The pyramids of Egypt are among the spectacular wonders of the world. What was it that prompted the pharaohs to construct these elaborate tombs for themselves? In this book Dr I. E. S. Edwards, who has been Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum since 1955, offers explanations and poses new problems as he traces the development and decline of this form of burial from the mastabas of the first and second dynasties and the step pyramids and the great Step Pyramid of Zoser to the VIth Dynasty pyramid complex of Pepi ll and the archaic and backward-looking efforts of the Middle Kingdom.
Dr Edwards draws both on his research and on the work of many archaeologists who have dug in Egypt. Surveying 1000 years of pyramid-building, he charts the rise and decline of the pyramids as funerary monuments. His final chapter, dealing with their construction and purpose, puts the pyramids into the perspective of ancient Egyptian society.