Why Might Zahi Hawass be Blogging About Dashur?

Shemsu Sesen — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:20:07 +0000

Ok, I realize that most of my posts have been about Dr. Hawass this week, and I promise the article on the Djoser Pyramid complex is nearing completion. But one does have to wonder why he might have a lovely new post on his blog about the Bent Pyramid at Dashur..

After all, as informative as it is, the new post doesn’t really contain anything new. Of course, he is currently blogging about the pyramids in the vicinity of Dashur. I think I might know why..

The Bent Pyramid of Dashur (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

The Bent Pyramid of Snefru at Dashur is interesting to behold. It isn’t as klunky as King Huni‘s Meidum Pyramid, or the fortress-like Black Pyramid. When you look at the Bent Pyramid you can really see where Snefru was going with the project. Unfortunately, the path he was taking to get there was a bit too steep.

It isn’t difficult to imagine Snefru shaking his head and saying “I want something more like this..” as he traces the outline of the future Red Pyramid. But there is just something, well, endearing about the Bent Pyramid, sort of like a speckled pup.

Dr. Hawass loves to build anticipation. Toward the end of his latest posting he reminisces:

I once came here with a group of my students from the American University in Cairo, and introduced them to my good friend Dr. Rainer Stadelmann, who has dedicated his life to the study of pyramids and was excavating at Dashur at the time. When we entered the pyramid we had an odd experience that is unique to the Bent Pyramid, and something that had been noted by earlier explorers. Standing within the pyramid you can sometimes feel cool air flowing from inside the pyramid to the exit.

Could this too be intended to build anticipation?

Is it possible that you, too, might soon be able to stand within the Bent Pyramid and feel the cool breeze?

Only if the Bent Pyramid, and possibly other previously inaccessible sites at Dashur are about to be opened to the public…

HINT: The fifth question down

What is a Pyramid?

Shemsu Sesen — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:47:43 +0000

For starters, it’s a large four-sided structure made of stone, wide at the bottom and pointy at the top, making a perfect triangle.

There are three of them, they are located in the middle of the Egyptian desert, they were built by slaves, and they have mummies in them.

Right? Well…

They are large and they do have four sides. They are wide at the bottom and come to a point, although you could park a large SUV on some of those points, and still have room for a picnic. They are triangular in shape, but some of them have a step-shaped contour, others look like a few different sized boxes stacked on top of one another, and at least one sharply changes the angle of its slope two thirds of the way up. Many of them look like piles of rubble.

So far more than 130 pyramids have been found in Egypt, and more have been discovered in Sudan. They are located in the desert, but the most famous pyramids are within walking distance of a city with twice as many people as Los Angeles. They were not built by slaves, and until very recently, no mummies had been found in any of them.

The Giza Pyramids

Built during the Old Kingdom Period, particularly during the Third and Fourth Dynasties, the pyramids represent a time when power was absolutely centered in the person of the Pharaoh. They required a huge workforce ranging from general labor to artists and engineers, and the notion that they were built by slaves, Hebrew or otherwise, has been widely discredited. There are many theories regarding their construction, each of which has its own set of unanswered questions.

Guarding the Giza Pyramids

Mastabas

The early forerunner of the pyramid is the mastaba, the Arabic word for bench, so-called for their bench-like shape. In the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods, the mummified bodies of the dead were buried in shafts cut into the stone ground, and mastabas were built over the grave. Mastabas were rectangular structures with sloping sides and a flat top. They were generally made of mud brick, but in later times royalty and more important court officials might have mastabas constructed of dressed limestone. Cemeteries of mastabas often mirrored the social strata of the living, with more grandiose tombs being set apart on larger plots of land while those of lesser personages were lined up in avenues like city streets.

An avenue of mastabas at Saqqara

The mastabas included a small shrine where offerings of food and incense could be made for the deceased, and a concealed a room called a serdab, where a statue of the deceased was housed. The walls inside the mastabas typically had detailed murals and friezes depicting the everyday life of the deceased, and in fact, these paintings provide much of what we know of Egyptian life during that period. The mastaba was not just the tomb of the deceased, it was a representation of their home in the afterlife, and so great care was taken in its construction and preservation. Although not built until the Sixth Dynasty, the mastaba par excellence is that of Vizier Mereruka, at Saqqara.

