The pyramid of Gaius Cestius was built as a tomb in 12 BC for a wealthy praetor and tribune of the people whose time in Egypt evidently inspired his ideas for terrestrial immortality. Some thirty six metres high, the pyramid is said to have been erected in 330 days. Under Emperor Aurelian (r. AD 270–275) it was incorporated into the new city wall. In this plaque the mosaicist has underplayed later urban developments and also avoided the dramatic exaggeration of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1788) in his representation of the subject. A similar paring down of compositions to focus on the classical past may be seen in the plaques of the temple of Vesta, Rome, inventory numbers 4931MC717/ДПИ and 2055PC479/ДПИ.
It is fitting for a micromosaic depicting a Roman monument inspired by the Egyptian pyramids to be set in a box of purplish red porphyry that most probably came from the Roman imperial quarries on Mons Porphyrites/Mons Igneus (fiery mountain), now known in Arabic as the Gebel Abu Dokhan (smoky mountain), in the north of the Eastern Desert, Egypt.

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