The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt Author:Aidan Dodson This volume aims to reveal the truth behind the mystery of the pyramids and the ancient civilization that created them. Egyptologist, Dr Aidan Dodson systematically traces the varied themes that scholars have expounded in their attempts to explain the culture, politics and religion that stood behind these extraordinary achievements, and presents... more » his own contemporary account of their purpose and construction. Surveying over 2000 years of pyramid building, he charts the rise and decline of the pyramids as funerary monuments, from the mastabas of the first and second dynasties, the step pyramids at Saqqara and the famous group at Giza.« less