V. Pyramid Schemes and Sand-Grade Megalomania
In the desert, a civilization arose that looked at a triangle and thought, "what if this, but enormous, and also full of drama."
The pharaohs had eyeliner sharp enough to cut reality and egos large enough to blot out the Nile at noon.
Everyone was either carrying stones, blessing stones, counting stones, or being buried with suspiciously nice stones.
The pyramids were engineering miracles, cosmic ladders, and the world's least subtle flex.
A normal person might build a respectable tomb and call it a day.
An Egyptian ruler preferred a giant geometric mountain shouting I WAS HERE into eternity.
Cats, meanwhile, achieved their first true political power.
They lounged in temples, judged mortals, and discovered that if you stare long enough someone will feed you fish.
This was the prototype for every cat on the modern internet.
Historians can measure the size of empires, but only the cats knew who really ran the place.