Pyramids as Monuments

Click here for a list of ancient and modern pyramids.

Right click image to enlarge.

18-12 BCE - Pyramid of Cestius, Rome (Italy). Famous funeral monument. Built during the reign of the emperor Augustus. A remarkable monument, made of white Carrara marble and exactly 100 Roman feet (30 meters) high. Image shows the pyramid from the Protestant cemetery, which is southwest of the tomb. In the background is the Porta Ostiensis. There is a repeated inscription on the monument which means: "Gaius Cestius Epulo, son of Lucius, of the Poblilian district, praetor, tribune of the people, official of the public banquets. According to his will, this work was completed in three hundred and thirty days; it was executed by his heirs L. Pontus Mela, son of Publius, of the Claudian district, and his freedman Pothus."

c.600 - Pyramid of the Niches, El Tajin, Northern Veracruz (Mexico). Left image from 1913 before restoration. The pyramid has 365 niches, representing the solar year, and is almost perfectly symmetrical.

c.1000 - Temple of Kukulkan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl), Chichén Itza, Yucatan (Mexico). Often referred to as El Castillo / The Castle, this step pyramid has a ground plan of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top.

After 1738 - Tomb of Charles III Wilhelm, Marktplatz / Market Square, Karlruhe, Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany). "Stands over the location where the remains of the Margrave lie." Charles III William [1679-1738] was Margrave of Baden-Durlach.

1869 - Confederate Pyramid, Hollywood Cemetery, 412 South Cherry Street, Richmond, Virginia (USA). "Hollywood Cemetery is the final resting place for Jefferson Davis and JEB Stuart. Opened in 1849, the cemetery also contains the bodies of some 18,000 Confederate soldiers and a handful of Union soldiers. Other famous persons buried here included President James Monroe, President John Tyler, Robert E Lee's nephew Fitzhugh Lee, and General Henry Heth and General George Pickett both of Gettysburg fame. The cemetery offers beautiful views of the James River. The landmark 90-foot granite pyramid was constructed in 1869."

1882 - Ames Monument, I-80, between Laramie & Cheyenne, Wyoming (USA). "Before I visited, I had seen the pyramid of H.H.Richardson’s rugged Ames Monument for years—in photographs. Rough hewn, steeply angled in the low perspective, it appeared in architecture books, such as Henry Russell Hitchcock’s famous book on H.H. Richardson [1838-1886], surveys by Vincent Scully of Yale and many others. Richardson’s rugged Ames Monument has been called the greatest monument design in the country, but few have seen it in person. It sits alone on a windswept high plain in Wyoming, near the highest point on the transcontinental railroad and also on today’s I-80---elevation 8835 feet--between Laramie and Cheyenne. The monument commemorates the brothers Oliver and Oakes Ames, who were leaders in arranging for the financing of the transcontinental railroad—the Project Apollo of its time. Oliver was president of the Union Pacific Rail road, Oakes a Congressman who pushed through the legislation for the railroad. "

1897 - Parthenon (Nashville Pavilion) & Pyramid (Memphis Pavilion), Tennessee Centennial Exposition (now Centennial Park), Nashville, Tennessee (USA). No longer exists.

About 1946 - Monument voor de Wereldvrede / Monument for World Peace, Utrechtseweg 183 (near Ziekenhuis De Lichtenberg / Lichtenberg Hospital, Amersfoort, Province of Utrecht (Netherlands). Moved after 1953 from garden of artist Jacob N. Nieweg [1877-1955], local chairman of "Kerk en Vrede / Church and Peace," who campaigned for "No More War." Three sided pyramid inscribed in Dutch ("Wereld Vrede door Federale Wereld Regering"), English ("World Peace by Federal World Government") & Esperanto ("Mond Paco per Federacia Mond Recistaro"). Monument has a sphere (globe?) on top & a four quadrant circle (earth symbol?) above each inscription. Compare the WFBN, UWF & Japanese logos below. On December 1, 2008, an article on page 3 of the Amersfoortse Courant described the monument's 80th anniversary [sic]. Images & information courtesy of Gerard Lössbroek. Click here for article by Jojanneke Clarijs.

