M. Williams wrote;

How do you know the HOW isn't part of the WHY ? Or that learning how pyramids were actually built wouldn't give you some insight into their meaning and purpose ? Ive found thats exactly how it works.

My apologies for providing a broad answer about how a pyramid is built.

All pyramids are an answer or expression of purpose and need required for success in the afterlife, technology and economy evolved from them during the Old Kingdom.

Your correct, without knowing how you may not be able to satisfy the why, perhaps you have it in reverse though.... the why solves and provides the reason to build, there is no historical comparison I can think of at the moment, though in terms of the How and Why I can provide a modern example... NASA putting a man on the moon. They began the project without knowing how they could accomplish it, they certainly knew why they wanted to get there, but they had to build from scratch and figure it out because the WHY outweighed the HOW, the former was the motivation that pushed learning how. In my view, which I have stated clearly here many times, the Giza pyramids are the last iteration there, that the pyramids we see today were built over pre-existing structures because the location was of great value. Among the many reasons no other pyramids were built there was because of size. The 5th dynasty began a significantly different protocol in the use of pyramids, which then evolved yet again at the end of the dynasty.

Meaning and purpose are, as I described above, the progenitors of pyramid building... which are more or less the outcome of their Heliopolitian afterlife and rebirth theology. Lehner points out that the smooth-sided pyramid is a solar icon, that its capstone (pyramidion - benbenet) is the pyramid in miniature, and given its Egyptian name its directly related to the benben of Heliopolis.

Best regards,

B.A.Hokom