sphinx story

The Great Sphinx of Giza

In a depression to the south of Khafre's pyramid at Giza near Cairo sits a huge creature with the head of a human and a lion's body. This monumental statue, the first truly colossal royal sculpture in Egypt, known as the Great Sphinx, is a national symbol of Egypt, both ancient and modern. It has stirred the imagination of poets, scholars, adventurers and tourists for centuries and has also inspired a wealth of speculation about its age, its meaning, and the secrets that it might hold.

The word "sphinx", which means 'strangler', was first given by the Greeks to a fabulous creature which had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. In Egypt, there are numerous sphinxes, usually with the head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion.There are, however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with the god Amun.

The Great Sphinx is to the northeast of Khafre's (Chephren) Valley Temple. Where it sits was once a quarry. We believe that Khafre's workers shaped the stone into the lion and gave it their king's face over 4,500 years ago. Khafre's name was also mentioned on the Dream Stele, which sits between the paws of the great beast. However, no one is completely certain that it is in fact the face of Khafre, though indeed that is the preponderance of thought. Recently, however, it has been argued that Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, may have also had the Great Sphinx built.

The Great Sphinx is believed to be the most immense stone sculpture in the round ever made by man. However, it must be noted that the Sphinx is not an isolated monument and that it must be examined in the context of its surroundings. Specifically, like many of Egypt's monuments, it is a complex which consists not only of the great statue itself, but also of its old temple, a New Kingdom temple and some other small structures. It is also closely related toKhafre's Valley Temple, which itself had four colossal sphinx statues each more than 26 feet long.

The material of the Sphinx is the limestone bedrock of what geologists call the Muqqatam Formation, which originated fifty million years ago from sediments deposited at the bottom of sea waters that engulfed northeast Africa during the Middle Eocene period. An embankment formed along what is now the north-northwest side of the plateau. Nummulites, which are small, disk-shaped fossils named after the Latin word for 'coin', pack the embankment. These were once the shells of now extinct planktonic organisms. There was a shoal and coral reef that grew over the southern slope of the embankment. Carbonate mud deposited in the lagoon petrified into the layers from which the ancient builders, some fifty million years later, carved out the Great Sphinx.

To do so, they trenched out a deep, U-shaped ditch that isolated a huge rectangular bedrock block for carving the Sphinx. This enclosure is deepest immediately around the body, with a shelf at the rear of the monument where it was left unfinished and a shallower extension to the north where important archaeological finds have been made.

The good, hard limestone that lay around the Sphinx's head was probably all quarried for blocks to build the pyramids. The limestone removed to shape the body of the beast was evidently employed to build the two temples to the east of the Sphinx, on a terrace lower than the floor of the Sphinx enclosure, one almost directly in front of the paws, the other to the south of the first one.

It is generally thought that quarrying around the original knoll revealed rock that was too poor in quality for construction. Therefore, some visionary individual conceived of the plan to turn what was left of the knoll into the Sphinx. However, the Sphinx may equally well have been planned from the start for this location, good rock or bad. The walls of the Sphinx enclosure are of the same characteristics as the strata of the Sphinx body and exhibit similar states of erosion.

The bedrock body of the Sphinx became a standing section of the deeper limestone layers of the Giza Plateau. The lowest stratum of the Sphinx is the hard, brittle rock of the ancient reef, referred to as Member I. All of the geological layers slope about three degrees from northwest to southeast, so they are higher at the rump of the Sphinx and lower at the front paws. Hence, the surface of this area has not appreciably weathered compared to the layers above it.

Most of the Sphnix's lion body and the south wall and the upper part of the ditch were carved into the Member II, which consists of seven layers that are soft near the bottom, but become progressively harder near the top. However, the rock actually alternates between hard and soft. The head and neck of the Great Sphinx are made of Member III, which is better stone, though it becomes harder further up.

The Sphinx faces the rising sun with a temple to the front which resembles the sun temples which were built later by the kings of the 5th Dynasty. The lion was a solar symbol in more than one ancient Near Eastern culture. The royal human head on a lion's body symbolized power and might, controlled by the intelligence of the pharaoh, guarantor of the cosmic order, or ma'at. Its symbolism survived for two and a half millennia in the iconography of Egyptian civilization.

