How Many Sides Does an Egyptian Pyramid Have?
Do you know the answer to "how many sides does an Egyptian pyramid have?" If you don't know the answer, you will soon. Egyptian pyramids have four triangular sides and a square base. If you consider the base a side, then they have five sides. Read on to explore these pyramids a bit more.
The answer to "how many sides does an Egyptian pyramid have?" depends on how you define the word "sides." In geometry, all the flat sections of a three dimensional object are called faces.-So if you are using the term "sides" as "faces," then the answer is five. That would be the base plus the four triangles that connect the base to the apex, which is the top of the pyramid. However, it you are referring only to the four triangles that you can see when looking at a pyramid, then the answer is four.
For the sake of this article, assume that sides and faces are the same. The reason the Egyptian pyramids have five sides is they are square pyramids. Pyramids are classified by the shape of the base, and the pyramids in Egypt and in most of the world, have a square base. There are some that have a rectangular base, but those would still have five sides.
There are some other ways to describe the Egyptian pyramids. They are not only square pyramids but are right as well. That means the apex is directly above the center of the base. Most pyramids built by ancient civilizations are right pyramids because they have polygons as a base. If a pyramid's apex is not directly above the center of the base, it is an oblique pyramid. If a pyramid has a regular polygon as a base, it is regular, so all the pyramids in Egypt are regular. An irregular pyramid would have an irregular shape to its base.
Square pyramids, like the ones in Egypt, are found all over the world. They all have five faces, eight edges, five vertices, and the upper faces are triangles. Some of these pyramids have a flat surface and others are stepped, like most of the ones found in Mexico. Those had steps so people could reach the temples at the top.
The Giza Pyramids
Now that you know the answer to "how many sides does an Egyptian pyramid have?" is five, you may want to find out more about the Egyptian pyramids. There are three big pyramids on the Giza plateau near Cairo, Egypt. They are the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. They are all regular, right, square pyramids. The largest one is the Great Pyramid of Giza, or the Pyramid of Khufu. It is also the tallest pyramid in the world. It stands about 480.6 feet, or 146.5 meters, high and the sides of the base are 757 feet, or 230.7 meters long. To build the Giza pyramids, it took 500,000 tons of mortar and 2.3 million limestone blocks, plus additional granite blocks.
The Pyramid of Khafre is 470.5 feet, or 148.5 meters, tall and the length of the sides of the base is 706 feet, or 215.5 meters. It appears to be taller than Khufu's pyramid because of its location and because it was constructed of limestone blocks. The Pyramid of Menkaure is 218 feet, or 66.5 meters, tall and the length of the sides of the base is 355.9 feet or 108.5 meters. It was constructed of limestone and granite.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the tallest pyramid on the world but not the largest pyramid by volume. That distinction goes to the Great Pyramid of Cholula, which is also called Tlachihualtepetl. It stands in Mexico in the state of Puebla and is shorter but has a wider base than the Pyramid of Khufu. Its height is 217 feet or 66 meters and the length of the sides of its square base is 1476.37 feet or 450 meters. Its total volume is over 4.45 million cubic meters, which is a lot more than Khufu's, which is 2.5 million cubic meters.