page_title: House of Eternity (Ancient Egypt)
section_title: Pyramids
hierarchical_section_title: House of Eternity (Ancient Egypt) / Houses of eternity / Pyramids
context_page_description: In ancient Egypt, the term house of eternity refers to a tomb that consists of a pit, a tomb shaft, or from mud-bricks, which were later carved into rocks; or built on open land. Burial sites made of stone were a 'sign of immortality', due to the long durability of stone. This was an ideal construction method that could be afforded by only a very few ancient Egyptians, due to its high cost. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the construction of a monument during one's own lifetime represented the most intensive representation with the connection of life; and the concept of living in the afterlife.
  The house of eternity was 'a place to meet oneself' for the tomb owner and contained decorations portraying the owner's likeness, and the stages of their lives. The owner immortalised themselves with their portrait on the walls of the tomb, along with the inscriptions, to resurrect them in 'a new life in later times.' The tomb owner depicted their 'completed life' in anticipation of their death, which according to their beliefs, was to be removed from this form; in the portrayal of oblivion and mortality.
context_section_description: The Egyptian pyramids are a further development of Nu, which are found at the royal tombs at Abydos, Egypt. The hill shape of the mastabas at Saqqara was also incorporated. From the Third Dynasty, the pyramids served as the burial ground of the King, which developed as a synthesis of the various Upper and Lower Egyptian components of the tomb and valley district. Elements of the tombs and facilities are again found at Saqqara. The large enclosure in Saqqara (Gisr el-Mudir) is said to have served as a stone equivalent of the valley districts of Abydos, as a model for the enclosure of the pyramidal district, as well as the wedge-shaped gallery graves of the Second Dynasty, in Saqqara.
  
  The construction of the Pyramid of Djoser created a new visual appearance for the house of eternity, which was said to have enabled the deceased King or Queen to ascend to a 'human equivalent of the sun,' a rank on par with the sun god Horus. This new philosophy of the kings can be seen alongside the increasing size of the later pyramids. The inside walls of these constructions had relief decorations, such as the those in the Pyramid of Djoser, but were undecorated until the end of the Fifth Dynasty. The paths to the tomb chambers were through tunnels inside of the pyramid.
  If the Kings saw themselves as Horus on Earth until the Third Dynasty, then they understood themselves to be 'sons of Ra', with the rising of the sun associated with the god Ra from the time of King Djedefre, Fourth Dynasty. The hierarchical change led to a reduction in the size of the pyramids. The literary work, the Instruction of Hardjedef, which refers to the tombs of the Old Kingdom as houses of eternity, now only exists in fragments. Due to the language, the work can clearly be dated to the Middle Kingdom. It begins with the quote:  
  Make your home in the west splendid and fit in abundantly from your seat in the necropolis. Accept this; death is minor to us, accept this, for life is mighty. But the house of death serves life.
  — Doctrine of Hardjedef, 
  The rest of the text deals with the tomb site. Accordingly, the house of eternity was in the ideal case, a plot to provide the necessary income as an offering. In the Old Kingdom, there was the office 'overseer of the house of eternity'. A Funerary Priest took care of offering the 'revenue of the house of eternity': "This will be more useful to you than a dear son. Promote this more than your heirs. Remember what they say, no heir remembers forever."
caption: Pyramid of Djoser
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