Rome’s Pyramid Of Caius Cestius

MessageToEagle.com – The Pyramid of Cestius is an ancient pyramid in Rome, Italy. The monument is the only surviving structure of a series of similar ones existing in Rome in the 1st c. BC, when funerary architecture was influenced by the fashion that had arisen in Rome after the conquest of Egypt in 31 BC.

In fact, Romans were fanatics of Egypt, especially to its superb and gigantic structures.

The tomb was erected in 12 BC, according to the will of Caius Cestius, a Roman politician, member of the priestly college of the Epulones, who wanted to be buried in a pyramid.

The pyramid – similar to the Nubian pyramids, particularly the kingdom of Meroë – was built in less than 330 days according to Cestius’ will.

The structure, 36.40 meters high with a square base of 29.50 meters per side, is composed of bricks and marble and the external cladding is made of Luni marble.

The walls are covered with frescoes and panels with figures of nymphs with lustral vases.

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The barrel-vaulted burial chamber, of about 23 square meters, was walled up at the time of the entombment, after the Egyptian custom.

The first violation of the tomb probably dates back to the Middle Ages; it was carried out by digging a tunnel in the northern side, and it entailed the loss of the cinerary urn as well as of significant portions of the decoration.

Today it is one of the best-preserved ancient buildings in Rome.

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