The head and face of the Sphinx certainly reflect a style that belongs to Egypt's Old Kingdom, and to the 4th Dynasty in particular. The overall form of his face is broad, almost square, with a broad chin. The headdress (known as the 'nemes' head-cloth), with its fold over the top of the head and its triangular planes behind the ears, the presence of the royal 'uraeus' cobra on the brow, the treatment of the eyes and lips all evidence that the Sphinx was carved during this period.

The sculptures of kings Djedefre, Khafre and Menkaure and other Old Kingdom Pharaohs, all show the same configuration that we see on the Sphinx. Some scholars believe that the Great Sphinx was originally bearded with the sort of formally plaited beard. Pieces of the Sphinx's massive beard found by excavation adorn the British Museum in London and the Cairo Museum. However, it seems to possibly, if not probably be dated to the New Kingdom, and so was likely added at a later date. The rounded divine beard is an innovation of the New Kingdom, and according to Rainer Stadelmann, did not exist in the Old or Middle Kingdom. It may have been added to identify the god with Horemahket.

There is a hole in the top of the head, now filled in, that once provided support for additional head decoration. Depictions of the Sphinx from the latter days of ancient Egypt show a crown or plumes on the top of the head, but these were not necessarily part of the original design. The top of the head is flatter, however, than later Egyptian sphinxes.

The body is 72.55 meters in length and 20.22 meters tall. The face of the sphinx is four meters wide and its eyes are two meters high. The mouth is about two meters wide, while the nose would have been more than 1.5 meters long. The ears are well over one meter high. Part of the uraeus (sacred cobra), the nose, the lower ear and the ritual beard are now missing, while the eyes have been pecked out. The beard from the sphinx is on displayed in the British Museum.

Below the neck, the Great Sphinx has the body of a lion, with paws, claws and tail (curled round the right haunch), sitting on the bedrock of the rocky enclosure out of which the monument has been carved. The enclosure has taller walls to the west and south of the monument, in keeping with the present lie of the land.

When viewed close-up, the head and body of the Sphinx look relatively well proportioned, but seen from further away and side-on the head looks small in relation to the long body (itself proportionally much longer than is seen in later sphinxes). In its undamaged state, the body is likely to have appeared still larger all around in relation to the head, which has not been reduced as much by erosion. The human head is on a scale of about 30:1, while the lion body is on the smaller scale of 22:1. There could be a number of explanations for this discrepancy.


This was, as far as we know, one of the very first of the Egyptian sphinxes, though there is at least one other, attributed to Djedefre, that predates it. The rules of proportion commonly employed on later and smaller examples may not yet have been formulated at the time of the carving of the Great Sphinx of Giza. In any case, the carving of sphinxes was always a flexible formula, to an unusual degree in the context of Egyptian artistic conservatism.

Then again, the Sphinx may have been sculpted to look its best when seen from fairly close by and more or less from the front. There is also the possibility that there was simply insufficient good rock to make the head, where fine detail was required, any bigger. Also, the fissure at the rear of the Great Sphinx may have dictated a longer body, rather than one much too short.

There remains the possibility that the head has been remodeled at some time and thereby reduced in size, but on stylistic grounds alone this is not likely to have been done after the Old Kingdom times in ancient Egypt.

There are three passages into or under the Sphinx, two of them of obscure origin. The one of known cause is a short dead-end shaft behind the head drilled in the nineteenth century. No other tunnels or chambers in or under the Sphinx are known to exist. A number of small holes in the Sphinx body may relate to scaffolding at the time of carving.

The figure was buried for most of its life in the sand. It was King Thutmose IV (1425 - 1417 BC) who placed a stela between the front paws of the figure. On it, Thutmose describes an event, while he was still a prince, when he had gone hunting and fell asleep in the shade of the sphinx. During a dream, the sphinx spoke to Thutmose and told him to clear away the sand. The sphinx told him that if he did this, he would be rewarded with the kingship of Egypt. Thutmose carried out this request and the sphinx held up his end of the bargain. Of course, over time, the great statue, the only single instance of a colossal sculpture carved in the round directly out of the natural rock, once again found itself buried beneath the sand.

