Everything about Meidum totally explained
(ruined)
(From base to summit: )|
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Located about 100km south of modern
Cairo,
Meidum is the location of a large
pyramid, and several large mud-brick
mastabas.
Pyramid
The pyramid at Meidum is thought to have been originally built for
Huni, the last pharaoh of the
Third Dynasty. It was completed and probably usurped by his successor,
Sneferu, who also turned it from a
step pyramid to a true pyramid by filling in the steps with limestone encasing. The Meidum pyramid was built in different stages, beginning as a seven-step pyramid to which an additional step was added at a later stage. It appears to have collapsed sometime during the
New Kingdom. A subsidiary pyramid is located on the south side, between the main pyramid and the enclosure wall, and a memorial temple is on its east side.
Known as "the collapsed pyramid", the outer layers of the casing began to collapse, leaving the exposed core showing. Because of its appearance, it's called
el-haram el-kaddab — (
False Pyramid) in
Arabic. Some believe it was the collapse of this pyramid during the reign of Sneferu that led him to change the angle on his second pyramid at Darshur to 43 degrees. In the
fifteenth century, it was described as looking like a five-stepped mountain by
al-Maqrizi, gradually falling further into ruin so by the time it was investigated by
Napoleon's Expedition in
1799 it had its present 3 steps.
It was excavated by
John Shae Perring in
1837,
Lepsius in
1843 and then by
Flinders Petrie later in the
nineteenth century, who located the mortuary temple, facing to the east. In
1920 Ludwig Borchardt studied the area further, followed by Alan Rowe in
1928 and then Ali el-Kholi in the
1970's.
In its ruined state, the structure is 65m high, and its entrance is aligned north-south, with the entrance in the north, 20m metres above present ground level. The steep descending passage 57 metres long leads to a horizontal passage, just below the original ground level, that then leads to a vertical shaft 10 metres high that leads to the corbelled burial chamber itself. It is thought to be unlikely that Sneferu was buried here — whether
Huni was may never be known, though construction may have begun during his reign.
Mastabas
Located nearby is a
mastaba of an unknown noble, the burial chamber of which can be entered via a robber's tunnel. This tunnel is steep, extremely narrow and confined. Once traversed however, the chamber and hallway are relatively spacious, and contain the first example of a red granite sarcophagus known in antiquity.
The stone
sarcophagus remains within the unmarked and undecorated granite built chamber. The tunnel goes further on into the darkness, and as of 2002 remains unexplored.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Meidum'.
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