Egypt has the most famous pyramids, but it is far from the only place where people built them. Maya cities in Mexico, the Kushite kings of Sudan, a Roman magistrate and China’s First Emperor all raised pyramid-shaped monuments, for very different reasons. Here are five remarkable pyramids outside Egypt and the stories behind them.

A stepped Maya structure among trees at Chacchoben
A stepped Maya structure among the trees at Chacchoben, Mexico.

Some were temples at the heart of a city, others tombs for kings or wealthy citizens. Their shapes look alike in photographs; their histories could hardly be more different.

1. El Tajín and the Pyramid of the Niches, Mexico

The repeated recesses of the Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajín
The Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajín, Veracruz.

El Tajín, near the town of Papantla in the Mexican state of Veracruz, flourished from roughly the early 9th to the early 13th century. Its best-known building, the Pyramid of the Niches, rises in seven levels from a square base about 35 metres across. Its original structure has 365 niches, a number often linked to the solar year, and the deep recesses create a striking play of light and shadow.

The city is much more than one pyramid. It has 17 ball courts and elaborate carved reliefs on its columns and friezes that show ritual and daily life. An official named Diego Ruiz came across the pyramid in 1785 while searching for illegal tobacco fields. UNESCO inscribed El Tajín as a World Heritage Site in 1992. The Totonac people, who regard it as sacred, perform the Danza de los Voladores, the “flying men” pole dance, near the entrance about every half hour.

2. The Pyramid of Cestius, Rome

The pale marble face of Rome’s Pyramid of Cestius
The marble-clad Pyramid of Cestius in Rome.

Rome’s pyramid was built between 18 and 12 BC on the Via Ostiense as the tomb of Gaius Cestius, a praetor, tribune of the plebs and member of the Septemviri Epulones, the college that organised banquets in honour of the gods. It stands about 36.4 metres high on a square base of roughly 30 metres and is clad in white Luna marble. Inside, a barrel-vaulted burial chamber is painted with nymphs and winged Victories.

About four centuries later Emperor Aurelian built it into the new city wall, which is one reason it survived so well. The interior opens only for special events, so check the city’s official listing before you go. Our Roman Forum guide covers more of ancient Rome.

3. Chacchoben, Mexico

Chacchoben, in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán Peninsula, lies about 177 km south of Tulum. Its name is Maya for “the place of red corn”. Maya people lived here from around 200 BC, and the main structures date from about AD 700. The ruins were reported to the Mexican government in 1972 by archaeologist Peter Harrison. Mexico’s INAH began excavations in 1994, and the restored area opened to visitors in 2002.

Chacchoben, Mexico – Maya archaeological site among trees
Chacchoben, Quintana Roo.

A circular forest path leads past three excavated and restored pyramids, with walls and staircases between them. The largest pyramid has a stela with a Maya hieroglyphic inscription at its base, and some buildings still show traces of red paint. Chacchoben is a popular excursion from the cruise port of Costa Maya. For a comparison with a far larger Maya city, see our Chichén Itzá guide.

4. The Nubian pyramids of Sudan

Nubian pyramids of the Kingdom of Kush in Sudan
Nubian pyramids, Sudan.

Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt: about 255 are known, more than twice the Egyptian total. They were built by the kings and queens of Kush, a kingdom that ruled along the middle Nile from roughly the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The main groups stand at El-Kurru, Nuri, Jebel Barkal and Meroë, the royal capital between the Nile and Atbara rivers.

Nubian pyramids are tall and narrow, about 6 to 30 metres high, with sides at roughly 70 degrees, far steeper than the Egyptian slopes of 40 to 50 degrees. They stand over the burial chambers, and most have an offering chapel at the base. In the 1830s the treasure hunter Giuseppe Ferlini wrecked more than 40 of them at Meroë in search of gold. UNESCO lists the Island of Meroë, with its pyramids, temples, palaces and reservoirs, as a World Heritage Site.

5. The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, China

The pyramid-shaped burial mound of the First Qin Emperor in China
The burial mound of the First Qin Emperor near Xi’an.

China’s best-known pyramid is an earth mound. Qin Shi Huang, who unified China and died in 210 BC, began building his tomb in 246 BC at the northern foot of Mount Li, about 35 km north-east of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. The mound still rises 51.3 metres inside a double-walled enclosure laid out like the capital, Xianyang.

The mound is only the centre of a vast complex covering 56.25 km², with nearly 200 pits and over 600 sites. The first terracotta warriors were found in 1974, and the army of clay soldiers is now the complex’s great attraction. The tomb chamber itself has not been excavated.

More pyramids beyond Egypt, including Greece

Hellas has its own small pyramid. The Pyramid of Hellinikon stands on the plain of Argos in the Peloponnese, beside the ancient road from Argos towards Tegea. Its walls lean inward at about 60 degrees around a rectangular building of roughly 7 by 9 metres. In the 2nd century AD, Pausanias described a pyramid-shaped tomb near Argos for the soldiers who fell in the battle between Proetus and Acrisius for the Argive throne. Its date is still debated: thermoluminescence tests suggested the third millennium BC, while other archaeologists date the masonry to the Classical period. Louis Lord, who excavated it in the 1930s, read it as a guard house for a small garrison.

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