Pyramid of Khentkaous II

The pyramid of Khentkaous is a tomb of queen recently identified by the Czech Egyptologists who excavate the site since the beginning of the years 1970. It is located between the pyramids of Néferirkarê and Néferefrê at the south of the rock plate which dominates the valley and the old lake of Abousir. The unit will be completed by Niouserrê then Djedkarê Isési.

The funerary complex

Khentkaous {{II}} thus chooses to establish its complex funerary with nearest to those of her husband and his son. It consists of a small coupled funerary temple to the face is pyramid as of a pyramid-satellite placed at the south east of the peribolus. This fact without precedent for the burial of a queen, testifies to the influence of the sovereign one which ensured certainly the regency of its first wire, then still very young at the time of its accession to the throne following the premature death of Néferirkarê, as well as its second wire, Niouserrê which was also minor at the time of died of his elder Néferefrê.

The temple of the pyramid comprises all the elements of the funerary temple necessary to ensure the worship of the late one. A gantry of reception to two columns in frontage, a court peristyle of eight pillars with square section, intended for the presentation and the purification of the funerary offerings, a sanctuary in its Western part with her part reserved for the statues of the worship and the false stele carry placed against the pyramid. The pillars of the court carry reliefs in the hollow representing the queen sitting on a royal or divine throne, characteristic of the divine images, like its titles. She carries a long wig decorated on her face with the royal uræus, badge of the capacity which she probably exerted. Interesting detail, these pillars monoliths out of limestone were covered with a red coating in order to imitate the red granite of Assouan.

The part of reception of the temple, deprived of roadway of access and temple of reception in the valley, was thereafter increased in order to comprise as in the complexes of her husband and that of his first wire, the stores and appendices reserved to the priests in charge of the operation of the complex. Of this fact part of the pertaining to worship furniture was found of which files of the temple forming the 3rd administrative corpus of this nature discovered with Abousir. These files in addition to the fact that they contain the detailed list of the daily offerings and the inventory of the liturgical objects, as in the preceding examples also teach us that the worship of the queen functioned during all the period which followed until the end of the Ancient Empire.

The pyramid

The construction of the pyramid of the queen had been inaugurated by Néferirkarê. Initially it had a base of twenty-five side meters for a seventeen meters height. The termination of the pyramid was ensured by a granite pyramidion whose fragments were found on the site.

The pyramid itself is built starting from a core made up of three local calcareous stone steps superimposing itself, the whole covered by a fine limestone facing with Tourah. The unit today is very degraded following the plundering of the monument by the carriers who will make use of the Pharaonic monuments of the Ancient Empire like a career easily accessible and exploitable for new monuments during Antiquity or for the new cities which rose on Eastern bank with Fostat then with the Cairo thereafter. Of this fact the pyramid of Khentkaous {{II}} is literally broken and was the subject of consolidation work and restoration of the underground parts by the archeologists.

The funerary apartments of the queen are located plumb with the pyramid and were accessible by the northern face from the monument. A descending shaft was inserted in the ground on ten meters before running up against a granite harrow which protected the vault.

During its release only of the remains of the red granite sarcophagus of the queen were found like some vestiges of its there abandoned funerary furniture by the plunderers.

Bibliographical references

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