The pyramids of Egypt have endured thousands of years of curiosity and plundering, and a majority of them are in very poor condition.
The largest pyramids on the Giza plateau receive the most modern attention from tourists, because they have best survived the curiosity of mankind without falling into complete disrepair. But in the spirit of curiosity that has led Egyptian pyramids to receive endless attention, I want to share the story of where I think an Old Kingdom pharaoh might still be resting inside a pyramid to this very day.
One of the most ill-conceived objections I frequently hear to pyramids once hosting the mummies of pharaohs, is that there are no records of a king ever having been discovered inside one. This is followed by the citation of there being close to 100 pyramids in Egypt.
So, how could the bodies from every one, have possibly disappeared? This objection is indicative of how difficult it is to wrap one’s mind around the amount of time that has passed since these pyramids were constructed.
You have to remember that even as far back as the Old Kingdom, it is estimated that millions of people lived along the Nile in Egypt. So, for about one and half million days, millions of other people lived their entire lives within sight of these amazing structures.
Surely it can’t be that surprising that all hundred or so of the tall, gleaming monuments were thoroughly investigated by people from the past that had the means to access them. It takes a truly extraordinary confluence of events to preserve a royal tomb for thousands of years, because the incentive to plunder them is incredibly high. In many ways, the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 has spoiled our expectations for what is plausible to find hidden from looters since Antiquity.
Even prominent Egyptologists today fail to grasp how amazing it was that Carter managed to find Tut’s burial in such fantastically preserved condition. For example, UCLA professor Kara Cooney recently stated for Discover Magazine that This is not only proven false, but also follows the same train of thought that skeptics use to discredit the idea of pyramids holding mummies.
Countless ancient Egyptians, far less prominent than a pharaoh, had their meager burial goods entirely plundered in the years or centuries following their deaths. It is incredibly rare to find even a modestly wealthy tomb undisturbed since the time of burial. As independent researcher Steve Cross proved in 2008, it took an extraordinary flash-flood that plowed through the Valley of the Kings to preserve Tutankhamun’s tomb.
It was a combination of obscuring the entrance and hardening it with a thick form of limestone cement that kept it safe. Certainly, King Tut’s tomb was searched for by individuals before Howard Carter made it his life’s work. It was only the combination of it being hidden and the difficulty of the search, that could spare it from discovery. Turning our attention back to the pyramids, there is one such monument that captures my imagination as a possibility for recovering the mummy of an Old Kingdom pharaoh.
The 5th dynasty king Sahure was the first ruler to build his pyramid in the region along the Nile known as Abusir. Choosing an entirely new site for your pyramid complex was a bold move for a King, and this puts Sahure in the same company as pharaohs Snefru and Khufu in that respect. Because the pyramids of Abusir are missing their casing stones and severely weathered, it is now difficult to tell them apart at a glance.
The key to recognizing Sahure’s pyramid is that it’s the one most separated from the others on the northern side. Additionally, Sahure’s mortuary temple is particularly elaborate and well-excavated to the east of the pyramid.
Two magnificent columns of the temple were preserved well enough to be reconstructed and now sit upright at the entrance. In contrast to the reasonable condition of the temple, however, the pyramid itself hasbeen in complete ruins for Millenia. The first recorded investigation of Sahure’s pyramid comes from civil engineer John Shae Perring in 1837. Perring was working alongside Colonel Howard Vyse and his research is documented in both of their respective books that were published in the late 1830s. It's difficult to overstate the skill and bravery required for this pyramid exploration,
because any single disturbance of stone could cause an avalanche of boulders and sudden death. In the Appendix to Vyse’s “Pyramids of Gizeh” book, he writes of Perring, The passage was full of stones and of rubbish, which continued to fall down from an opening in the ceiling; and while these were being removed, the side of the Pyramid gave way, and completely buried one of the labourers; who fortunately, however, did not sustain any material injury: for fear of a serious accident, Mr. Perring removed all the people except seven or eight of the best men, and these he had some difficulty in keeping to their work, as large masses of masonry, together with rubbish, from time to time fell in.On this occasion, as on many others, the courage and exertions of a Reis, named Abd el Ardi, were peculiarly conspicuous.
