The Probable Pyramid of Snefru at Meidum in Egypt, Fayoum

Just across from the Fayum in the Nile Valley, south of Cairo, which lies on the edge of Western Sahara on green fields Maidum is the structure of the tower in the form of some sixty-five feet high was once in the pyramid, which we believe they are built by the King family of 4, Bent (Bent Snofru ). However, there is no agreement among Egyptologists on this insurance. Some believe that the early stages of construction were made by Huni, his predecessor, and that the only responsible for the Bent completion of the pyramid. However, the name Honey is not found in the pyramid, and various written records indicate that the city and the nearby residential belongs to the world of Bent. Moreover, many of the graves near the family also members of Bent.
In the way that you can, Meidum is a mystery more than anything of the Pyramids. Bent when he sat on the throne in about 2575 BC, the compound of King Djoser at Saqqara is the only real Great Pyramid was complete. But that I will be Bent Pyramid in Egypt's history, to finish not one but three of them.

That the buildings at the beginning of the century, and called pyramid Meidum Kaddab Al Haram, meaning "the pyramid false", and form, and drew attention to the Middle Ages of passengers. In the early fifteenth century, and of the famous Arab Taqi ad-Din of Al-thought it sounded like a huge, five mountain pass. However, eroded so badly that when he visited the North and Frederick Ludwig in the eighteenth century, the pyramid appears to only three levels. But it was the climate that led to the erosion is, but human beings.
When Napoleon speed Meidum passed in 1799, has a well-known cartoonist, Denon, there was only enough time for some of the graphics and the preparation of a brief description of the pyramid. Later, I did some research PERRING much better, including the measurements in 1837. At a later time, the question of Lepsius, 1843, studied in detail. However, its internal structure is still a mystery.
Then, in a broad effort to discover the documents and texts of the pyramid, Maspero was finally able to open, along with some key area, but archaeological investigation will not begin for another ten years. It Petrie, the founder of modern Egyptology, in cooperation with the Egyptologist Percy Newberry and architect, George Fraser, who led the excavation. Were responsible not only to investigate thoroughly inside the pyramid, but also for the detection of the temple of the pyramid, with the approach and through a series of special cemeteries in the area surrounding the pyramid. However, this would not be the last one is the pyramid Petrie.
After a long break, Petrie Meidum again with the Egyptologists, Ernest Mackay, and Gerald Wainwright. This time, conducted excavations in the northeast corner of the pyramid, the pyramid in the south and other regions. A tunnel in the pyramid is to show that essentially consists of five layers of sediment with the outer surface constructed of blocks of limestone, dressed carefully. However, be fully Petrie work has always been research in this pyramid seems to have raised more questions than answers.
In the mid-1920s, and went to Meidum Borchardt and after a few days in the field, which had accumulated a lot of information in the pyramid, which filled the entire book, which still enjoy great respect (Die Entstehung der Pyramide bei der in der nachgewiesen Pyramid Baugeschichte Mejdum). He spent a long time to build on the basis of the rubble, and the corridor leading to the Pyramid of the south-east, which Petrie earlier were discovered in 1910. According to Burckhardt, and was used to transport construction materials from the pyramid. There was a slope, which was descended from the ten degrees which made it possible to build on the lower half of the pyramid, which consists of about 88.5 percent of the total volume of Freemasonry. The builders of the old progressive increase in the upper half of the slope, and in such cases, everything about the construction strategy seems to be explained.
Only after a few years, is still in the 1920s, sent the U.S. visited the ruins, led by British archaeologist, Alan Roy, but then there was a period during which the pyramid has received little attention. When, after half a century, other scientific trip, he visited the pyramid, and this time it was the effort led by the Egyptian Ali Kholi. Focused on the large hill at the bottom of the pyramid.
Due to the marshy ground and high water level, and the valley temple belonging to the pyramid has not been found. Bent residential city of Djedsnefru (meaning of "Bent last") may have been located to the east of it.
There were homeless in the streets that stretched more than two hundred meters, and is almost certainly bound by the perimeter walls of the pyramid with a temple in the valley on the edge of the valley. There was already another "approach" that Petrie excavated, which may already be for use as a trail.
