The pyramid rhomboïdale was built for the Pharaon Snéfrou with Dahchour in Egypt. Its particular form makes of it a fallen through attempt at Pyramide to smooth faces, last stage of the evolution of the pyramids. It has many characteristics and resembles by many points the pyramid set up by the son of Snéfrou, Khéops. It is provided with two entries of which one is not located on the northern face, single fact in the Ancient Empire, and still preserves the major part of its coating, making this pyramid best preserved of all Egypt. The pyramidal complex revealed the vestiges of an imposing funerary temple whose rich person ornamentation distinguishes it from the other monuments from.

The funerary complex

The together funerary is consisted of the pyramid of the sovereign and a satellite pyramid, both girdled by a stone wall two meters height approximately. This enclosure is connected to a funerary temple by a long roadway with open sky of approximately 700 meters length. Because of its position far away from the edge from the valley, this funerary temple was not to be the temple of reception (or temple of the valley) strictly speaking. Moreover, there remains vestiges of a second roadway which was to connect this temple to the true temple of the valley. It is a characteristic which one does not find in any other complex pyramidal.

The pyramid

• Height 105,07 m;

• Length on the sides of the base 188,60 m

The first obvious characteristic of the pyramid is its inclined aspect double which is without any doubt the result of a change of plan occurred during construction. The second characteristic is the doubling of its internal distribution. Two funerary rooms accessible by two entries, one are located on the northern face and the other on the western face. The Pyramide of Khéphren also has two entries, but they are located both on the northern side of the monument.

The first distribution interns (entered northern)

The northern entry is located at 11,80 meters. The entry opens on a corridor going down 78,60 meters and from a slope of 28°22 on the first 12,60 meters then of 26°20'. The corridor led to a corridor whose ground is located at 22,40 meters below the level of the ground. This corridor 12,60 meters is high. They also noted the presence of several pairs of holes placed in opposite, being able to allow the introduction of beams, is unknown and its at the very least unusual structure. To note that the ground of the conduit between the well and the lower room rests on rubble filling a deep cavity with eight meters.

John Shae Perring discovered, in the room lower than a 12,60 meters height, a cord of papyrus indicating the opening of a gallery dug in masonry, this one leading to the higher corridor between the two harrows of the second distribution (see below). It is strange to note that this gallery was dug so as to avoid a portion of the pyramid. Its execution is frank, without economy and very neat when one takes account of the difficulty in digging " in aveugle" and to ensure a connection between two different levels.

Traces of built staircase are still visible on the walls of the corridor preceding the lower room. This fact led the architects to suppose that the manufacturers arranged an immense staircase of access to the gallery of connection, staircase which they would have then entirely dismounted making impossible the access at the higher level.

The second distribution interns (entered western)

Until 1951, the western entry inaccessible and was dissimulated under the coating of the pyramid. It is shifted axis of the pyramid and culminates with a 33,22 meters height. This cavity points out those of the Pyramide of Meïdoum and the red Pyramide, also located each one in bottom of the descending shaft. The corridor going down was blocked over all its length by large blocks of limestone jointed with plaster on their west coast, and this, until the release of 1946 with 1951. The higher descending shaft of the pyramid rhomboïdale makes the connection with a 20 meters long horizontal section intersected by two passages to harrow. They are the first systems of closing with harrow on tilted level. This innovation will be used many times during the Moyen Empire. Only the first harrow fulfilled its function. It was foundation of concrete like outside inside, which makes it possible to conclude that the former Egyptians used the impromptu gallery (as well as the western descending shaft) to seal the tomb. Between the two passages to harrow, in the ground broad a four depth meters is well and whose function is unknown. Always in this part of the horizontal corridor, five pairs of notches placed in opposite on the side walls remain. The gallery of connection between the two distributions emerges here in the northern side wall, just after the well.

The section ends on the room known as higher, having like the lower room, a vault in corbelling on its four faces but of less good invoice than the lower room.

