Who invented pyramids, the Mayans or the Egyptians?

Answer 1

The Egyptian architect Imhotep ...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/imhotep.shtml

Answer 2

My answer would be both. The point has already been made that the construction/development being done separately, as well Mayan and Egyptian pyramids are constructed differently.

Egyptian pyramids are made with cut and fitted blocks through out, Mayan pyramids are typically filled with lose stone and rubble with an exterior of cut stone or stucco (or both). Also, Mayans had a tendency to build newer pyramids over earlier structures. I don't believe this was a common practice in Egypt.

Answer 3

The Mayan pyramids were combined temples and tombs, while the Egyptian pyramids were tombs with temples attached. Both had square bases and four sides, but they look very different. The true Egyptian pyramids are much larger than the Mayan pyramids, and have smooth sides and pointed tips. Originally, they were covered in white limestone and their tips were covered in gold so that they shone in Egypt's strong sunlight. The Maya pyramids are much later in date. They are stepped or tiered, with stairways to allow access to the flat top, which housed ceremonial buildings. Both of the pyramids are for gods, Mayan pyramid if for worship. While the Egyptian pyramid if for Pharaoh, but technically he is a god.

Answer 4

Egyptians of course, the time gap between the 2 is huge, the Zoser pyramid was built during the 3rd dynasty 3000 BC, which is older by about 1900 Years than the Mayan oldest one.

Answer 5

there is no real way to be absolutely sure!!!!imhotep the architect for the pharoah zoser design the step-pyramid at saqqara that evolved into the casement stone-covered pyramids at gizeh!!!!!!centuries later!!!!but the mayans of the classic period had calculated dates in time going backward in time a full three million years with a very advanced and refined calendar system of intertwining ,interlocked geared wheels like the wheels of a spirograph!!!!!they calculated "zero" as did the arabs!!!!they had advanced astromnomical observations and calculated eclipses and other repeating stellar phenomena,the rotation of the planets and predicted the weather and the effects of solar flares and spots on the sun!!!the olmecs that preceeded them were very advanced also!!!!!there is alway the "cross-fertilization of cultures" that occurs,sometimes "off-the-scope' of recorded history!!!!the aztec tribes around cohlula built "the world's largest pyramid"....bigger than any ever built by the egyptians!!!!the egyptians flowered very early ;but there are too many coincidental ideas in architecture ,tools,metallurgy,design,cosmology,religion,worship and art not for there to have been some common connection;even if it remains somewhat illusive!!!!!

Answer 6

You have to understand why any culture builds pyramids (there are also pyramids in China and other Asian nations).
If you don't have the technology we have today of girders and struts and metal, and you want to build high, you basically can only make a mound of dirt. If you try to make your mound of dirt too high, like a column, it will fall over. If you taper it toward the top, it will be stable. But eventually a mound of dirt will wash away so why not use rocks? And natural rocks are too round so let's cut them square. And if you're using square blocks, it makes the most sense to make the base square as well.
It's just a case of people all over the world with a similar level of technology solving the same problem--how to make a tall structure--in a similar way.

Answer 7

the very earliest of the Egyptians, not too long after the Noachian flood. The Mayan culture came along around the time of the later Egyption period.

Answer 8

Both independently and not at the same time.
Some people want to believe that the occurrence of pyramids on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean proves the existence of the supposedly disappeared high civilization of Atlantis. That is - by the way - the origin of the name "Atlantic" Ocean.

Answer 9

Traces of many civilizations from antiquity exist,and some built pyramids. Hopefully, one day more factual time lines will be known. Battles are ongoing in the archaeological and anthropological schools of thought about the actual dating of artifacts and societies from humankind's past. No one actually knows for sure.

Answer 10

The Greeks! A pyramid found in Argos is at least 200 years older. Smaller, but older.