Strata: Where Is It?

A Fayum Oasis, Egypt

B Meroe, Sudan

C Rome, Italy

D Teotihuacan, Mexico

E Mycenae, Greece

Answer:(C) Rome, Italy

This pyramid stands in Rome on the Via Ostiensis near the San Paolo Gate. It was erected under the first Roman emperor, Augustus, sometime between 18 and 12 B.C.E., for a certain Gaius Cestius. Like its Egyptian templates, this pyramid is a tomb.

The structure measures about 97 by 97 feet at its square base, and its height of about 120 feet corresponds exactly to 100 Roman feet. Built on a brick-faced concrete core, it is covered with white slabs of Carrara marble. It contains a single barrel-vaulted burial chamber about 19.5 feet long, 13.5 feet wide, and 15.5 feet high. This chamber is painted with simple but elegant frescoes in Pompeian style and is now accessible through a passageway carved out by tomb raiders in the 17th century. Originally self-standing, the pyramid was incorporated within the city’s walls between 271 and 275 C.E., to which we can attribute its survival.