With about fifteen meters of the bottom of the higher descending shaft, a box was discovered. It contained the momifiés remainders of an owl and five bats. The doctor Ahmed Batrawi dated them of whereas Fakhry has advanced the ptolémaïque time. This higher, accessible descending shaft since the western entry, was blocked originally over all its length. The last 18 meters of stone were withdrawn, according to Fakhry, in very old times. This operation, whose one does not know the authors, could be carried out only by clearing a passage dug through the first harrow.

Fakhry raised a surprising fact inducing the existence of the third connection outside the pyramid and remainder to be discovered. The higher descending shaft (western) remained blocked until its release in 1946 by Hassan Mustapha. The descending shaft was then filled over all its length of large jointed blocks of limestone and the first harrow in closed position, was also foundation of concrete on its two slopes. However, per time of high wind, many explorers since Perring, were pilot of a noise persisting a few seconds. Noise which one particularly heard on the level of the horizontal section between the two passages to harrow. Perring foot-note also very important draft.

The unusual provision of the funerary apartments, the architectural characteristics and the artefacts discovered do not weary to surprise. It acts without any doubt of the most complex infrastructure after that of the Pyramide of Khéops and following the example this one, no satisfactory explanation was still proposed as for the intentions of the manufacturers.

The satellite pyramid

In the south of the pyramid rhomboïdale, at a distance of 55 meters is a satellite pyramid intended for the worship of the Ka of the sovereign. The superstructure is a relatively coarse masonry of stones limestones installed in beds horizontal and covered with a fine limestone facing of Tourah. The access to the funerary room is done by a corridor going down accessible since the medium from the northern face, with a height of 1,10 meter of the level of the ground. Many red lines are reproduced on the walls and the ground.

The plan of the infrastructures completely points out the plan of the Pyramide of Khéops, the ascending corridor representing the large gallery. At the end of this one is the funerary room (named thus although it is extremely probable which it never contained of sarcophagus). The principal elements are the three furnace bridges epigraphs here. The temple was restored and reactivated during and later during the Low time.

The funerary temple itself, excavated by Ahmed Fakhry into 1951/1952, is accessible starting from the long roadway. Its dimensions are of 46 meters out of 25 meters. This last could draw up the plans and reconstitute of them many low-reliefs starting from the 1400 fragments found on the spot. The building breaks up into three parts: an anteroom, a court with pillars and six vaults. Its great originality is the sculpture in Ronde-bosse which was to decorate the major part of its walls, by making an element with share in the architecture of the Ancient Empire. The German Egyptologist Herbert Ricke put forth the assumption that this temple was intended for the funeral rites of Snéfrou as a king of Low-Egypt and that another building (hypothetical) was intended for the funeral rites as a king of High-Egypt. Indeed, the funerary temple of the pyramid rhomboïdale, contrary to all the known examples, is not located at the edge of the valley. Like the high temple, this one was rehabilitated during then during the Low time.

Construction, two changes of plans

Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi located several indices in the two downward galleries of the principal pyramid, showing that the pyramid had undergone several modifications during its construction.

First of all, of the joints aligned on the four faces of the corridors suggest that the entries were originally located at 12,6 meters of the current northern entry and at 11,60 meters of the western entry.

This one almost completed, the former Egyptians decided to increase the proportions by them. Cracks then appeared in the galleries of access, on the level of the joints aligned in the first and a little in on this side for the second. The addition subsided during construction, undoubtedly caused by a lack of adherence on the existing coating. This lack of adherence proves that the first pyramid was to have a smooth coating exceeding the level of the northern entry, but in lower part of the level of that of the west. The second project is still visible until the 49 meters height, height from which the coating had to present signs of instability, the déifié sovereign and the new Pharaons took as a starting point the tombs of the Ancient Empire to build their own pyramid. Thus, the system of closing with harrow on tilted level invented for Snéfrou finds in the Pyramide of Hawara of the Pharaon Amenemhat {{III}}. During the periods of disorder, the pyramid probably was violated following the example other royal burials likely to deliver treasures, but it is conjectural to establish assumptions on spoliations which it would have undergone during all Antiquity.

