It is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several pyramids, two of which are among the oldest, largest and best preserved in Egypt, built from 2613–2589 B, anancient pyramid site just south of á¹¢aqqarah, northern Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile River. Dahshur and other ruins in the area of ancient Memphis, Abu á¹¢ir, á¹¢aqqarah, Abu Ruwaysh, and the Pyramids of Gizawere collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.
The Dahshur pyramids were an extremely important learning experience for the Egyptians. It provided them with the knowledge and know-how to transition from step-sided pyramids to smooth-sided pyramids. Ultimately their breadth of experience would allow them to build the Great Pyramid of Giza; the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing to this date.
The Pyramids of Dahshur encapsulate ancient Egypt. Although places like the Giza Plateau are greater tourist sites, Dahshur is something akin to a great book, telling us great and glorious stories of Ancient Egyptian History.
Dahshur is one of Memphis's most important cemeteries and is one of many vast necropolis located in the great Ancient Egypt Capital. Located about 30Km south of the Giza Pyramids, and in the southern wing of Saqqara, the Dahshur area contains pyramids of the IV and the XII Dynasties. Here you will find the Pyramid of Amenemhat II, and the Pyramid of Amenemhat III, or the Black Pyramid. In fact, the great King Snefru (2680-2656 B.C), the founder of the IV Dynasty, was the first king who chose to build his tomb in this royal area, as it was close to the capital, Memphis.
King Sneferu:
(snfr-wj) "He has perfected me", from Ḥr-nb-mꜣꜥt-snfr-wj "Horus, Lord of Maat, has perfected me", was the founding pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. Estimates of his reign vary, with for instance The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt suggesting a reign from around 2613 to 2589 BC, a reign of 24 years, while Rolf Krauss suggests a 30-year reign, and Rainer Stadelmann a 48-year reign. He built at least three pyramids that survive to this day and introduced major innovations in the design and construction of pyramids.
The 24-year Turin Canon figure for Sneferu's reign is considered today to be an underestimate since this king's highest-known date is an inscription discovered at the Red Pyramid of Dahshur and mentioning Sneferu's 24th cattle count, corresponding to at least 24 full years. Sneferu, however, was known to have a minimum of at least three years after the cattle count dates: his years after the 10th, the 13th and the 18th count are attested at his Meidum pyramid.This would mean that Sneferu ruled Egypt a minimum of 27 full years.
However, in the Palermo Stone, recto 6 at the bottom of the fragment shows the year of the 7th count of Sneferu while recto 7 on the same following row shows the year of the 8th count of Sneferu. Significantly, there is a previous mostly intact column for Sneferu in recto 5 which also mentions events in this king's reign in a specific year but does not mention the previous (6th) year. This column must, therefore, be dated to the year after the 6th count of Sneferu. Hence, Sneferu's reign would be a minimum of 28 years. Since there are many periods in Sneferu's reigns for which Egyptologists have few dates—only the years of the 2nd, 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 23rd and 24th count are known for Sneferu before one considers the years after his cattle countsthis pharaoh is most likely to have had a reign in excess of 30 years to manage to build three pyramids in his long rule but not 48 years since the cattle count was not regularly biannual during his kingship. (There are fewer years after the count dates known for Sneferu compared to year of the count or census dates.)
Two of its five extant pyramids date from the 4th dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 BCE) and were built by King Snefru (reigned 2575–51).
The Bent Pyramid:
First, he built the southern pyramid, or what we call today the Bent Pyramid. The architect was horrified to find he made a mistake during its construction and he didn't realize it until the height of the pyramid reached about 48m (with an angle of 54 degrees)! He made a quick decision and altered his design in order to make it safer (and to prevent what had happened at Medium). When he finished, the pyramid's angle was just 43 degrees! Today, it is called the Rhomboid or Bent Pyramid. Egyptologists, analyzing why he made the change, think that the angle of 54 degrees was going to result in a very wobbly but huge and high pyramid, this would have made the pyramid very unstable, especially when cracks started to appear, which they did and were later filled with gypsum. The Southern (Bent) Pyramid of Dahshur was built from local limestone and cased in fine, Tura limestone. Its height is about 101m, with a length of 188.6m on each side. The original entrance of the pyramid is found the northern face as usual, but Professor Ahmed Fakhry (1905–1973), during his 1951 excavations, discovered another unknown entrance on its western side.
One of the most remarkable features of the pyramid is the existence of cedar beams, which are thought to have been imported from Lebanon. East of the pyramid is a small Mortuary Temple consisting of one small shrine. To the south is a small subsidiary pyramid, cleared in 1947 by the Egyptologist Abd El-Salam Hussein.
The Red Pyramid:
About 2Km to the north of the southern pyramid, another pyramid was built for King Snefru. This time his architect was more careful. He avoided all of his previous mistakes by following the same angle from bottom to top 43 degrees. This is what helped to create the first, perfect, complete Pyramid in history. This became the “blueprint” for all future Pyramids, which appeared during the IV, V, and VI dynasties. This "perfect pyramid" is known as the Northern Pyramid due to its location but also, Red Pyramid, as the builders had favored a special kind of rosette limestone to build the inner burial chamber. It is 99m high, and each side of the base is 220m in length.
28m above the ground, on the northern face of the pyramid, lies the entrance. A steep, 60m long, passage leads down to the first chamber, which in turn connects to the second chamber by a low, rectangular passageway. Both of these chambers are about the same size, with high walls, and a corbelled ceiling. At the far end of the second chamber is the entrance to the burial chamber; a wooden ladder takes you up to the entrance, about 8m above the floor level, and a wooden bridge spans the burial chamber itself. About 16m above you is the high, corbelled ceiling (supported by an arch)
On the eastern side of the pyramid is the Mortuary Temple of King Snefru. Though totally ruined, you're still able to see how it was once laid out, and you can also see some of the original fine, Tura limestone casing stones. Plus, situated here is what is thought to have been the capstone of the pyramid, though there is much dispute to that fact, as the angle of slope is different from that of the Pyramid.
Other Pyramids:
The cemetery of Dahshur contains other pyramids, smaller in scale, built out of mud bricks, and dating back to the XII Dynasty. These belonged to Amenemhat II, Senusert III, and Amenemhat III. Inside the Pyramid of King Senusert III, a precious collection of jewels and gold were found, which is now found globally at select museum locations. Specifically the collection that belonged to some of the Princesses of the XII Dynasty.
Many tombs were uncovered in the area of the pyramids, but were either in bad condition or never completed.
Another pyramid, the White Pyramid, located within Dahshur is that of the 12th Dynasty King Amenemhat II (1929–1895 BC). This pyramid has not been preserved as well as the others within the area due to the materials that were used to fill it (sand on the outside and limestone on the inside). Naturally the weather caused the sand to erode from it, but the limestone was taken intentionally for use on other pyramids allowing the pyramid to collapse and ultimately desecrating the tomb of King Amenemhat II.
King Senusret III (1878–1839 BC) had his pyramid built within Dahshur. The difference between his pyramid in comparison to those surrounding it was that King Senusret III had tombs and galleries built underneath it for two princesses; Sit-Hathor and Merit.
The Black Pyramid dates from the later reign of Amenemhat III and, although badly eroded, it remains the most imposing monument at the site after the two Sneferu pyramids. The polished granite pyramidion or capstone of the Black Pyramid is on display in the main hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Several other pyramids of the 13th Dynasty were built at Dahshur. Only the Pyramid of Ameny Qemau has been excavated so far by Ahmad Fakhri who was the archaeologist whom excavated this site.