Dr Edwards draws both on his research and on the work of many archaeologists who have dug in Egypt. Surveying 1000 years of pyramid-building, he charts the rise and decline of the pyramids as funerary monuments, from the mastabas of the first and second dynasties and the step pyramids to the archaic and backward-looking efforts of the Middle Kingdom, and discusses the famous group at Giza. His final chapter, dealing with their construction and purpose, puts the pyramids into the perspective of ancient Egyptian society. This revised edition includes recent discoveries and research.