Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/51

 The Story of Egypt 2/ Section 7. The Pyramid Age No traveler ever forgets the first drive to the Pyramids of The pyramids Gizeh, as he sees their giant forms rising higher and higher ^ombr^ above the crest of the western desert (Plate I). A thou- sand questions arise in the visitor's mind. He has read that these vast buildings he is approaching are tombs, in which the kings of Egypt were buried. Such mighty buildings reveal many things about the men who built them. In the first place, these tombs show that the Egyptians believed in a life after death and that to obtain such life it was necessary to preserve the body from destruction. They built these tombs to shelter and protect the body after death. Hence, also, came the prac- tice of " embalmment " by which the body was preserved as a mummy (Fig. 32). It was then placed in the great tomb, in a small but massive room deep in the heart of the pyramid masonry. Other tombs of masonry, much smaller in size, cluster about the pyramids in great numbers (Frontispiece). Here were buried the relatives of the king, and the great men of his court, who assisted him in the government of the land (Fig. 15)- These people had many gods, but there were two whom they The gods of worshiped above all others. The Sun, which shines so gloriously ^Yosir^^ in the cloudless Egyptian sky, was their greatest god, and their most splendid temples were erected for his worship. Indeed, the pyramid is a symbol sacred to the Sun-god. They called him Re (pron. ray^. The other great power which they revered as a god was likewise a visible force in their daily lives. The shining Nile which the traveler has just crossed on his way to the pyramids gives life to the fields and brings forth the har- vest. So the Nile, and the fertile soil he refreshes, and the green life which he brings forth — all these the Egyptian thought of together as a single god, Osiris, the imperishable life of the earth which revives and fades every year with the changes of the seasons. It was a beautiful thought to the Egyptian that this