Boy, this sure sounds like an infantile question. And yet, yes, spoilers, Greece has its own pyramids. Sort of. What do they look like? Who built them and why? And why are scholars yelling at each other when it comes to them? Let’s take a look!
The Greek Pyramids
There are a couple of pyramid-like structures in southern Greece, with the Hellinikon pyramid as the most prominent and well-preserved one. In truth, ‘pyramids’ outside of Egypt aren’t exactly rare – they’re present all over the world, including in Mexico and Iraq. Don’t expect all the pyramids to be as glorious as the Egyptian ones, and especially not the Greek pyramids. Instead, the Hellinikon pyramid is a (comparatively) small pyramid-shaped structure made of stone. As you can see below.
Not much of the other pyramids remain, though the remnants are also present in Kambia, Ligourio, Dalamanara and Viglafia. The Hellinikon pyramid is about an hour’s drive from Athens.
What do we know about these structures? Frankly, we’d love to tell you the rich story behind them but we know close to nothing. We have no idea what they were used for, with even the ancient historians from the 2nd century BC having to wildly guess that they were likely possibly maybe perhaps tombs. The theories propose that it could have been a tomb, a place of worship or a fortification for soldiers to hide in during patrols or skirmishes or a structure commemorating a battle. We can keep guessing, though that’s literally just listing what this could have theoretically been used for with absolutely no proof guiding us in any particular direction. As such, it’s a tad fruitless.
How old are these pyramids?
When you get to the issue of when these were made is when you open the true Pandora’s box. There are a lot of narratives, though the most prominent ones place the date of the Hellinikon pyramid in particular to either the 4th century BC or about 3,000 BC. The latter comes from a physics professor, Ioannis Lirintzis, and Adamantios Sampson, an archeologist. These two sparked quite a conflagration amidst the Greek-pyramid researchers, as they used a new analysis method called thermoluminescence dating – a method without proper scholarly backing and researching, mind you – to determine that these stones were actually much older.
In response, Mary Lefkowitz, another prominent researcher, decided to respond to their research by effectively proposing a whole list of issues with their research: the method was untested, unproven and used without proper consideration, as analysis of stones has to take into consideration that these could’ve been recycled from much older buildings, research has been selectively chosen to support the narrative they were going for and it seemed like all Lirintzis and Sampson were doing was trying to prove to the world that their story was right and not actually determining what the age of these pyramids was. In true Twitter-debate fashion, Liritzis merely responded that Lefkowitz didn’t get the methodology.
In truth, we don’t know yet. And we won’t know for a while, for excavations have been halted. For now, it’s likely safer to stick to the research proposing 4-6th centuries BC. There’s one final thing about the date that we have to mention. If it were to be true that the ‘pyramids’ of Greece were three thousand years old, this would make them older than the Egyptian pyramids. If Lefkowitz is right and the researchers were effectively pushing a fancy story forward, this was the story. That the Greeks were the first pyramideers, not the Egyptians. Until we hear news of that, it’s unlikely that the history books will shift 180 degrees anytime soon over it, though.
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