The Step Pyramid

Post-mortem accommodations would take a quantum leap forward in the Third Dynasty when Imhotep, chief engineer and architect of King Djoser, conceived of a way to symbolize the king’s ascension to divinity. Imhotep started with a basic mastaba, but constructed it in a square rather than the traditional rectangular shape. He then added another smaller mastaba to the flat surface of the first, and continued to build upward until he had six square mastabas, each smaller than the previous, stacked one on top of the other. The result was the original Stairway to Heaven—the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Pharaoh was greatly pleased…

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

Although the mastaba would remain in use for thousands of years, Imhotep started a craze that would earn him deification, a rare honor for a commoner. The evolution of the pyramid form may be observed in the region of Dashur, where attempts were made—and in some cases failed—at making a true smooth-sided pyramid. But the procedure would be perfected during the reign of Snefru, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty.

Evolution of the “Modern” Pyramid

Meidum Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Snefru’s first contribution to pyramid building was his completion of the pyramid begun by his father, King Huni, at Meidum. The Meidum Pyramid began as a step pyramid, but in completing it Snefru attempted to smooth its sides, resulting in a large blocky structure. It would mostly collapse later, during the New Kingdom Period.

Snefru's Bent Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Snefru built his second pyramid intending to attempt a smooth-sided pyramid from the outset. This attempt is called the Bent Pyramid because the top third was constructed at a radically different angle than the bottom two thirds. It is believed that the angle of the bottom part, a 55-degree grade, was too steep and when the construction began to show signs of stress, the angle for the remaining part was changed to a much more stable 43-degrees.

Snefru's Red Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

They say the third time is the charm, and King Snefru would agree. His third contribution to the Pyramid Fields of the Memphis Necropolis was the Red Pyramid, the first true smooth-sided pyramid. Having learned from his mistakes, such as they were, the Red Pyramid was constructed at a 43-degree gradient from the first block, and is the third largest pyramid in Egypt, being just barely exceeded by those of Khufu and Khafre at Giza.

Snefru’s Red Pyramid would be surpassed by that of his son, Khufu, on the Giza Plateau. Others would follow, including the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, but the Great Pyramid was the pinnacle, literally, of pyramid building. Khafre’s Pyramid looks larger because of its location on higher ground, but Khufu’s Pyramid is the undisputed champion.

The pyramids of Khafre and Khufu

The Pyramid Complex

Pyramids are actually just the centerpiece of a larger complex. Each pyramid contains a number of elements, all associated with the afterlife. There is typically a valley temple, a pavilion where the body of the king was received, which was connected to the Nile. From the valley temple there would be a causeway leading to the mortuary temple, which was dedicated to the worship of the deceased king.

Mortuary temples had their own priests who not only performed the funerary rites but who assured that the cult of that particular king would be sustained in the future. There was often a smaller “cult pyramid” which was built to honor the king’s Ka (his spirit or soul). Pyramid complexes often also included cemeteries, or even additional pyramids, for the king’s family and chosen servants.

Khufu's Queens' Pyramids

It goes without saying that pyramids were associated with the afterlife, and are the center of the king’s funerary complex, but some controversy remains regarding exactly what function they served. It seems obvious they were intended to hold the body of the dead king—including the presence of burial chambers and sarcophagi. However, out of the nearly 140 pyramids discovered, not a single king’s mummy has ever been recovered from a pyramid. The only mummy found in a pyramid thus far is that of Queen Seshseshet, discovered in her pyramid in November, 2008.

Some speculate that the king’s pyramids may have served a ceremonial function, possibly as a location for the initiation of the king into divinity and preparation for the afterlife. Others speculate that the kings were indeed interred in their pyramids, but that their bodies were later removed for various reasons. It is possible that the pyramids served as both tombs and places of initiation. All that is certain is that we can’t be certain, which is a large part of the pyramids’ appeal.

Backside of the Giza Pyramids

Em Hotep! » Black Pyramid