In the more modern era, when Napoleon arrived in Egypt in 1798, the Sphinx was buried once more with sand up to its neck, at by this point, we believe the nose had been missing for at least 400 years. Between 1816 and 1817, the Genoese merchant, Caviglia tried to clear away the sand, but he only managed to dig a trench down the chest of the statue and along the length of the forepaws. Auguste Mariette, the founder of the Egyptian Antiquities Service,also attempted to excavate the Sphinx, but gave up in frustration over the enormous amount of sand. He went on to explore the Khafre Valley Temple, but returned to the Great Sphinx to excavate in 1858. This time, he managed to clear the sand down to the rock floor of the ditch around the Sphinx, discovering in the process several sections of the protective walls around the ditch, as well as odd masonry boxes along the body of the monument which might have served as small shrines. However, he apparently still did not clear all the sand.

In 1885, Gaston Maspero, then Director of the Antiquities Service, once again tried to clear the Sphinx, but after exposing the earlier work of Caviglia and Mariette, he also was forced to abandon the project due to logistical problems.

Between 1925 and 1936, French engineer Emile Baraize excavated the Sphinx on behalf of the Antiquities Service, and apparently for the first time since antiquity, the great beast once again became exposed to the elements.

In fact, the sand has been its savior, since, being built of soft sandstone, it would have disappeared long ago had it not been buried for much of its existence.

Nevertheless, the statue is crumbling today because of the wind, humidity and the smog from Cairo. The rock was of poor quality here from the start, already fissured along joint lines that went back to the formation of the limestone millions of years ago. There is a particularly large fissure across the haunches, nowadays filled with cement, that also shows up in the walls of the enclosure in which the Sphinx sits.

Below the head, serious natural erosion begins. The neck is badly weathered, evidently by wind-blown sand during those long periods when only the head was sticking up out of the desert and the wind could catapult the sand along the surface and scour the neck and the extensions of the headdress that are missing altogether now. The stone here is not quite of such good quality as that of the head above.

Erosion below the neck does not look like scouring by wind-blown sand. In fact, so poor is the rock of the bulk of the body that it must have been deteriorating since the day it was carved out of the stone. We know that it needed repairs on more than one occasion in antiquity. It continues to erode before our very eyes, with spalls of limestone falling off the body during the heat of the day.

So, today, much of the work on the Great Sphinx at Giza is not directed at further explorations or excavations, but rather the preservation of this great wonder of Egypt. This is the focus, and while some might even today have the antiquity authorities digging about the monument looking for hidden chambers holding the secrets of Atlantis, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

The Great Sphinx of Giza

Great Pyramid

The Mystery of the Hidden Doors Inside the Great Pyramid 

March 22, 1993

The Great Pyramid of Khufu has fascinated people for millennia. It is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing today, and its monumental size and the precision of its design astound thousands of visitors each day. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity over the course of my career to come to know the pyramid in great depth, and to have discovered one of its greatest secrets - the hidden doors inside the shafts that lead from the so-called “Queen’s Chamber.”

Aerial view of the Giza Plateau. (Photo: Kenneth Garrett)

The story of the discovery of the hidden doors began in 1992, when I made the decision to close the Great Pyramid to visitors in order to begin a project to reduce the humidity inside and to correct the damage that was occurring from the accumulation of salt. Each visitor who enters the pyramid leaves behind about 20 grams of moisture from their breath and sweat. When it evaporates, this moisture leaves behind salt deposits, which erode the stone over time. In 1992, we found that the humidity inside the pyramid was hovering around 85%, and salt deposits covered the walls of the Grand Gallery. We cleaned the salt from the walls of the Grand Galley, but we knew that to save the pyramid from irreversible damage, we also had to find a way to reduce the humidity inside. I contacted Dr. Rainer Stadelmann of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, and he arranged for an engineer named Rudolf Gantenbrink to come to Egypt and assist the Supreme Council of Antiquities in installing a ventilation and humidity control system in the pyramid. The first step was to clear the two shafts, each about 20 cm wide and 14 cm high, that lead from the King’s Chamber to the exterior of the monument. We then installed ventilation equipment in the shafts. This project was very successful, allowing us to greatly reduce and stabilize the humidity inside the pyramid.
Peering into one of the mysterious shafts. (Photo: James Kegley)

