Why pyramid form/ mound /ziggurat/ stupa show up in so many places??

Pyramid form / mound/ ziggurat/ stupa can be considered as the most powerful expression of each culture's religious beliefs. As there are different culture's religious beliefs around the world, so the pyramid / mound / ziggurat / stupa show up in so many places like Egypt, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and so on. They were designed according to the most complex and all-embracing symbolic systems; their shapes, decoration, dimensions and orientation to the sun were the result of the most profound meditation.

Pyramid

source:http://www.metrolic.com/travel-guides-the-great-pyramid-of-giza-147358/

Ziggurat

source:http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=117535

Borobudur Stupa , Java ,Indonesia

source:http://sacredsites.com/asia/indonesia/borobudur_stupa.html

Mankind first used indestructible materials to erect large structures like pyramid, stupa and ziggurat not to live in but to worship their gods.


The Egyptian worshiped the sun as their chief god, often represented by a symbolic pyramidal stone,or ben-ben. The Egyptian hieroglyph for the sun was a triangle divided into 3 zones horizontally- red , white and yellow. Yellow zone represent the sun spreading it rays upon the Earth which is the bottom or red zone.The pyramids themselves were huge ben-bens, symbols of the sun and its rays reaching down the Earth. When the pharaoh died, he was said to ascend the sun's ray to join his father,the sun-god. Thus, the pyramid would also seem to have been the symbolic staircase or pathway for the phraaoh to climb in order to reach the heaven. 


Ziggurat.
A word derived from the Assytian ziqquratu, meaning 'high'. They were the symbols in themselves; the ziggurat at Ur was planted with trees to make it represent a mountain. There the god visited the Earth, and the priests climbed up to its top to worship.


Stupa
The Hindu stupa symbolized a sacred mountain. It was an ovid mass of stone blocks that became increasingly tall as time progressed.




Of a sudden, this building came into my mind. 

From the appearance, it does look like a modified pyramid with a sphere top. But it has nothing to do with place of worship. It's just a building for the cat museum in Malaysia.