This white mausoleum, built in the 1st century BC during the last years of the Roman Republic, looks incongruous at first glance. The tomb’s pyramidal form is a reflection of the Cleopatra fad that swept through the empire’s capital after the conquest of Egypt just a few years earlier, in 30 BC.

That victory has made the monuments and funerary practices of the powerful province very fashionable indeed. The fact that a single citizen was able to build a personal tomb worth of a pharaoh says mach about the wealth of ancient Rome. Already considered one of antiquity’s most significant monuments back in the 1400s, this Roman pyramid has a burial chamber inside one adorned with vibrant frescoed panels of female figures.

Discovered during excavations in 1660, it was found to contain the ashes of Caius Cestius, magistrate, tribune, and epulonum. The strength of the materials made possible a truly firm construction, built at a much sharper angle than any of its Egyptian counterparts.