The shafts themselves are a great mystery. In addition to the two that extend from the King’s Chamber, there are two in the Queen’s chamber as well - one in the northern wall, and one opposite it in the southern wall. No one knows why these shafts were included in the pyramid’s design. An important part of the work in the shafts in the King’s Chamber was sending a small robot inside with a camera attached, to inspect them along their entire lengths. The robot was named “Upuaut,” a different spelling of the name of the god Wepwawet, the “opener of ways.” We learned so much from this exercise about how the King’s Chamber shafts had been incorporated into the construction of the pyramid that we decided to use a robot to inspect the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber as well. Although we knew that the shafts in the King’s Chamber led to the exterior of the pyramid, no one had ever found the outlets for the shafts in the Queen’s chamber. We thought that we might finally be able to solve this puzzle, and perhaps even shed some light on why they were included in the pyramid’s design. The shafts in the Queen’s Chamber were first discovered in 1872 by a British engineer named Waynman Dixon. The ancient Egyptians had blocked them with stones, making it appear that the walls of the chamber were completely solid. Dixon, however, decided to probe all the joints in the masonry of the Queen’s Chamber with a wire to see if anything might be hidden behind them. When he discovered a hollow in the southern wall, he chiseled through to reveal the shaft. He realized that there was probably a corresponding shaft in the northern wall, and was indeed able to locate one. In the southern shaft, Dixon and his associate James Grant found a small, bronze hook. The northern shaft yielded a granite ball and a piece of cedar-like wood. These objects became known as the Dixon Relics. Both sets of artifacts lay in the rubble at the bottom of the sloping shafts. A report on the discovery of the relics was published in the journal “Nature” on December 26, 1872, including a drawing of the items. In 1993 a search led to the discovery of the ball and hook in the British Museum, where they remain today. The piece of cedar-like wood was missing until 2001, when it was traced to the Marischal Museum in Aberdeen, Scotland.
In 1992, we used Gantenbrink’s robot to take the first look inside the shafts in the Queen’s Chamber. After the solution of a number of technical difficulties, the robot was able to climb about 60 meters into the southern Queen’s Chamber shaft, where it encountered a barricade - a limestone “door” with two copper handles! No one had expected to see such a thing. After making this remarkable find, we sent the robot into the northern shaft. At 18 meters, the robot encountered a bend of about 45 degrees to the left, and was unable to go any further. Gantenbrink returned to Germany, and we were forced to wait until we could find another team to bring in a robot equipped to navigate this bend.

The first of door in the northern Queen's Chamber shaft. (Photo: National Geographic)

The National Geographic Society agreed to collaborate with the SCA on developing a new robot to explore the shafts in the Great Pyramid. They brought in a firm from Boston, USA, called iRobot to design the machine. Finally, in 2002, we were able to send this robot into the southern shaft and drill a small hole in the limestone blocking. Everyone was amazed when a small camera inserted into the hole revealed a second stone “door” blocking the passage about 20 centimeters beyond the first one! The second door is unlike the first. It looks as if it is screening or covering something, and there are cracks all over its surface. I was so happy to see it, but I couldn’t understand why we had found another door.   The world watched this discovery unfold live on Fox TV, in a special broadcast. One of the main goals of the documentary was to show the public the evidence left behind by the people who built the pyramids. I talked about the Tombs of the Pyramid Builders, and showed graffiti which names the work gangs that built the pyramids. I even entered the tunnels below the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara for the first time - I believe that I was the only living archaeologist at that time to have done this, and that it was the first time in history that a television crew had seen the more than 3 miles of winding tunnels below the Step Pyramid.