It’s become fashionable in Egyptology to disparage men like Vyse and Perring as colonialists who took advantage of Egyptians in their time, but such examples in their writings contradict that narrative.
Vyse and Perring also credited Abd el Ardi with discovering the entrance to Niuserre’s pyramid, in the same book.
A notable discovery made at the entrance to Sahure’s pyramid, was a casing stone that appeared to have been cut for the reception of a tablet.
Greek historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus claimed tablets were inserted over entrances to pyramids which contained inscriptions, presumably including the name of the Pharaoh entombed within.
Modern Egyptology dismisses these accounts on the basis that pyramid entrances needed to be hidden.However, as I’ve mentioned many times, evidence points to Old Kingdom pyramid entrances not being designed in a way that would make any camouflage effective. After 10 days of work, Perring’s team excavated about 22 meters along the entrance passage and at last arrived at a pyramid chamber.
Notable finds along the way included a granite portcullis fragment 38 centimeters thick and a short granite section of the passage immediately preceding the pyramid chamber. Every 5th and 6th dynasty pyramid has been found to use granite in the passage before the antechamber. This is done to reinforce the passage from the stress exerted by the antechamber’s vaulted ceiling upon it.
Perring could go no further than this chamber, and the collapsed nature of the western side prevented him from measuring its complete dimensions. He did note some smooth basalt fragments he attributed to a sarcophagus, and a curious low passage entrance labeled ‘C’ – but noted it was full of rubbish and ruined towards the East.The story of Sahure’s pyramid is then paused for three quarters of a century, until Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt takes up the mantle of researching the pyramid complex. But like so many other Egyptologists of the 20th century, Borchardt was primarily interested in temples, and the pyramid itself was barely investigated. Borchardt fails to observe the granite portcullis and was unable to locate the basalt fragments noted by Perring.
No mention of the passage marked ‘C’ is made, and only the saddle vault ceiling of the chamber is examined in greater detail than Perring’s observations. The explanation Borchardt gives to dismiss Perring’s discovering of a casing stone cut to receive an inscription, is that it must have been a patched block like so many seen in the Bent Pyramid that were simple repair jobs.I find this to be insulting towards Perring, as he had accomplished thorough documentation of all the major Egyptian pyramids and would have known about casing-stone patches. There is a pattern of Egyptologists dismissing or ignoring Perring’s observations because they don’t fit their model of understanding. But one of the things that made Perring such a good researcher is that he didn’t have the bias of 20th century Egyptology training.
Perring’s observations serve to highlight anomalies rather than dismiss them because they didn’t conform to preexisting documentation. In the year 1970, famed researchers Maragioglio and Rinaldi would a publish a brief architectural survey of the pyramid. They mostly agreed with Borchardt but it seems they also did not undertake any serious exploration. In Miroslav Verner’s 2020 book about the pyramids, he writes of Maragioglio and Rinaldi,“During the work they did not dare to speak for fear that the resonance of their voiceswould loosen the portions of broken ceiling blocks hanging over their heads.When necessary, they exchanged directions and opinions written on pieces of paper.”
And so, with Sahure’s pyramid never having been completely investigated, Egyptologists were left to fill in the blanks however they saw fit.
In Mark Lehner’s 1997 book “The Complete Pyramids”, he depicts it as having only a single chamber with a single portcullis block. Inexplicably, Lehner also transforms the basalt pieces Perring found into a single fragment. This inaccurate representation has been used to support weak ideas, and was even cited in Christopher Dunn’s “Giza Power Plant” book. Fortunately for us, the story doesn’t end there. In the past few years, a team lead by Egyptologist Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the University of Wurzburg has restarted the excavation work left incomplete since John Shae Perring in 1837.Mohammed and his courageous team successfully cleared out the fallen stones and reconstructedretaining walls to support the damaged ceilings and prevent further collapse of the pyramid interior. They managed to fully excavate the entire entrance passage as well as the chamber that Perring first accessed almost two centuries ago. The findings of Mohamed and his team confirmed all of Perring’s observations. These discoveries include a large granite piece of a portcullis stone, as well as multiple basalt fragments which Perring thought may have originally been part of a sarcophagus.