1981? - Victory Memorial & Tomb of Anwar Sadat, Medinet Nasr, near Cairo (Eqypt). Pyramid-shaped memorial commemorates the War of October 1973. Sadat's tomb is under the memorial. Anwar al-Sadat [1918-1981] received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. The nearby October War Panorama (right image) was built on a suggestion made to Hosni Mubarak by Kim Il Sung of North Korea when the Egyptian president visited that country in 1983.

1988 - International Centre of Culture (The Pyramid), Boulevard Deshmoret e Kombit, Tirana (Albania). "Originally the mausoleum for Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha [1908-1985], the Pyramid has seen the eviction of Hoxha's corporeal remains and the burgeoning of Albania's interest in the culture and arts."

1999 - Bell of Peace, International Centre of Culture (The Pyramid), Boulevard Deshmoret e Kombit, Tirana (Albania). "Made as a memorial to peace by the children of Shkodra. Its metal comes from thousands of bullet cartridges, fired off during the lawless 1990's."

1989 - Louvre Pyramids, Cour Napoleon / Main Courtyard, Palais du Louvre / Louvre Palace, Paris (France). A large glass and metal pyramid, surrounded by three smaller pyramids.

1991 - Pyramid Arena, Memphis, Tennessee (USA). Sixth largest pyramid in the world behind the Great Pyramid of Giza (456 ft), Khafre's Pyramid (448 ft), Luxor Hotel (348 ft), the Red Pyramid (341 ft) and the Bent Pyramid (332 ft), both in Dahshur.

1995 - Tour de la Paix / Peace Tower, Beirut (Lebanon). Concrete tower embedding old guns and tanks. "Accumulation de chars et de canons dans du béton, 32 m de haut et d'un poids de 6 000 tonnes. La plus grande sculpture faite par Arman [1928-2005] à ce jour. Une des plus grandes sculptures contemporaines dans le monde."

Date? - Obelisk at the Totem One test site, Emu Field. South Australia (Australia). "Site of first atomic test on mainland Australia, known as Totem One." Text: "TEST SITE. TOTEM 1. A BRITISH ATOMIC WEAPON WAS TEST EXPLODED HERE ON 15 OCTOBER 1953."

June 1995 - World Peace Pavilion, Ferry Terminal Park, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Canada). Symbol of unity and solidarity amongst the people of the world. Site of G7 Summit in June 1995, and officially opened by the seven visiting foreign ministers. The triangular shaped structure displays an international collection of rocks and artifacts contributed by 80 countries in every corner of the globe. Entry #1271 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

2002 - Hiroshima Flame Monument, Hoshino, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu Island (Japan). "Image shows Takudou Yamamoto displaying a flame that has been burning continuously since the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and was brought to the western Japanese village of Hoshino by his father Tatsuo, who kept it personally for more than two decades."

S C U L P T

2003 - Broken Obelisk, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (Germany). Last of four identical monuments by Barnett Newman [1905-1970]. Each is 6,000 pounds of Corten steel more than 25 feet high -- a pyramid topped by a reversed obelisk ascending yet torn, or 'broken,' at its top, obviously some kind of symbolic object roughly resembling traditional monuments of combined pyramid and obelisk. Newman himself described the sculpture in terms conventional to his art: 'It is concerned with life, and I hope I have transformed its tragic content into a glimpse of the sublime.'" See identical monuments in Houston, New York City & Seattle (USA).

Date? - Templo da Boa Vontade / Temple of Good Will, Brasilia (Brazil). "Shaped like a pyramid of seven faces, in which peak is maintained the biggest crystal ever found in Brazil. According to the maintainers, the best way to capture the energy of the crystal is to walk slowly, barefoot, meditating, following the spyral path inwards; at the center of the spyral [sic], right under the crystal, is the energy focus; then, walk back outwards, stopping before the altar for meditation. This temple is the national headquarter of the Legião da Boa Vontade, and attracts visitors from all religions."

June 2006 - Palace of Peace & Reconciliation, Astana (Kazakhstan). Also known as Palace of Peace & Accord. First used for Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Click here for info about a nearby statue of President Nursultan Nazarbayev dedicated on October 20, 2009.

2009 - Golden Pyramid of Peace.