How did pharaoh khufu proclaim his glory? the first rulers of egypt were often buried in an underground tomb topped by mud brick. later kings wanted more permanent monuments. they built small brick or stone pyramids over their tombs. a pyramid is a structure shaped like a triangle with 4 sides that meet at a point. about 2630 b. c, king djoser built a much larger pyramid called a step pyramid has sides that rise in a series of giant steps. about 80 years later, a pharaoh named khufu ordered workers to construct the largest pyramid ever built. it was made from 2.3 million blocks of stone. he wanted a monument that would show the world how great he was. building the pyramid was hard work. farmers did the heavy labor of hauling stones during the season when the nile flooded their fields. skilled stone cutters and overseers worked year round. the great pyramid took nearly 20 years to build. about 20,000 egyptians worked on it. in time, egyptians stopped building pyramids because the pyramids attracted robbers. grave robbers broke into tombs to steal treasures buried with the pharaohs. sometimes they also steal the mummies. egyptians believed that if a tomb was robbed, the person buried there could not have a happy afterlife. during the new kingdom, pharaohs bulit more secret tombs in the valley of the kings. they hoped to protect their bodies and treasures from robbers. although pharaohs tried hard to hide their tombs, robbers stole treasures from almost every tomb. only one tomb bulit for new kingdom pharaoh was ever found with much of its treasure untouched. under line the answer. the question is why did khufu build such a large pyramid?