Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Meereen is the colossal stepped pyramid at the heart of the city, serving as Daenerys Targaryen's seat of power, her royal residence, and the administrative center of her rule over Slaver's Bay. Rising eight hundred feet into the sky, it is both a symbol of her conquest and the stage upon which the political and personal dramas of her reign unfold, from holding court and receiving petitioners to the confinement of her dragons and the final, violent rupture of her peace.

Architecture and Symbolism

The Great Pyramid shouldered eight hundred feet into the sky, from its huge square base to the lofty apex where the queen kept her private chambers, surrounded by greenery and fragrant pools. Its outer walls were thirty feet thick, and within them, sounds echoed off arches of many-colored bricks. The structure was a city unto itself, containing stables, stalls, storerooms, cisterns, dungeons, and torture chambers where slaves had been scourged and skinned. At ground level, the pyramid was a hushed place, full of dust and shadows. The pyramid's many levels housed the queen's throne room, her private terrace, the training halls for her knights, and the deep vaults where her dragons were chained. The garment she was forced to wear, the tokar, was itself a symbol of the city's ancient, slave-based culture, a clumsy, long, loose shapeless sheet that had to be wound around her hips and under an arm and over a shoulder. Her advisors convinced her to don it, arguing that the Mother of Dragons must wear the tokar or be forever hated, and that a man who wants to be the king of the rabbits must wear a pair of floppy ears.

Seat of Power and Court

The pyramid's great hall, with its purple pillars and ebon bench, was where Daenerys held court, hearing petitioners and dispensing justice. The hall was filled with Meereenese nobles and freedmen, Unsullied standing with their backs to the pillars, and the air thick with the scent of incense. Here, she received the Astapori envoy Lord Ghael, who brought slippers from the Butcher King, and the noble Hizdahr zo Loraq, who repeatedly petitioned her to reopen the fighting pits. It was also where a grieving father spilled the bones of a child, killed by her dragon Drogon, at her feet. After her marriage to Hizdahr, the hall was transformed; the simple ebon bench was replaced with two imposing thrones of gilded wood, their tall backs carved into the shape of dragons, one of which remained vacant. The hall thrummed with the sound of a hundred low voices, angry and fearful, as the Yunkishmen presented the severed head of Admiral Groleo, a direct challenge to the fragile peace.

Private Chambers and Terrace

At the apex of the pyramid, Daenerys kept her private chambers, a sanctuary of greenery and fragrant pools. From her terrace, she could look out over the city, watching the sun blaze off the golden domes of the Temple of the Graces and the stepped pyramids of the mighty. It was here she walked out onto the terrace in a cool blue dawn, and where she later stood gazing down upon the city, feeling that it would never be her home. The terrace was also the site of her secret meetings, including the appearance of the shadowbinder Quaithe, who warned her of the pale mare, the kraken, the dark flame, the lion, the griffin, the sun's son, and the mummer's dragon. It was on this terrace that she spent her last night with Daario Naharis before her wedding to Hizdahr, and where she later sat, forlorn, after he left.

The Dragon Pit

Deep beneath the pyramid, in the vaults, was the pit where Daenerys chained her dragons, Viserion and Rhaegal. The pit was a large, dark, and hot space, the air uncomfortably hot and smelling of sulfur and charred meat. The dragons were bound with chains as big as a man's fist, and the walls were scorched and blackened. Daenerys visited them here, witnessing their growing savagery and the desperation of their confinement. It was here that she brought Prince Quentyn Martell to show him her children, a visit that ultimately led to his fatal attempt to steal them. The pit was a prison, and the queen was haunted by the thought of what sort of mother lets her children rot in darkness.

Center of Conflict and Change

The Great Pyramid was the epicenter of the city's conflicts. After Daenerys's disappearance, it became the seat of King Hizdahr's uneasy rule, and later the site of Ser Barristan Selmy's coup. The old knight, acting as the Queen's Hand, convened a council of captains and commanders around a large round table in the pillared hall, planning to break the peace and attack the Yunkish forces. The pyramid's very structure was threatened by the dragons; Viserion had dug himself a hole in the walls with flame and claw, and the foundations were massive and thick to support the weight of the huge structure overhead. The pyramid of Hazkar collapsed into a smoking ruin, and the pyramids of Uhlez and Yherizan became the lairs of monsters. The Great Pyramid, once a symbol of Daenerys's power, became a symbol of the chaos and violence that followed her flight.