The pyramid was surrounded by a fence and one around the high made of blocks of limestone. To the east, and another large terrace and stood by the wall, and that has been created for the Crown Prince, but no owner has been identified. Therefore, it is the bench known only as No. 17 in the charts of the cemetery. However, it should be noted that on the ruins of the stone pyramid was used to build, which had a mantle of mud brick and plaster and lime.
Inside the walls, and a large, open courtyard, a drought and clay soil. Within this courtyard near the southwest corner of the main pyramid, the second, although smaller pyramid, probably originally built in the form of a pyramid levels. This is probably the oldest known examples of the pyramid of worship. The foundation that was accessible from the north through the corridor down. Found in the ruins of part of the plate of limestone bearing the representation of the falcon god Horus. On the opposite side of the courtyard are the remains of the terrace which was probably intended for the wife of the king.
In the center of the eastern part of the pyramid Petrie discovered the funerary temple built with limestone blocks, and also within the wall. Is so small that it could be a chapel to celebrate the King instead of the mortuary temple of truth. It's unique in many ways, especially since it was first built in the east rather than north of the pyramid. They are also more healthy and well-preserved temple from the Old Kingdom. To-ceiling slabs of limestone remain in place. It is also very simple, almost certainly related to the conceptual transformation of the entire complex of the pyramid during the E3 stage of construction.
On the floor of this temple is a square approximately. It consists of three sections including the entrance hall with a double curve in the southeastern corner, patio and one room with two paths. Of the steles, which is near the bottom of the pyramid, consisting of pieces of limestone, the two sides that are smooth near the top, but it's worth any writings or pictures. Among them was a round-table offerings. The absence of decoration, which suggests that the temple had not actually used in any religious activity.
However, it seems that the temple had a profound impact on visitors at a later time, as evidenced by the writings of several. Due mainly descendants of 18th, some writers in praise of the temple. Ankhkheperreseneb, who visited in the 41st year of the reign of Tuthmosis III, said he came "to see the magnificent Temple of Horus, Bent, and saw, as if the sky was so and the sun." The shout "May the rain from the sky, bitter cold and frankincense seeping from the roof of the Temple of Horus Bent!" However, in the time of the visit was in poor condition for some time during the priests first and second transitional periods actually lived there.
The pyramid itself, and an explanation of how strange this day and the many puzzles surrounding the complex transition from the 3rd Dynasty pyramid step towards the truth, and the pyramids of smooth surfaces for strain 4. When Wainwright exploration inside the pyramid, it became clear that the base of the pyramid was built from overlapping layers of limestone blocks with a tendency to seventy-five degrees. They were standing on a square base of the thirty-eight square feet.
That the ancient Egyptians used the accrual method for building the pyramid was not a surprise to Egyptologists, even in times of Petrie, and was to some extent in the way of construction in general. What was a surprise that the smooth outer surface of each level, which seems illogical and should be significantly diminished the cohesion of the layers and structure as a whole. The answer to this puzzle, in particular, came after Borchardt, who proved that the pyramid was built in three phases, during which its appearance has changed significantly.
The pyramid was originally a seven-step structure built on a foundation of rock, but perhaps even before it is completed, step-eighth add. Each of these first two phases, called E1 and E2, was destined to be the final structure. However, the pyramid was finally rebuilt to make it a real hierarchy, face smooth. However, unlike E1 and E2, and E3 specific extension is not based on the foundations of solid rock, but in three layers of limestone blocks set in the sand.
Even stranger, while the blocks E1 and E2 phase angle toward the center of the pyramid, as is the case of the pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara complex, and thus a significant increase in the power structure, and the blocks were placed horizontally E3. This had previously warned Borchardt, but Kurt Mendelssohn, who visited as a tourist Meidum bestseller published in 1986 for his theory that the method used for the construction scenario E3 in a landslide caused catastrophic workers built the pyramid buried in the rubble that now surround the structure.
However, Mendelson's theory was not at all unless Egyptologists, because it contradicts with the archaeological finds which Petrie described and that are still felt to this day. The stratification of the huge sand berms on all four sides of the pyramid shows that the erosion of the structure occurred gradually over a long period of time. However, the change in the methods of construction makes it much easier for thieves to work stone. Borchardt pointed explained that the bands of the envelope construction raw individual layers of a stronger base and simply revealed after the destruction of classes.
