The Great Pyramid is a massive structure that serves as the administrative center of Meereen. The pyramid is 800 feet tall (roughly 241 meters),[1][2] from its huge square base to the lofty apex.[3] Although Meereen has a score of lesser pyramids, none stand even half as tall.[4]
Layout
Like its ancient predecessor, Great Pyramid of Ghis, the Great Pyramid in Meereen has thirty-three levels, a number which is considered to be sacred to the gods of Ghis.[5] A huge harpy made of bronze,[4] visible from outside the city, stands atop the Great Pyramid.[1] A plaza paved with many-colored bricks[6] is found before the structure.[4]
The foundations of the pyramid are massive and thick, supporting the weight of the huge structure overhead. The interior walls are three times thicker than any castle's curtain walls.[7] The walls in the heart of the pyramid are eight feet thick.[5]
The outer walls are thirty feet thick (9.14 meters); they muffle the tumult of the streets and keep the heat outside. Consequently, it is cool and dim within.[8][9] The servant's steps are the quickest way up and down the pyramid. These narrow, steep, and straight stairs are hidden within the thick brick walls.[8]
The lofty apex of the Great Pyramid is found on the highest step. Chambers here are surrounded by greenery and fragrant pools.[10] There are low brick parapets[8] and a garden.[4]
A splendorous audience chamber (or hall) is found one level the apex,[4] down a broad marble stair.[3] It is an echoing, high-ceilinged room with tiles and walls of purple marble. Tall candles burn amongst the purple marble pillars.[11] The chamber has a throne of gilded wood carved in the shape of a harpy.[4]
Massive brick walls surround a suite of rooms buried in the heart of the Great Pyramid on the sixteenth and seventeenth levels.[12] [5] Chambers here are dark and windowless, surrounded on all sides by brick walls 8 feet thick (2.44 meters). Great beams of black oak support the high ceilings.[5]
Stables, stalls, and storerooms are located at the base of the Great Pyramid.[8] The stables in the western walls hold horses, mules, and donkeys, while the stables in the eastern walls hold elephants.[9] The armory is located on the second level,[5] and a training hall is found on the third level.[12]
Underneath the pyramid are vaults with cisterns, dungeons, and torture chambers.[8] The pit of the Great Pyramid is 40 feet deep (12.19 meters) and large enough to hold five hundred men. The Great Masters use the pit as a prison.[8]
History
The Great Pyramid of Meereen was built as an echo to the Great Pyramid of Ghis.[5]
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
When Daenerys Targaryen arrives at Meereen, she can see the top of the Great Pyramid from outside the city's walls.[1]
After her successful siege of Meereen, Daenerys has the Great Masters gathered in the plaza outside of the Great Pyramid. She has 163 slavers nailed to wooden posts around the plaza in response to the killings of slave children on the road from Yunkai as Daenerys marched north to Meereen.[4]
Daenerys orders the huge bronze harpy atop the Great Pyramid to be taken down. Choosing to remain in Meereen to rule, she takes the pyramid as her own seat.[4] Daenerys breaks up the harpy throne in the audience chamber and uses a plain ebony bench instead.[4]
A Dance with Dragons
Daenerys keeps her private chambers at the pyramid's apex.[4][3]
After the death of Hazzea,[3] Daenerys orders her three dragons captured. Viserion and Rhaegal are successfully caught and locked within the pit underneath the pyramid.[8] Drogon evades capture, however, and enjoys basking in the sun atop the pyramid.[8]
As befits his status as Lord Commander of the Queensguard, Ser Barristan Selmy is given rooms near Daenerys's chambers at the apex of the pyramid. Subsequently, he makes the climb up and down the Great Pyramid five or six times a day on the queen's business, which leaves him with pain in his knees and back. Barristan feels his age when he climbs and fears that one day climbing the stairs will prove beyond his powers.[12] Reznak mo Reznak has his chamber on the second level of the pyramid.[12]
Hizdahr zo Loraq, Daenerys's new husband, holds a feast in the Great Pyramid to celebrate the signing of peace with Yunkai and the imminent reopening of the fighting pits of Meereen.[13]
Hizdahr and the cupbearers of Daenerys Targaryen take up residence in the heart of the Great Pyramid after Daenerys disappears from Daznak's Pit.[12] During his stay in Meereen, Prince Quentyn Martell is given rooms on the thirtieth floor, two levels below the audience hall, which is located on the thirty-second level.[14]
The pyramid's main doors are closed and barred at sunset, opening only at first light the next day.[12][7]
Due to the thickness of the walls, Viserion is able to carve a hole in the walls of the pit, which serves as his own lair.[7]
With the help of Windblown, Quentyn attempts to tame one of the dragons in the pit. He is mortally wounded by Rhaegal's dragonflame,[7] and both Rhaegel and Viserion escape the pyramid.[15] Quentyn's fellow Dornishmen, Ser Archibald Yronwood and Ser Gerris Drinkwater, are confined in the dungeons due to their role in the escape of the dragons. Other members of the Windblown, feigned deserters, are also imprisoned in the dungeons.[15]
Barristan constructs a beacon at the pyramid's apex, where the harpy once stood. The beacon consists of dry wood, soaked with oil, and is covered to keep the rain off. Its flames will be the signal for the forces of Meereen to pour out of the city gates and attack their besiegers during the second siege of Meereen.[15]
Quotes
Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world. Do all gods feel so lonely? [4]
—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
At ground level the Great Pyramid of Meereen was a hushed place, full of dust and shadows. Its outer walls were thirty feet thick. Within them, sounds echoed off arches of many-colored bricks, and amongst the stables, stalls, and storerooms.[8]
—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
The Great Pyramid of Meereen had been built as an echo to the Great Pyramid of Ghis whose collossal ruins Lomas Longstrider had once visited. Like its ancient predecessor, whose red marble halls were now the haunt of bats and spiders, the Meereenese pyramid boasted three-and-thirty levels, that number being somehow sacred to the gods of Ghis.[5]
—thoughts of Barristan Selmy
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 57, Daenerys V.
- ↑ The Great Pyramid of Giza was initially only 481 feet tall (146 meters) and erosion has diminished its height. No historic human structure reached or exceeded the height of 800 feet until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 2, Daenerys I.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 71, Daenerys VI.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, The Kingbreaker.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 68, The Dragontamer.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 11, Daenerys II.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 43, Daenerys VII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 36, Daenerys VI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 30, Daenerys V.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 55, The Queensguard.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 50, Daenerys VIII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 59, The Discarded Knight.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 70, The Queen's Hand.