In Ancient Egypt, pyramids were built as homes for the pharaohs in their afterlife. It was believed that when a pharaoh died, he became the new king of the dead, Osiris. Part of his soul, however, remained inside his body. For this reason, everything he would need in the afterlife was put in his tomb or pyramid with him. The people that built the pyramids were not slaves, they were farmers and villagers. The limestone blocks were first polished and shaped. They then pushed huge limestone and granite bricks up big ramps and put them into place. Hard laborers were not the only ones to help with the pyramids; it took architects and priests to choose locations and positions, and to align the pyramids with the starts. It took thousands of workers and many years to build the pyramids, but they knew they were helping the pharaoh live his afterlife. The first pyramids from about 2630 B.C. were step pyramids, and they continued to develop until the Great Pyramid was built in about 2550 B.C. No pyramid that came after was quite as large, and the era of pyramids ended in about 2250 B.C.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html
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