It’s important to clarify that Perring never claimed the chamber he discovered was in fact the burial chamber, that’s an assumption Mark Lehner and others made in their own writings.Mohamed Ismail Khaled’s team also discovered the small hidden passage that Perring labeled ‘C’ in his drawings.
They additionally established the cleared chamber was 4.15 by 3.6 meters in size, a fair bit larger than originally estimated.And most exciting of all, is that in reconstructing the western wall of the cleared chamber it was discovered that the chamber system continues another 7 meters to the west, meaning that the burial chamber has yet to be excavated. To help put all of these discoveries in context, let’s quickly compare what we now know about Sahure’s pyramid to the pyramids that come before and after. The third and smallest king’s pyramid at Giza, attributed to Menkaure, is the monument that first establishes a general plan that all of the 5th and 6th dynasty pyramids follow. The key features include a descending corridor entrance centered on the north side, very close to the base of the pyramid. The corridor penetrates below ground and ends in a small space referred to as a vestibule, but I prefer the term ‘Entrance Chamber’. Immediately south of this chamber is a system of granite portcullis blocks, and further down the corridor lies a chamber presumably unused for burials because it lacks the presence of a sarcophagus. This chamber connects to a more elaborately constructed burial chamber with a sarcophagus. And not far from the burial chamber are a series of roughly carved magazines with shallow, flat ceilings.
The next pharaoh Shepseskaf adopts all of these features, but keeps the burial chamber and antechamber on nearly level ground. His monument also dramatically shrinks the size of the entrance chamber and connects the series of magazines to the antechamber’s south-eastern side. The following pharaoh Userkaf shrinks the antechamber to about half the burial chamber size, and transforms 6 small magazines into 2 larger ones that are accessed from the corridor instead of the antechamber. Then comes pharaoh Sahure who we’ll circle back to in a minute. Following Sahure are Neferirkare and Niuserre, which are the other two greatly ruined pyramids at Abusir. They remain mostly unexcavated, but work from Perring and others reveals they both contain an antechamber and a burial chamber that roughly follow the proportion of a twice-as-large burial chamber. The presence or location of magazines within them is unknown.
Finally, we come to pharaoh Djekare-Isesi, who finalizes the Old Kingdom pyramid layout by centering three magazines east of the antechamber. These magazines are now close to the height of the chambers, but are roofed with flat lintels instead of the gabled saddle vaults that make up the ceilings of the antechamber and burial chamber. The five Old Kingdom pharaohs that follow, all continue to use the same general architectural layout established by Djedkare-Isesi. With this context for comparison, we can now better analyze the new evidence within Sahure’s pyramid. Starting with Perring’s hidden corridor in the northeast corner of Sahure’s antechamber, we can begin to extrapolate what this space originally looked like. The tell-tale measurement is the width of the entrance at 90 centimeters.,For reasons unknown, the ancient Egyptians always made the entrance to the magazines significantly narrower than a standard corridor.
All the Old Kingdom pyramids from Menkaure onwards conform to this design. Mohamed Ismail Khaled and his team were able to excavate at least 1.3 meters further down the corridor to find that one or more magazines originally were oriented on the northern side. In a more recent update from 2020, Mohamed states that six magazines have so far been discovered, so perhaps the area looks somewhat like this diagram. What is most interesting about this area in Sahure’s pyramid is that the characteristically flat ceiling design for the magazines begins in the antechamber before corridor ‘C’ begins. The antechamber itself uses a saddle vault ceiling except for a portion on the eastern side, which was roofed with flat lintels.
This is unprecedented, because every other pyramid always distinctly separates the saddle-vault antechamber from the magazine areas with flat ceilings. Adding Sahure’s example to all the other known magazine areas makes it clear there were no spiritual guidelines for their orientation. Just about every configuration is used allowing for the magazines to be located somewhere close to the pyramid chambers.
My own hypothesis is that the builders chose each spot according to the easiest section of bedrock to excavate near the antechamber. There is a consistent theme of their lesser-importance relative to the chambers of each pyramid. Now let’s cover some juicy speculation about what we might find if Sahure’s collapsed burial chamber can be excavated. As I mentioned at this start of this video, it takes an extraordinary sequence of events for a royal burial to not be completely emptied after thousands of years. But there are some interesting factors at play with the known history of Sahure’s pyramid complex which align to give us some optimism.
