Call Us Toll Free
For Lowest Fares
For Lowest Fares
877-245-3755
877-245-3755
Se Habla Español 858-256-7201 (Int'l)
Recent Posts
Travel By Choice
Archives:
The Red Pyramid is one of the largest pyramid from the three major pyramids located at the Dahshur necropolis. It’s also called the North Pyramid. After the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra at Giza, it was the third largest Egyptian pyramid. At the time of pyramid completion, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world and also believed to be the world’s first successful attempt at constructing a “true” smooth-sided pyramid. Locals refer to it as el-heram el-watwaat, meaning the Bat Pyramid.
The Red Pyramid built by Snefru (Khufu’s father) and its sides sloping at 43 degrees 22′, height is 104 metres (341 ft)andits base is 220 metres (722 ft). It has almost 160 layers of stone. The reddish limestone was used to build most of its core, white limestones were used to lay the pyramid’s foundation, andtura limestone was used as casing stone to cover the pyramid. Some of the casing was dated and its gives us clues to how long the pyramid took to build, but also the sequence of work that took place. From these, we know that the pyramid was probably begun between the twenty-second and twenty ninth year of Snefru’s reign. Other dates tell us that two years later, six layers of stones had been laid. However, within four years, 30 percent of the pyramid had been completed, and the entire pyramid was finished in about seventeen years.
The entrance of the pyramid is cut into the north side and its leads with a 206 foot passage to a first chamber with a corbelled roof. The first chamber has a corbelled ceiling with a height of about 40 feet.At the south-west end of the chamber a short corridor leads to a further chamber with a corbelled roof which sits directly below the apex of the pyramid. An opening cut high into the south wall leads to a third chamber with a corbelled roof. The floor of this chamber is sunk below the level of the passageway and is very rough and it is speculated that it was hacked up by tomb robbers searching for treasure.
At the east side of pyramid, the mortuary temple was built in a hurry when Sneferu died. It is now almost entirely ruined but efforts have been made to reconstruct it and it is thought that it included depictions of the HebSed Festival and housed a pink granite false door and a series of store rooms.
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
SmartFares guards your privacy and security. We're certified by GeoTrust. 