pyramid

The Step Pyramid at Sakkara, Egypt, is over 60 m/197 ft high. Built around 2737–2717 BC from blocks of stone, this was the first pyramid ever constructed, and at the time was the largest monumental stone structure in the world.

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán, Mexico. This 66 m/216 ft high pyramid made of coarse red volcanic rock was built by the Teotihuacán civilization at the beginning of the first millennium. Located 50 km/31 mi north of Mexico City, Teotihuacán (‘City of the Gods’) was the largest city in the New World prior to Spanish colonization.

Egyptian pyramid. The pyramids are huge, monumental structures that were built to house the tombs of the pharaohs. Pyramids evolved from the fourth millennium BC, first from simple tomb structures with sloping sides, to stepped pyramids, and then to the regular pyramids at El Giza (c. 2600–2480 BC).

Four-sided building with triangular sides. Pyramids were used in ancient Egypt to enclose a royal tomb, such as the Great Pyramid of Khufu/Cheops at El Gîza, near Cairo, which is 230 m/755 ft square and 147 m/481 ft high; it is considered the only surviving Seven Wonders of the World. In Babylon and Assyria, broadly stepped pyramids (ziggurats) were used as the base for a shrine to a god: the Tower of Babel was probably one of these.

Truncated pyramidal temple mounds were also built by the Mayas and Aztecs of Central America, for example at Chichén Itzá and Cholula, near Mexico City, which is the world's largest in ground area (300 m/990 ft base, 60 m/195 ft high). Some New World pyramids were also used as royal tombs, for example, at the Mayan ceremonial centre of Palenque.

pyramid

Types of pyramid.

In geometry, a solid shape with triangular side-faces meeting at a common vertex (point) and with a polygon as its base. The volume V of a pyramid is given by V = 1/3Bh, where B is the area of the base and h is the perpendicular height.

Pyramids are generally classified by their bases. For example, the Egyptian pyramids have square bases, and are therefore called square pyramids. A triangular pyramid is also known as a tetrahedron (‘four sides’).