2,000-year-old Rome pyramid getting spotlighted:

Rome's only surviving pyramid from ancient times is being put in the spotlight. After a Japanese clothing magnate helped pay for an ambitious cleanup, archaeologists are eager to show off the monument, constructed around 2,000 years ago as the burial tomb for a Roman praetor, or magistrate, named Caius Cestius.

Although soaring 36 meters (119 feet), the pyramid draws few tourists. Decades of grime blackened the creamy white Carrara marble exterior of the monument near a traffic-clogged intersection and a subway station. The pyramid's base is below street level since the metropolis has been built up over the centuries, so many hurry by without realizing the monument's height. Archaeologist Leonardo Guarnieri told reporters Wednesday that tours, including of the frescoed burial chamber, are being given twice a month by reservation. Visitors must crouch as they make their way through a narrow corridor leading to the burial chamber. What happened to Caius Cestius' remains is unknown, Guarnieri said. Inside the chamber, visitors can see an upward-sloping tunnel. He said the restoration has bolstered theories the tunnel was dug out in medieval times, possibly by grave-robbers.

Read more at: archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.jp...
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To be honest I saw pics of it before but I just thought that it was some post Roman era pyramid constructed by Masons perhaps post Napoleon or even early 20th cent, in any case I had never thought about it's age, boy was I off the mark and if the article is to be believed there were others, this however should not be as surprising to me as I have already knew of Isis temples in Rome and other parts of Europe.

a reply to: Spider879
One of the many things stolen from the Egyptian culture, looks good but it looks like it is about to fall apart, glad they did not try to build higher.

originally posted by: ImmortalLegend527
a reply to: Spider879
One of the many things stolen from the Egyptian culture, looks good but it looks like it is about to fall apart, glad they did not try to build hire.

In this case I wouldn't use the term stolen as at the time there were Nile Valley priest and priestesses conducting services in Rome so like Churches in Africa today it's more like cultural diffusion than theft.

a reply to: Spider879

cool stuff, never knew there was a roman pyramid.

originally posted by: NobodiesNormal
a reply to: Spider879

cool stuff, never knew there was a roman pyramid.

Most of us didn't either.

a reply to: Spider879

It all depends really ,did they build it after they concurred Egypt or before?

What happened to Caius Cestius' remains is unknown,

Ok, so where are the hordes of fringers claiming it wasn't a tomb ?

originally posted by: ImmortalLegend527
a reply to: Spider879

It all depends really ,did they build it after they concurred Egypt or before?

It would have been after, but many of it's citizens of that era were Romanized Egyptians, and many old line Roman did worshiped Isis , the priest in the other pics were Kemetians or Kush ites or both so it wasn't a knock off but a true cultural diffusion, theft would have implied claiming originality which they never did.

originally posted by: Spider879

originally posted by: ImmortalLegend527
a reply to: Spider879

It all depends really ,did they build it after they concurred Egypt or before?

It would have been after, but many of it's citizens of that era were Romanized Egyptians, and many old line Roman did worshiped Isis , the priest in the other pics were Kemetians or Kush ites or both so it wasn't a knock off but a true cultural diffusion, theft would have implied claiming originality which they never did.

Nice scholarship!

I have a very amusing book about the Jackal gods and late Egyptian and Roman times. The Greeks did okay with Anubis...but the Romans - oh my goodness! He's a dog headed man and dressed like Mercury. I'll have to find my book and post some choice bits from it!

Any chance we taking up the kicking out the gypsies due to the controversy of the bible interpretation? No? To soon?

a reply to: Spider879

I don’t believe there’s anything remotely religious about this. Some Ancient Roman nouveau-riche vulgarian with an ego the size of a pyramid built it. Ten to one he made his money in real estate or banking.

Speaking as a person of taste, I should say its two-thousand-year-long obscurity was well deserved.

Sadly, what money built, the hope of money is now resurrecting.

The ‘boycott Caius Cestius’ Twitter feed starts here.

originally posted by: Marduk

What happened to Caius Cestius' remains is unknown,

Ok, so where are the hordes of fringers claiming it wasn't a tomb ?