It is generally accepted that all of the Old Kingdom pyramids were plundered in the times of turmoil known as the First Intermediate Period. This time began about 300 years after Sahure’s reign. But not every deceased pharaoh and pyramid was treated the same, the best example being the neighboring pyramid of Niuserre. Archaeological evidence indicates Niuserre’s cult persisted through the entire First Intermediate Period.
So perhaps the Abusir pyramids were minimally plundered at that time. Centuries later, evidence from Egypt’s New Kingdom demonstrates that Sahure’s revived cult deified him in a form associated with the goddess Sekhmet. Sekhmet is depicted as a lioness and seen as the protector of the pharaohs. Upon death, Sekhmet continued to protect them, bearing them to the afterlife. It’s generally unknown why some pharaohs became later associated with specific gods, and the origins of Sahure’s connection to Sekhmet are not documented. But his revived cult persisted in Abusir for a long time, perhaps even through the Late Period ending in 332 B.C. The dismantling of Old Kingdom pyramid complexes occurred in waves, but there is evidence Sahure’s pyramid and temples were frequently spared from such destruction.
Even at late as the 26th dynasty around 600 B.C. evidence shows that Sahure’s monuments were not significantly dismantled. All this evidence about how Sahure’s legacy was treated leading up to Roman Times provides an interesting narrative. Suppose that the Abusir pyramids were more protected than others during the First Intermediate Period, as the evidence about Niuserre’s cult supports. It was common for later pharaohs to appropriate objects of value from their predecessors, and we can expect that at some point Sahure’s pyramid was emptied of its treasures. But if this occurred as a state or cult-sponsored campaign of appropriation, the pharaoh’s mummy may still have been preserved in the pyramid instead of ransacked by looters. Or, even if looters did break in, the additional protection given by the enduring cults at Abusir may have prevented the robbers from destroying the remains of Sahure. Centuries tick by and the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period of Egypt pass, but there is nothing of value in Sahure’s pyramid to plunder.
The New Kingdom period of Egypt arrives in 1550 B.C. In this time there is plenty of archaeological evidence about activity at Sahure’s pyramid. The pharaoh is recorded as the deified Sekhmet of Sahure. So popular is the cult that evidence is found for it over 600 kilometers away near the Valley of the Kings. We may never know why Sahure and Sekhmet become associated, but if the pharaoh’s mummy had survived for 1000 years into the New Kingdom that seems like a possible explanation. What could be more fitting than a connection to the goddess of protection for a pharaoh in life and death? Waves of dismantlement continue to plunder Tura limestone at pyramids, most prominently undertaken by pharaoh Ramses II.
But evidence shows the cult of Sekhmet of Sahure endures all the way into the Ptolemaic period of 330 B.C. By the time the Roman Empire arrives, we can be confident a final dismantling of Sahure’s pyramid takes place. The Tura limestone that makes up the walls and ceiling of 5th dynasty pyramid chambers might be the last pieces taken.
The risk of collapse for removing these stones inside a pyramid would not make them an easy target. It remains entirely unknown when Sahure’s pyramid was plundered in this way. I can imagine a scenario in which by the time this final limestone is taken, there’s nothing in the pyramid except a skeleton inside the sarcophagus. With so much time passed since the reign of Sahure, his bones are not of interest to the quarrymen.
With the burial chamber robbed of its walls and ceiling, it soon collapses. But perhaps the sarcophagus was intact enough to protect its occupant from such an event. Sahure is then hidden and protected under the rubble for another 2000 years or more, leading to the present day. It's not the most probable sequence of events, but less likely things have happened in the history of Egypt.
Mohamed Ismail Khaled doesn’t offer any speculation about finding Sahure, and this is probably wise. But for myself, part of the fun will always be imaging the twists and turns history might have taken to lead us where we are today. And maybe, just maybe, Sahure is the one Old Kingdom pharaoh who managed to beat the odds. Perhaps he is still at rest in his pyramid, waiting for modern archaeology to discover him.
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