The second door in the southern Queen's Chamber shaft. (Photo: National Geographic)

The television program aired on September 17. Before the show, I went to Hong Kong and Singapore to publicize it, and my friend and colleague Mark Lehner went to Australia, India, and Spain right after the show to discuss the results of our research. Before the show, no one - not even Mark and I - knew what we would find behind the door. One day before the show, we had found out by ultrasound that the door in the southern shaft of the Great Pyramid was about six centimeters thick, which implied that there was something behind it, but no one knew what it might be. We and my National Geographic colleagues wanted to be honest. We prepared ourselves mentally for whatever find (or lack thereof) that we might make. The show was well received by the public all over the world, and was rated “great” by Fox Television in the United States. Half a billion people in China watched the show. Newspapers all over the world covered it on a level that had never before been seen for a television program. A few days after the Fox broadcast that revealed the second door in the southern shaft, the robot was also able to explore the northern Queen’s Chamber shaft, navigating the sharp bend to the left. It discovered two further, smaller bends to the right at about 23 and 25 meters. We realized that the reason for all of the turns in the northern shaft was that if it had been made straight, it would have crossed paths with the Grand Gallery. The builders had to add the bends to avoid this. Finally, at a distance of about 65 meters from the Queen’s Chamber, the robot found a door very similar to the first one in the southern shaft! The copper handles in the first doors in both the north and south shafts are similar to those on the canopic box of Tutankhamun in the Egyptian Museum Cairo, which were used to pull the box. The doors themselves are made of fine white limestone from Tura, and it seems as thought the handles might have been used to pull them into place.

National Geographic video still of the robot exploring the northern Queen's Chamber shaft. (Photo: National Geographic)

No one is sure why the builders of the Great Pyramid incorporated the four shafts into the design of Khufu’s monument. Since the shafts in the King’s Chamber open outside of the pyramid, I believe that Khufu’s soul was meant to travel through them. The southern King’s Chamber shaft was intended for Khufu to use as the sun god Ra. It opens exactly between the two boat pits to the south of the Pyramid. Khufu would take the two boats and use them as solar boats for his journey as the sun god through the daytime and nighttime skies – one for the day trip, one for the evening trip. The northern shaft was made for the soul of Khufu as Horus to travel to the eternal circumpolar stars. As for the Queen’s Chamber shafts, I cannot imagine that they had a religious function, as they do not seem to open to the outside of the pyramid - their outlets, if such exist, have never been found in spite of our careful searching. The presence of the doors inside them raises many questions. One idea is that the doors are a challenge that the king must face before he can travel into the afterlife. It is written in the Pyramid Texts that the king will face bolted doors before beginning his journey - perhaps this reference explains the doors’ copper handles. Yet if this is true, why is Khufu’s pyramid the only one with the doors? Also, why are there no doors in the shafts in the King’s Chamber? Logically, we would expect to find them in the shafts that extend from the room where the king’s body was buried. Could it be possible that these doors are evidence that Khufu’s burial chamber might still be hidden somewhere inside his pyramid? The mystery of the doors is one of the most exciting puzzles in Egyptology today. Finding out what lies beyond the second door in the southern shaft poses great technical challenges - to do this, we will need a robot that can breach the 20 centimeter space behind the first door, and then drill through the second door without causing unnecessary damage to it. I am happy to announce that 2009-2010 will be the year when we finally move forward with this adventure. We have spent many years searching for a team that could help us to develop the equipment needed to carry out this project, but we have finally selected a group that we feel is perfectly qualified to do so. The team is affiliated with Leeds University in the UK. In July of this year, they will bring a new robot to Egypt for final testing, and we expect to be able to go ahead with our work to answer the question of why the mysterious shafts were incorporated into the design of the pyramid, and what lies behind the secret doors!

