Permanence is extremely prominent in Egyptian art. Most Egyptian art revolves around the afterlife (until the Amarna period). In the afterlife, Egyptians believed your soul or "Ka" lived on, but only if it had some mean to shelter itself such as the body. However bodies decay, which is why the Egyptians developed the method of mummification. Mummification was the practice of removing organs and tightly wrapping a body in order for the body to last. In case something happened to the body, a sculpture would be made in the dead's (usually the Pharaoh's) likeness so the Ka could live there. For these sculptures to last they needed to be as solid as possible. Such is demonstrated by the The Statue of Khafre.

The statue was built for his tomb and is made from very hard rock. The pose is unchanging and permanent, and the figure is cut out...