ABSTRACT
The Egyptian kings sought to defeat the grasp of death and hoped that the pyramids would protect their bodies against the linear ravages of time and enable them to return to some form of life, perhaps like the sun on the first day of spring, the vernal equinox. The pyramids of Egypt, about 80 of which are known, lie scattered along the fringe of the desert to the west of the River Nile. The pyramids were tombs of kings and queens and resulted from the great concern of the Egyptians with the idea of life after death. During the Pyramid Age there were two dominating religious cults: the sun cult with its sun god Re-Atum, and the cult of the god Osiris. The sun cult was derived from a powerful group of priests at the city of on which was later called Heliopolis by the Greeks. The Egyptians were inconsistent in their beliefs.