The Red Pyramid

The Red (or North) Pyramid at Dashur was King Sneferu’s third attempt at building a massive pyramid. He had already built at Meidum, near the Faiyum Oasis, and at Dashur, resulting in the Bent Pyramid. This time he would get it right from the start, and pave the way for his son Khufu to build the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The entrance to the Red Pyramid (Photo: Julie Patenaude)

The pyramid builders had learnt a lot from their previous construction attempts at Meidum and Dashur. This time the king’s pyramid would be built at a gentler slope than that of the Bent Pyramid or the pyramid at Meidum; this would make it less likely to collapse. Having made their plans, Sneferu’s engineers began construction of the new pyramid in around the 30^th year of the king’s reign. By this time work had been abandoned on the Bent Pyramid, although Sneferu’s workmen would return there later to finish the job. Sneferu also had a small mortuary temple built on the east side of the pyramid, as well as a Valley temple, but this has not yet been excavated. His causeway, which normally links the mortuary and valley temples, appears never to have been built. These elements would become standard in pyramid complexes as time progressed.

The entrance to the Red Pyramid can be found twenty-eight meters up its northern wall; from here a narrow shaft descends for 62m through the body of the pyramid until ground level is reached. Here a horizontal shaft leads into a large chamber with a corbelled roof, just over twelve meters high. A further horizontal tunnel leads into a similar chamber, again with a corbelled roof. The major difference between these two chambers is that in the second chamber the tunnel leading to the next room is not at ground level, but eight meters above the floor. Today visitors can climb a wooden staircase to this short passage; crouching down and passing through they reach the king’s burial chamber. This room also has a corbelled roof, but the floor has been ripped apart by people in antiquity looking for treasure. Although some scholars believe that this was Sneferu’s final resting place, I believe that he was actually buried in the nearby Bent Pyramid, as it was here that his funerary cult continued after his death.

The corbelled ceiling within one of the chambers (Photo: SCA)

When I became the Head of Antiquities at Giza, I hoped that we could open the site of Dashur. We had to try very hard to make this wish come true because the site was closed for security reasons, however, after some time we were given permission to open the area to the public. After the area had been demilitarised, the first monument that I decided to open was the Red Pyramid. I was fascinated with this pyramid because of Rainer Stadelmann’s excavations there, so I began to have its entrance and interior cleaned. It was very important work. When the project was complete we held a grand opening. It was a good day, all the press were really amazed at what they saw, and I remember that a famous TV presenter, who was a very tall man, could not even walk when he came out of the pyramid because of all the bending down and crouching that he had to do in the narrow shafts. Entering the Red Pyramid is an adventure; pain with pleasure.

The Black Pyramid

The pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur is known as the Black Pyramid because of its dark colour. The Black Pyramid is not as well known as the Bent or Red Pyramids at Dashur, as it has been closed to tourists due to its collapsed condition.

Amenemhat III was the 6^th king of Dynasty 12, the son of Senusret III. He reigned for 46 years (1859 – 1813 BC), and his reign was known as a very peaceful and prosperous time in Egypt. Amenemhat III built two pyramids during his long reign. He began construction on his first pyramid at Dashur early in his reign. He wanted to be close to the monuments of his forefathers, so he built his pyramid at the south of Dashur, near to the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu.

An aerial view of the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur. Due to structural faults and the removal of the outer limestone casing, the pyramid has fallen into ruin. (photo: SCA)

The Black Pyramid belongs to a different era of pyramid building than Sneferu’s monuments at Dashur, which were built 800 years before. In the Middle Kingdom, there was a resurgence of pyramid building. Middle Kingdom pyramids were much more complex in design than their Old Kingdom counterparts; they incorporated numerous corridors, staircases and chambers in order to deter thieves. Architects at this time also began to construct the pyramid out of mudbrick and then case the outside with white limestone. The Black Pyramid was also built in this way, but the limestone was taken from the site in the Middle Ages. Without the hard outer casing of limestone, the pyramid began to 

crumble, and today it appears without its original glory.

The design of the Black Pyramid was very ambitious, with several passageways and chambers for two queens in addition to the king. The pyramid has two entrances on the south end of the east and west sides, with staircases leading into the interior. The eastern stairway leads to the king’s burial chamber through a series of corridors, small chambers and anterooms that spread out underneath the entire southeast section. The western stairway divides into two sets of passages and chambers under the southwest section, one set for each queen.

