No comments A third step pyramid was found in 1840 by Lepsius 20 miles further north at Zawiyet el Aryan. The site was first excavated in 1900 by Barsanti for the Antiquities Department and again ten years later by Reisner on behalf of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This pyramid, the construction of which was evidently abandoned at an early stage, resembles in almost every respect that of Sekhemket. However, it is smaller, measuring only 83 m. square. The builders had excavated in the rock the entrance passage, storerooms and tomb chamber, but the latter contained no sarcophagus. Evidence from surrounding mastaba tombs suggests that the pyramid belonged to a king named Khaba in the Abydos list, who succeeded Sekhemket and who also occupied the throne for only six years.
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| Ancient Egyptian Pyramid |
Not much attention has been paid to the location of the individual pyramids. The pyramids of Zoser and his successor, Sekhemket, at Saqqara need no explanation; they were erected in the immediate vicinity of the capital Memphis and adorned its western consecutive building stages which were brilliantly analysed by the German Egyptologist Borchardt. The first stage was a step pyramid, similar to Zoser’s, of probably seven steps, rising to a height of about 60 m. Over this was then superimposed a second step pyramid, with possibly eight tiers, which may have brought it to 80 m. in height. Each of these stages must, for a time, have been intended as final since their external walls consist of dressed and planed Tura limestone. In a third building phase the whole structure was covered with a smooth mantle which was meant to transform the edifice into the first true pyramid. Excavation of the rubble at the foot of the building has revealed the lower part of this mantle which is still in existence. It has an angle of elevation of 520 which recurs in almost all later pyramids.
Egyptian Pyramid Age :
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