Why are pyramids important to Egyptian religion?
Everything in Egyptian religion and mythology is rooted in function. The ancient Egyptians were not naive or primitive in thought. They used myths in their cultic texts (i.e. Pyramid texts, Coffin texts and the Book of the Dead). Egyptians used these myths as metaphysical word pictures to better understand the ultimate reality of the universe they experienced daily. The pyramids had a functional purpose in that they did not only house the mummy of the dead king (typically), but the pyramid plays a key role in the Egyptian understanding of the afterlife. The spells written on the king’s sarcophagus, inner chamber walls, etc. are there to insure the king of safe passage through Duat, the underworld, with Re/Atum/Ptah (i.e. the first self-creating god by which all the other gods emerged from) each night through Nut’s (the sky) stomach. The dead king would be with Atum as he traversed the underworld in a boat fighting his archenemy Apophis, the serpent like creature. Osiris, ruler of the d
