What the word Pyramid stands for

In today times all people around the world accepts word “pyramid” as stereo-metric figure.
However, this is not the original meaning of the word.
In the beginning of the history, “pyramid” has the sense of the “Temple with funeral Pile”.

We should not forget that in the Europe have two mountings with the root “pyra” in the name. They are Pyrenees in Iberian Peninsula and Pirin in Balcan Peninsula. Two names are identical. The difference in writing is due to transitions trough diverse languages. On Bulgarian and Russian languages, both names are written in one form – “Пирин” and “Пиринеи”. The second is plural from first on Latin.
Of course, there have many stories about origin of the names. For example, according to the tail in classical mythology, Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene is the name of a town in Celtic Europe. According to Silius Italicus, Pyrene was the virginal daughter of Bebryx, a king in Mediterranean Gaul by whom the hero Hercules was given hospitality during his quest to steal the cattle of Geryon during his famous Labors. Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his host's daughter. Pyrene gives birth to a serpent and runs away to the woods, afraid that her father will be angry. Alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention instead of wild beasts who tear her to pieces.
After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, finding the girl's lacerated remains. As is often the case in stories of this hero, the sober Hercules responds with heartbroken grief and remorse at the actions of his darker self. He lays Pyrene to rest tenderly, demanding that the surrounding geography join in mourning and preserve her name. Struck by Herculean voice, the mountaintops shudder at the ridges. He kept crying out with a sorrowful noise 'Pyrene!' and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back 'Pyrene!' … The mountains hold on to the wept-over name through the ages." Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, but rejects it as fabulous, fictional. See
Nevertheless, from here should be taken the notional core of “female beginning”.

Let us to point again, that in Latin, Pyrenees is the plural from the Pyre.
The Pirin in Balcan Peninsula is considered as sacred mountain. Some of historians suggest that it is named to the Slavic supreme god Perun. In addition, most high pick Vihren is believed had been place for sacred rituals.
I do not know haw was about Pyrenees, but I will not be surprised in the case there had the same believes.
In the Latin – Bulgarian Dictionary, the word “pyra, pyrae” is translated as rogus.

There have many explanations for “rogus” most frequent of which are:
– rogus (genitive rogī); m, second declension
   A: funeral pile
   B: The grave – figuratively See
Marvin Tameanko, retired architect and specialist in ancient architectural coins comments: "To cremate a body, bones and all (but not the teeth) you need lots of sustained heat. The Romans used a pyre, called a “rogus”, which was built with log cribwork, like a hollow log cabin, erected in stages, getting smaller at the top where the body was placed. The rogus was filled with straw, kindling, and set alight. It acted as a chimney and funneled the heat to the top, incinerating the corpse. Herodian, the Roman historian describes the rogus in detail. After the cremation, the ashes were placed in a stone building, called an ustrinum, made to look like the wedding-cake shaped rogus or the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and built near the cremation site. The remains of these have been found in Rome as early as 1907”.
One of the most amazing architectural types on Roman Imperials is the ustrinum or "funeral pyre" It consists of four tiers; the lowest most of which represents a plain podium with pilasters at the angles; having loosely-hanging drapery in front, with three large festoons, and the profile of a festoon at each end. The next tier forms the sepulchral chamber for the reception of the dead body. In the center is a pair of paneled folding doors, flanked by two niches on each side with statues and surmounted by a cornice. The tier above has five square-headed niches with statues and a cornice represented by beads; and the upper forms a lofty plain attic with hanging drapery in front, the folds of which are very marked. A lit torch flanks each end of the upper tier, which forms a pedestal surmounted by the quadriga of the deceased, with his statue in the chariot and holding a palm leaf in his left hand. All the tiers diminish in width from the base upwards to assume a pyramidal form.

In the Free Dictionary is given meaning of similar word:
– pyre (Greek: πυρά, pyrá, from πυρ, pýr, fire), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon the pyre, which is then set on fire. See
Pyre, rogus, or ustrinum – all these are similar.
I wish to underline that the Greek root arrives from the word “fire”!
Let us see the pictures from mountain Pirin:
Pirin Sunset and Sunrise - Here is well seen as the “natural pyramidal” form, as the Sun fire. Seen from the surrounding mountings, Pirin is like great flame with many tangs in the sunset and the sunrise. Not occasionally, the mountain is sacred for the old Thracian people and Greeks.

Muratovo lake, peak Todorka
 Pirin Sunset Pictures taken from Evgeni Dimov 

Peak Todorka rear view Pirin Sunrise

Pictures taken from Pavel Pronin, Slideshow in the author’s site.

Two photographers, rear and face view, sunset and sunrise … One impression!

Many ancient natural places, entered in all religions known as High places are elevated areas on which altars have been erected for worship in the belief that, as they were nearer heaven than the plains and valleys, they are more favorable places for prayer. High places were prevalent in almost all ancient cultures as centers of cultic worship.
High places in Israelite ethnicity (Hebrew: Bamah, or Bama) or Canaanite culture were open-air shrines, usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century BC, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic goddesses). In addition to an altar, matzevot (stone pillars representing the presence of the divine) were erected.
The practice of worship on these spots became frequent among the Hebrews.
Such worship was with difficulty abolished, though denounced time after time by the prophets as an affront to God.
A closely related example is a "backyard" altar, so to speak. Before there was a set temple and an established altar, people built their own altars. After the temple was built, the use of these altars was forbidden. Unlike the previous case, "backyard" altar worship was quickly eradicated.
In addition, the word Pyramid is containing syllable “ra”, which in Egyptian language means Light, Sanity.
Thus, the term Pyramid stands for as “temple” or “sacred place”.
This is not surprising – in the entire world have pyramids. Everywhere they are accepted as temples. For example - The ziggurats built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels.
It is notorious example The Pyramids/Temples of the Sun and the Moon in Teotihuacán. See
Also, the complex of two huge adobe brick buildings: the Pyramid of the Sun, or Huaca del Sol, and the artificial platform called Huaca de la Luna, or Temple of the Moon. This major archaeological site was built at the time of the Moche culture (100 BC-650 AD), just east of a prominent, freestanding hill, the Cerro Blanco (White Mountain), and next to a small tributary of the Moche River. It occupies a central location within the extensive Moche Valley. The complex sits about three miles inland, southeast of the modern city of Trujillo and is considered by many scholars to be the former capital of the Moche State. See

Everywhere, the pyramids are whether single, whether by couple – symbolizing male and female beginnings in equal level.
In this chain, the three pyramids in the Giza plateau are significant and single example.
Pyramids are scattered from Pidan in Siberia to India and Cambodia, from Thailand to Nankin, from Mexico to Chile. See
Only in Egypt, to the pyramids is prohibited to represent temples, and are regarded as simple tombs. Meanwhile, the traces of burials in the interior of the buildings are very scarce. The pyramids in Mexico are richer of burials then their sisters in Egypt. Nevertheless, the Mexicana pyramids are accepted as temples while the same is denied to the Egyptian pyramids.
The Giza’s pyramids are with poorest volume of remains and funeral features in the world.
To explain scarce burials in Egyptian pyramids, the legend of stealing is invited to help.
The hypothesis about ceaseless robbery is very comfortable, but doubtful or insufficient as explanation. Thieves are everywhere and at all times – In the Yucatan, in the Mexico, in the Peru, in the Arab peninsula… and still in Japan!
Nevertheless, the pyramids everywhere are treated in utterly different ways.
This is not only frivolously, but impossible to sustain trough centuries. Especially in modern times with big mass of gathered data. Obviously, behind this position has supporting force.

Temple in Thailand