Early Egyptian nobility constructed mud-brick structures called mastabas with underground burial chambers. These were flat-topped rectangular structures with outward-sloping sides. An architectural genius named Imhotep constructed a more elaborate structure for his master, a pharaoh named Djoser, whose reign is currently dated around the middle of the third millennium B.C. Imhotep first built a large mastaba and then built several other mastabas on top of it. Each successive mastaba was smaller than the one beneath it. The result was a step pyramid. Djoser's burial chamber lay underground.
Snefru, a Pharaoh who ruled about a century later than Djoser, built three different pyramids. The third of these had a highly satisfactory pyramidal form from an aesthetic and geometrical point of view. This was a true pyramidal tomb, since the burial chamber lay within the pyramid instead of underground. Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, who ruled Egypt shortly after Snefru, pushed pyramid building to its apogee. They built pyramid tombs that became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Egyptian pharaohs continued to build pyramids regularly for 300 more years, and then sporadically until the middle of the second millennium B.C., but the size and quality of these structures declined.
Archaeologists have not found any royal mummies in the pyramidal burial chambers. Either robbers removed the bodies or the royal mummies were buried elsewhere to deceive robbers. Inscriptions on the walls of various pyramid burial chambers prove that the structures were designed to be either real or symbolic tombs. Ancient writers such as Herodotus also affirm that the pyramids were constructed for royal burials.
In the eighth century B.C., the Nubians, Egypt's neighbor to the south, conquered the land of Egypt. Their rulers began to act like pharaohs and built small pyramid tombs in their homeland. A ruler named Taharqa built the best of these Nubian pyramids
Some ancient Chinese emperors built flat-topped pyramid tombs. The greatest is Mount Li, the pyramid tomb of Emperor Shih Huang Ti who founded of the Qin Dynasty and ruled China from 221 to 206 B.C.
Many different cultures in pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America built pyramids. The Aztecs and the Mayas are the best known. They had a level tops that served as the site of a temple. Though not built as tombs, they sometimes became the site where an influential member of the community was interred. The remains of a wealthy couple have been found buried near the top of a Zoque pyramid in Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas. Sometimes sacrificial victims were buried in pyramids. Skeletal remains have been found in the Pyramid of the Moon, the second largest pyramid in Teotihuacan, a site near Mexico City.