...And claiming that there's no way it could have been built in such a short time (one of the inscriptions says 330 days).

Though I bet it won't be long before someone comes along claiming the lightning rod at the top of it is due to it being some sort of generator.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: Spider879

I don’t believe there’s anything remotely religious about this. Some Ancient Roman nouveau-riche vulgarian with an ego the size of a pyramid built it. Ten to one he made his money in real estate or banking.

Speaking as a person of taste, I should say its two-thousand-year-long obscurity was well deserved.

Sadly, what money built, the hope of money is now resurrecting.

The ‘boycott Caius Cestius’ Twitter feed starts here.

Yes ego may have been involved but like most ppl ancient or modern they were superstitious and in death even more so, I have little doubt that dear old Caius Cestius wanted to live in that field of reeds.

a reply to: Astyanax

We have in interesting ghost story in Liverpool, a wealthy liverpool merchant by the name of William Mackenzie whose apparition has been seen many time's including by people whom know nothing about the story's from outside liverpool and even from abroad had himself buried in a pyramid shaped tomb, the story is that he was buried in his tail's and top hat sitting at the table with a stacked deck of card's in an almost voodu or santoria type of ritual, now his restless soul, maybe unable to find peace is sometimes seen to step through the wall of the churchyard, many have seen him and thought he was a living person until this happened.
www.itsliverpool.com...

originally posted by: ImmortalLegend527
a reply to: Spider879
One of the many things stolen from the Egyptian culture, looks good but it looks like it is about to fall apart, glad they did not try to build higher.

I would disagree though I do see your point because if you look at the image though it may be simply the camera look a few corses up near the base and notice how the layer of stacked block's look to have an inward curving upturned arch effect, this would have helped to brace the upper courses of masonry and support far more weight than the techniques the Egyptian's actually used, dependant upon the inherant strength of the stone of course.
Remember they gave us the dome, the aquaduct and the sloped road with the centre of the road higher than either side to drain water from it even if they themselves did not invent it, the Romans also had Triple glazed glass on there bath's in Rome, of course it was blown glass it took an english inventor to learn to make flat sheet's of glass by floating the liquid Glass on molten Tin but I digress the Romans were clever even if they were less original than is today accepted, they inherited the arch from the Etruscan's for instance and claimed the ANCIENTS had tought them the art of road building?.

I suspect there were once far larger pyramid's in rome as the egyptian cult's had quite a presence there for a few hundred years.

The real inventive mind's though were the greek's of the roman empire, remember how archimedes in the defence of syracuse when the romans were attacking the city and blockading it's port is said to have used mirrors to set the roman ships ablaze (as well as supposedly inventing the screw though today it is believed that the babylonians may have known that principle thousands of years before him as well as being just as inventive as the greek's but there works lost in later generations unlike the greek's).
Then there is Heron of Alexandria explorable.com...
If Heron had just put them together he had everything to make a steam engine or even a locomotive, imagine how different the world would be if the Romans had discovered Rail technology back then.

a reply to: LABTECH767

If he can step through a wall, why can’t he just go somewhere and lie down for a bit?

a reply to: Spider879

Oh, I’ve no doubt he was superstitious. But people are superstitious in different ways.

This one screams new money.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: LABTECH767

If he can step through a wall, why can’t he just go somewhere and lie down for a bit?

Ha your skepticism is well known on this site Astyanax, but to be fair I have never seen this particular apparition or know of personally anyone whom has though unlike yourself maybe (i assume you have had no paranormal experience which you accept as such) I have experienced the paranormal with mind bending reality shattering result's, not something I would wish on anyone and god willing few shall suffer it.

Your comment about new money is probably right it is overly ostentatious while a traditional roman patrician family would have favoured there family tomb's outside the city or in the catacomb's which run deep beneath rome.

Anyway it is preferrable to keep a closed mind toward the paranormal and safer.

originally posted by: MysterX

IOW, your snide remarks aren't appreciated.

so do you have an opinion on this subject, or is it just your impotent view of my opinion that has enraged you ?