With the the Middle Ages, the Book of the hidden pearls and mystery invaluable , written at the 10th century, ignited imaginations and made site of Dahchour a high place of the hidden treasures. Besides this writing encouraged the destruction and the plundering of the large monuments of the area memphite. It is certain that the two pyramids of Dahchour were D-open as of the 17th century since the English traveller Edward Melton, and twenty years later LeBrun, penetrated in the lower room of the pyramid rhomboïdale.

The first true exploration of the monument is due to the British Egyptologist John Shae Perring which penetrated on September 29th, 1839 there. He discovered the second entry located on the western face and composed of the plans of the infrastructure which referred until 1946, date on which the Egyptian Egyptologist Abdulsalam Mr. Hussein undertook a thorough study of the pyramidal complex . This last entirely cleared the funerary apartments, discovered the frame in cedar of the higher room, the mummy of Chauve-souris and the graffiti allotting the pyramid to the Pharaon Snéfrou. The disappearance of the Egyptologist in 1949 caused the brutal interruption of research. But those were taken again in hand by Ahmed Fakhry which completed to study the funerary unit, highlighting the decorative richness of the funerary temple.

Chronological order of the pyramids allotted to Snéfrou

The four pyramids allotted to Snéfrou are: the red Pyramid, the pyramid rhomboïdale, the Pyramid of Meïdoum and finally the pyramid of Seila which was most probably a cenotaph.

The construction of the Pyramide of Meïdoum is divided into three phases which the Egyptologists name E1, E2 and E3; E1 corresponding to the first Pyramid with degrees, E2 with the second Pyramid with degrees obtained with an additional section, and E3 the Pyramid with smooth faces obtained by addition of a third section.

It is commonly allowed that Snéfrou made complete the pyramid with E1 degrees of its predecessor the Pharaon Houni and that then it made set up his own pyramid, the pyramid rhomboïdale. Following problems of structures of this one, he would have undertaken a new building site in the north of Dahchour parallel to the enlarging of the Pyramide of Meïdoum. Various graffiti discovered on blocks of the pyramids of Meïdoum and northern Dahchour mention 15th and 23e years of the reign of the Pharaon showing the simultaneity of the two building sites.

The three funerary units were completed. The fragments of human bones discovered in the red Pyramid and the temple completed high out of bricks, seem to prove that this pyramid was used well as tomb. However, the pyramid rhomboïdale profited from an special attention to the Moyen Empire because the funerary temple was reactivated at that time. In the same way, as underlines it the architect Gilles Dormion, the architecture of this pyramid seems to have profited from technological innovations, like the systems of closing with harrows and the vaults in corbelling on four faces, which do not find in the red Pyramide. It is also possible that the pyramid rhomboïdale, following the problems occurred in the structure, was used as laboratory for the architects. There then would have been three simultaneous building sites during the reign of Snéfrou.

At all events, pyramids of Snéfrou of a total volume of: 3500000 cubic meters (either close to: 1000000 of more than the Pyramide of Khéops) represent the most ambitious project of all Antiquity.

Bibliographical references

• Richard William Howard Vyse, Operations carried one At the pyramids off Gizeh , 1840-1842;

• Alexandre Varille, In connection with the pyramids of Sneferu , 1947;
• Ahmed Batrawi, The pyramid studies, anatomical carryforwards , 1948;
• Ahmed Fakhry, The bent pyramid , 1954;
• Hassan Mustapha, The surveying off the bent pyramid At Dahshur , annals of the service of antiquities of Egypt, T., p.595-601;
• Jacques Vandier, Manual of Egyptian archeology , Flight;
• Ahmed Fakhry, The Monuments off Sneferu At Dahshur , vol. I, 1959;
• Vito Maragioglio and Celestial Rinaldi, Architettura delle Piramidi Menfite , Leaves, 1963-1977;
• Jean-Philippe Lauer, the Mystery of the pyramids , 1988;
• Sydney H. Aufrère, J. - Cl. Golvin, restored Egypt, volume, Sites, temples and pyramids of Average and basic Egypt , 1997;
• Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, Pyramids of Egypt , 1999;
• Gilles Dormion, the room of Chéops , 2004.

Related articles

• Pyramid with smooth faces

• Pyramid with degrees
• Snéfrou

External bonds

• photographs and plans of the pyramid rhomboïdale;