The pyramid, with its square base and sloping sides meeting at the apex, has become more than a geometrical shape. It has become synonymous with Egypt - an unmistakable and enduring symbol of an ancient civilisation, and something that has become an architectural, artistic, spiritual, and highly marketable source of inspiration from ancient times to the present day. As Clifford Price and Jean-Marcel Humbert ask in the introduction to a new book Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing Architecture, ‘An intriguing question in itself is why the pyramid has become so firmly, and often exclusively, attached to Ancient Egypt in the recent and modern, popular..mind’. This interesting collection of essays examines how and why elements from ancient Egypt, including the pyramid, have re-emerged in the modern world and look at some of the complex aesthetic, symbolic and cultural reasons for doing do. A wide variety of cultures are examined here with examples taken from Australia, the Americas, South Africa and Europe.

Since the major revival in all things Egyptian in the Renaissance, pyramids have continued to be closely associated with death and commemoration appearing in cemeteries and as private mausoleums. However, only in rare cases does this use of the pyramid ascribe to any close connection with Egypt, reflecting more of a link with what the pyramid symbolises in terms of its message of eternity, of commemoration, dedication and provision for the afterlife. A number of recently published books explore the ancient Egyptian view of pyramids, and approach the obvious questions of who built them, how and why, from new angles. The early examples of these ‘stairways to heaven’ were innovative and visionary, although they built on existing funerary and building traditions. As a means of unifying your subjects, keeping them occupied (and too busy to contemplate internal strife), providing yourself with a permanent, durable, impressive and highly emotive monument, as well as a place to aid your path to divine status, the pyramid was a winner. It is no wonder that it remained so popular for centuries.

However, in the late 20th and 21st century the pyramid has largely transcended its original function as it has been adapted and re-created in various modern contexts and settings. In the case of some modern pyramids the link to Egypt is clear, in other examples it is tenuous, or non-existent - we could compare the rather austere pyramidal mausoleum in the grounds of Blickling Hall in Norfolk with the glitzy Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In this regard it seems rather odd that Leoh Ming Pei, the designer of the pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris, denied any Egyptian affiliation in his creation - I think we all know the source of his inspiration!

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