The pyramid of Cestius is the huge sepulchral monument. It was erected at the request of Caius Cestius, a wealthy magistrate and one of the Septemviri Epulones (a committee that arranged religious festival banquets). The tomb was built in 12 BC, and as the inscription informs us, in only 330 days. The pyramid is more steeply built than Egyptian ones and is faced in Carrara marble. It measures 72-feet square by 89-feet high. A passageway leads to the rectangular burial cell, where there are many paintings.