapel at the beginning of their invention, attached to their eastern side, allowed to worship the dead, quickly turned into a small temple whose complexity grows gradually as the reigns to become real miniature pyramid complex indeed but independent. Thus the pyramid Khentkaous I ^re , the prototype of this type of complex for a great royal wife, built north of the floor of the temple of Menkaure is connected to it by its own floor.

Userkaf will build for Nferhteps a small complex south of his at Saqqara and acquire a small temple of worship adjoining the eastern side of the small pyramid. Khentkaous II , known today thanks to recent excavations of Abusir it was considered one of the founding mothers of the dynasty, will have their own pyramid complex with a temple more importantly between the pyramid complex of her husband and her two son.

Djedkare finally will build north of the mortuary temple complex a true pyramid for a queen yet anonymous complex with a temple but this time on its own satellite pyramid.

With the ^sixth dynasty that the evolution of these pyramids of queens will culminate. Indeed, not only do we witness their propagation, signal a marked change in the role of queen to Pharaoh, but especially the recent excavations have helped them find edited versions of the Pyramid Texts covering the walls of tombs to protect royal mummies, a privilege hitherto reserved for the king alone.

In the Middle Kingdom pyramids such subsidiary will also be built, but this time satellite pyramids and pyramids of queens will be included in the pyramid complex of peribolus Pharaoh.

The Pyramid

Starting with the ^Fourth Dynasty architecture of the Egyptian pyramids took a new impetus and through technological change tends to geometric perfection. The first pyramid with smooth sides was inaugurated by Snefru to Meydum. He completed the monument that his predecessor had probably started by making a bold transition from the pyramid into a true classic pyramid, thus giving the monument a form of abstract beauty that characterizes the monuments of its kind built in the future. The solar symbolism there was an achievement never equaled. The tomb complex was now fully organized around this point prepared to heaven and that the white coating added to the effect sought to combine the worship of the king to that of the star whose diurnal theology, does not doubt already beamed across the country.

Notes

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