pyramid

A massive masonry structure having a rectangular base and four smooth, steeply sloping sides facing the cardinal points and meeting at an apex, used in ancient Egypt as a tomb to contain the burial chamber and the mummy of the pharaoh. The pyramid was usually part of a complex of buildings within a walled enclosure, including mastabas for members of the royal family, an offering chapel and a mortuary temple. A raised causeway led from the enclosure down to a valley temple on the Nile, where purification rites and mummification were performed. Also, a masonry mass having a rectangular base and four stepped and sloping faces culminating in a single apex, used in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Central America as a tomb or a platform for a temple.