The pyramids of Egypt were built as resting places for the Pharaohs’, their concubines and the rich and mighty. They also were part of the mortal man’s quest for immortality.
The important rich in Egyptian times had their tombs built in impressive above ground graves called mastabas , until the architect Imhotep came up with the idea of stacking the mastabas on top of each other to build a stairway to the heavens. In the 3rd dynasty, 2611 BC, he built the Pyramid of Djoser, which is counted as one of the oldest structure ever built.
What drives this desire for immortality by building edifices in our memory?
Monuments of course don’t always last. Many structures are covered over by drifting sands or destroyed by earthquakes or other forces of nature.
The great pyramid of Khufu is the only one, of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to still survive.
Two hundred years ago in 1818 the famous English poet Percy Bysshe Shelly penned a poignant reminder of this our fragility.
OZYMANDIAS of EGYPT
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert …. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”
In antiquity, Ozymandias was a Greek name for pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE, in the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt.
Shelley began writing his poem in 1817, soon after the announcement of the British Museum's acquisition of a large fragment of a statue of Ramesses II from the thirteenth century BCE, leading some scholars to believe that Shelley was inspired by this. The 7.25-ton fragment of the statue's head and torso had been removed in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramses at Thebes by Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni.
Throughout history many Kings, Princes, lords and leaders have built monuments in their Memory. Most get destroyed, some make it to museums.
There are of course many obelisks and statue monuments built over the years which only serve to remind us that ‘some days we are pigeons and other days we are statues’.
Are there better examples of more successful monuments?
What about Roman coins? They were the social media of the time, as well as tokens of value. Julius Caesar was able to show his face to thousands of the inhabitants in many countries and Caesar’s coins in 100,000 hands may even survive the pyramids
Jesus Christ was tested by a Pharisee who asked whether it was right for Jews to pay taxes demanded by Caesar. He asked one of them to produce a Roman coin that would be suitable for paying Caesar's tax. On being shown a Roman coin, he asked whose head and inscription were on it. They answered, "Caesar's,"
Jesus then said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". What a great way to get your name and face remembered!
How will you and I be remembered?