Furthermore, the archaeological research has also shown that the pyramid was probably destroyed at the end of the era of the modern state, as is the case in the piles of rubble at the foot of the 22nd Dynasty tombs of the secondary was found at an altitude of between seven and ten meters high in the floor of the temple. It is assumed that the elimination of residential complexes had already begun during the reign of Ramses II.
In recent times, offered George Johnson, and his opinion in a pile of dirt on the Great Pyramid. In his view, the wall hides the remainder of the building a ramp running around the pyramid built as part of the transition process in the second E2 () for the third (E3) stage. It refers to the non-use of blocks of limestone that were not part of the constructive Khouly found during the investigation of the hill in the northwest corner of the pyramid.
And building the brand in some blocks of the pyramid was built interesting. Among these stylized images of two or three or four pyramids, prompting some researchers to speculate that appear on the original shape gradually changed the pyramid. However, we know we know that these images are designed to develop the building blocks at the appropriate levels. Is no less interesting are the inscriptions including dates and names of the working groups. They come from the seventh to the eighteenth through've got to rule without a name, but it was probably Bent. Mason, similar patterns exist in the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur.
Moreover, the real significance of the change in the structure during the E3 has not been fully explained. Pass the form of a memorial in the form was abandoned in favor of a pyramid is real, and the north-south orientation of the eastern direction towards the West. It seems that this reflects a major shift in religious ideas which occurred during the transition period from the 3rd to the dynasty 4th. Rick believes that this is the first time that the myth of Osiris, the king introduced to the worship of the dead. The king is identified with Osiris, ruler of the underworld, and his death became a legendary event. However, according to another interpretation, he had a relationship and change in the shape of the tomb and went with low debt and high debt astral solar system. Similarly, the German Egyptologist said Dietrich Wildung that the complex hierarchy Meidum was the predecessor of the temples of the sun, after a strain of 5.
You can also add that some scholars believe that the final phase of construction may have occurred many years after the end of the first two phases and, after Bent had already moved to Dahshur. It seems that these scientists believe it has been the completion of the pyramid of the coffin instead of the cemetery property.
Entrance of the pyramid in the north and south in the north wall, about fifteen meters above ground level. This unique location of the entrance of the pyramid rose high above the ground level. From here, they rushed down the corridor for a few meters below the base of the pyramid, where it becomes horizontal corridor leading to the burial chamber. There are ports in the east and west sides in the horizontal section of the corridor, although the purpose of this is not true. They may have been used to make it easier to move the blocks used to shut down the hall after the funeral.
The burial chamber itself, which is not completed, was introduced during the vertical shaft leading from the south side of the corridor and entered the northeast corner of the burial chamber floor. Maspero, when he entered the pyramid for the first time, found wires and packages there, which led him to believe that the focus was on the remainder of the tunnel built by grave robbers in order to facilitate their work. He's coming back this structure to a period when the burial chamber had been looted. However, some Egyptologists believe he was part of the original structure, and is used in the collection of King sarcophagus in the burial chamber, though there seems to never be on the coffin in the burial chamber, one seems to have been buried there. Furthermore, why do workers, even became complicated when the coffin had been placed in the burial chamber during the construction?
In the tradition of step pyramids of the breed 3rd, in the tomb chamber in line with the north and south of the pyramid. In the "false arch constructed of huge blocks of limestone, is noteworthy. The idea behind this is very old and based on the brick architecture of the Early Dynastic. The purpose was to prevent the enormous weight of the pyramid to break the ceiling of the burial chamber. Apparently, the builders chose this method on the granite slabs from the ceiling, which is also known.
There are also rooms north of the burial chamber, and then click the horizontal section of the corridor, which may have resulted from changes in the plan to build the pyramid.
Bent appeared to abandon this hierarchy, although he did so why not remain unresolved. Later, she founded to establish a new cemetery and the new pyramid near Dahshur. Perhaps he wanted to be closer to the power of the white walls (Memphis), or perhaps he wanted to start from the city of residential, and more strategically. Stadelmann, who believes that the pyramid was built for Sneferu Meidum from the beginning, it believed that the tomb complex and its environs belong to the Queen Mother and the Princes in the so-called first generation. According to him, but generation after Bent family buried at Dahshur.
• Length: 92m
• Base: 144m
• Tip: 51st 53 '