Piramide di Caio Cestio, Rome

The Piramide di Caio Cestio is the sharply tapering ancient tomb beside the Aurelian Wall, made for Gaius Cestius Epulo. It rose between eighteen and twelve BC for a Roman official who also belonged to the priests responsible for sacred feasts. Notice the pale marble facing: beneath it lies a mass of brick-clad concrete, set on a travertine foundation.

Its square base measures almost thirty metres across, and the point reaches more than thirty-six metres high. Cestius ordered that his tomb be finished within three hundred and thirty days, or his heirs would lose their inheritance. His choice of form followed the fashionable Roman fascination with Egypt, yet this steep profile echoes Nubian pyramids rather than those at Giza.

The chamber within is surprisingly small, sealed after burial and painted with delicate frescoes. Much was damaged when the tomb was broken into during the medieval period. The wall beside it became its unlikely protector.

In the later third century, builders absorbed the pyramid into Rome’s defences as a bastion. That practical reuse spared this marble-clad tomb when so much ancient fabric disappeared.