Name: The Evolution of Ancient Egypt's Pyramids | Lost Treasures of Egypt
Uploaded: 2020-10-30T18:12:27.000Z
Duration: 3 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

NARRATOR: The West Bank of the River Nile,

home to the world's most iconic monuments,

The pyramids once housed the bodies of the pharaohs.

But though ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for nearly

3,000 years, its kings only built huge tombs

For Egyptologist Chris Norton, the majesty

that Egyptians gave up building them all the more incredible.

10 miles south of the legendary pyramids of Giza is Saqqara.

CHRIS NAUNTON: When we think about pyramids,

we tend to think of Giza, I think, and the Great Pyramid

But actually, this is where it all began.

NARRATOR: Chris has come to the birthplace of pyramid building

to search for clues to why Egyptians built giant pyramids

Constructed a century before the iconic pyramids at Giza,

Egypt's first pyramid is a 200 foot tall mausoleum

of six huge limestone platforms carefully

engineered to spread the weight of rock and prevent collapse.

Deep inside is a giant shaft 26 feet wide and 82 feet deep.

At the bottom, the intended final resting place

CHRIS NAUNTON: Ultimately that's what it's all about.

That's where the body of a king is going to rest in eternity.

NARRATOR: To house his mummy, huge chunks of granite

and stacked, creating a giant sarcophagus

CHRIS NAUNTON: My god, these pieces are huge.

designed to secure the pharaoh's physical body for eternity.

the pyramid ensured the king was remembered by the living.

Djoser's six tier giant wasn't just the first pyramid.

It was the world's first monumental structure

Over the next century, Egypt's kings develop the concept,

building monumental tombs all along the Nile's West Bank,

including the first geometrically true pyramid,

Then a dynasty of pharaohs built the most iconic monuments

But just a few short centuries after the Great Pyramid

of Khufu rose from the desert, a new era was on the horizon.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The Evolution of Ancient Egypt's Pyramids | Lost Treasures of Egypt

ultimately

incredible

physical

iconic