When construction of the pyramid was nearly complete, the architects of Amenemhat III became aware of structural problems. The pyramid was being crushed under its own weight– walls and ceilings were being pushed down and doorframes began to buckle, so the workers quickly reinforced it with mudbrick and cedar beams. While their quick thinking saved the pyramid from immediate collapse, it had to be abandoned as the burial place of the king. Amenemhat III chose the site of Hawara, south of Cairo in the Fayum region, as the location of his new pyramid.

The pyramidion of the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III, now on display at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Originally intended to sit on top of the pyramid, it fell to the ground in antiquity, and during the Amarna Period, the name of Amun was chiselled out. (photo: SCA)

The site of Dashur gained much attention from Egyptologists during the 19^th century. In 1837, John Shae Perring surveyed both of Sneferu’s pyramids. In 1894 – 1895, Jacques de Morgan explored the Middle Kingdom pyramids, and discovered a cache of beautiful jewellery overlooked by ancient thieves. Modern scientific excavation began in 1951 when Ahmed Fakry investigated the Bent Pyramid. Work at the site continued through the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

I would like to open the Black Pyramid to the public, but much conservation and restoration work needs to be done, as it is still problematic to enter. I remember a time I visited Dieter Arnold’s excavations there in 1975. Before I entered the pyramid, I had the workmen tie my legs with rope so that I would not get lost inside. The interior of the pyramid is complex, and it is very easy to lose your way in the many passages and corridors.   I believe these Middle Kingdom pyramids were so complex in design not only to deter thieves, but perhaps as a reflection of the belief that Osiris resided in the burial chamber. The many chambers and corridors could symbolize an entrance to the other world. It is my hope that soon the public will be able to experience the wonder of entering this fascinating pyramid. 

The Bent Pyramid

King Sneferu of the Fourth Dynasty built three monumental pyramids during his lifetime, and a fourth smaller step pyramid at Seila in the Faiyum. Having left behind his pyramid at Meidum, he moved the royal court to the site of Dashur, just south of Saqqara, to start a new project - the monument that would become known in modern times as the Bent Pyramid, but to the ancient Egyptians was called ‘Sneferu Shines - South.’

The Bent Pyramid at Dashur (Photo: SCA)

Sneferu was the father of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, and he was married to Queen Hetepheres, whose beautiful funerary equipment was found in a shaft at Giza. It was subsequently restored and can now be seen in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. We know of many important events during his reign due to an inscription on a stone block known as the Palermo stone. From this we learn about his wars in the west and trading missions for wood in Lebanon.

During the initial stages of constructing the Bent Pyramid the blocks were laid sloping inwards, just as had been done with the earlier step pyramids, although this pyramid was planned from the start to be a true, smooth-sided pyramid. Then, roughly half-way up the pyramid the decision was taken to lay the blocks horizontally and to lessen the angle of slope for the second time. This reduced the stress on the interior chambers of the pyramid and led to its distinctive bend. It also reduced the amount of masonry needed to complete the pyramid. The ground below the pyramid was unstable and so these drastic measures had to be taken to save the monument from collapsing.

The Bent Pyramid's northern entrance (Photo: SCA)

The interior of the pyramid is also unusual. There are two entrances: one on the north side and another on the west side. The northern entrance is about 11.8 metres high off the ground, from here you descend down a long thin shaft for about 80 metres. You then enter a corbelled room. Then, in order to reach the lower burial chamber 6.25 metres up the south wall, you must now climb a wooden set of stairs.

The western shaft is gentler in slope than the northern one, heading down about 65 metres to another burial chamber, higher up in the body of the pyramid than that from the northern entrance. Ancient cedar wood can be seen in this chamber, placed there to help relieve the stress on the chambers.

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. This means that one of the chambers could be connected to the outside, indicating that there could still be more secret chambers left to discover.

In about the 30^th year of his reign Sneferu stopped work on the Bent Pyramid and began the construction of a new pyramid in the north of Dashur. We will learn about this important pyramid.