ATITD Wiki: The Test Of The People's Pyramid

Consecrate a newly-built pyramid to pass this test. Consult this article for a detailed guide to pyramid construction.

There are currently 5 sizes of pyramid which can be built. Any size will suffice for the test; if your only goal is to pass the test, there is no reason to build any but the smallest of pyramids (a Pyramid of the People). Once Egypt builds seven pyramids of a particular size, the next size becomes available.

Pyramid of the People: 14 blocks (3 tiers).
Pyramid of the Fertile Land: 55 blocks (5 tiers). The first seven constructed each increased vegetable harvests by 1 across all of Egypt.
Pyramid of the Deep Ocean: 140 blocks (7 tiers). The first seven constructed each increased fish catches by 1 across all of Egypt.
Pyramid of the Living Forest: 506 blocks (11 tiers). The first seven constructed each increased wood harvests by 1 across all of Egypt.
Pyramid of the Distant Plains: 1240 blocks (15 tiers). The first seven constructed each decrease the cost of using waypoints. These pyramids, unlike the four smaller varieties, are smooth-sided.
Pyramid of Many Wonders: 2470 blocks (19 tiers). The first consecrated made the effects of food last twice as long. The second consecrated gave water mines the chance to pull two gems at once. From Teppy "The rewards for pyramids of Many Wonders are really interesting". Theory is each will provide a different one-time bonus.

There are seven levels of the Pyramid Construction skill -- one available at universities of each discipline. (Each new type of university you learn the skill from will increase your level by one.) Level 7 is required to consecrate a pyramid, while lesser levels are required to assist with the various construction steps, as listed below:

Push a block
Dig up a block
Prospect for blocks
Place a block in the site
Align a block in the site
Build a pyramid site
Consecrate a pyramid

Whoever performs the final step (consecration) passes the test.

The work-intensive steps are the pushing and the digging, and prospecting for the blocks. Have a friend, or two, or three, help you out with these steps. The digging especially benefits from teamwork, as partially-unearthed blocks will begin to sink back into the sand. Thus, two people digging is significantly faster than one person.

An ability called Beauty of Night is gained at successive Pyrotechnics skills that allows you to more easily find blocks. Also, the Automatons built using Ancient Mechanics are of great use when building, as they are much more efficient at dragging blocks up to about 10 people.

Patterns

10 horizonal x 1 vertical is a common pattern. In VoK this is 10 east and 1 north but is different in other areas.
(possible in other places) 1 horizonal x 100 vertical, works near 0,0 (1 east, 100 north)
10x10. Found in CotS and Seven Lakes. A very dense pattern.

Hashing -- All the blocks found are put into a hash table. Any subsequent "blocks" that hash to the same location will not be found. In the 10x10 pattern, hashing happens in 100x100 blocks NW/SE. Gets better the farther away you go. The hashing effect does not seem to cross the y=-2000 line at the site of the PoMWs.

Todo: Merge Finding Limestone Blocks with this --Brant