Sacred Poetry: Ancient Egyptians

The Red Pyramid, also known as the North Pyramid, was built in Dashur. Pharaoh Snerfu, built this pyramid at around 2600 B.C. Because the casing was dated, archaeologists were able to postulate that this pyramid took around 17 years to build. The Red Pyramid is the fourth tallest pyramid ever built in Egypt, and it consists of 160 layers of stone. The Red Pyramid served as a precursor to the Pyramids of Giza. Inside of the Red Pyramid, there lies a single burial chamber that could be accessed through two smaller chambers. Snerfu is believed to have been buried in this pyramid. There is a mortuary temple, east of the Red Pyramid. The mortuary temple is significant because Snerfu purposely positioned the east west alignment of the temple to the path of the sun. This is significant because Egyptians worshipped the Sun God, Ra. The Egyptians believed the Ra was the creator and controller of the universe. In Egyptian religion, pyramids were built for the purposes of burying the dead. Egyptians carefully preserved dead bodies and buried them inside pyramids because they believed that the soul would return to the body in the after life. Egyptians placed a lot of emphasis on the afterlife. They believed in the God of Death Anubis (Egyptian Gods). The Ancient Egyptian Religion can be categorized as a prehistory religion because they have the characteristics common to prehistoric religions. 

Sacred Poem

The

pyramid is

not a creation of 

man but a creation of the 

almighty gods.We thank you 

gods, for giving us the strength and the

power to build these mighty mighty structures.

The pyramid lies on the west of the nile river and 

we have aligned the mortuary temple to the direction

of the sun to praise you, oh mighty gods. Today is the day

that we will bury one of our leaders. I grieve for our loss, but 

we believe in you god of death, Anubis. We believe that you have 

chosen our Pharaoh's soul to bring to the afterlife. We pray that you 

guide Pharaoh Snerfu through the afterlife. Place your gracious hand on 

Pharaoh and lead him through your world of death. Here is a healthy lion

 that we will sacrifice for you Anubis, god of the death. Ra, we pray that you 

bring life and bless us with good food. Thank you almighty gods for saving us