Red Pyramid

{{Comparison_of_pyramids.svg|rm}}

The Red Pyramid was the third pyramid of four built by Old Kingdom Pharaoh Sneferu, and was built 2575–2563 BCE. The Red Pyramid is located approximately {{convert|1|km|spell=in}} to the north of the Bent Pyramid. It is built at the same shallow 43-degree angle as the upper section of the Bent Pyramid, which gives it a noticeably squat appearance compared to other Egyptian pyramids of comparable scale. Construction is believed to have begun during the thirtieth year of Sneferu's reign (c. 2590 BCE). Egyptologists disagree on the length of time it took to construct. Based on quarry marks found at various phases of construction, Rainer Stadelmann estimates the time of completion to be approximately 17 years{{Cite web|url=http://www.fathom.com/feature/190171/index.html|title=Fathom |date=2012-04-01|access-date=2018-02-24|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401131510/http://www.fathom.com/feature/190171/index.html|archive-date=2012-04-01}} while Rolf Krauss, based on this same graffiti, suggests a period of construction of 10–11 years,{{cite journal|first=Rolf|last=Krauss|year=1996|title=The Length of Sneferu's Reign and How Long It Took to Build the 'Red Pyramid'|journal=Journal of Egyptian Archaeology|pages=43–50|volume=82|doi=10.1177/030751339608200110|jstor=3822113|s2cid= 160349659}} an estimate later supported by John Romer.Romer (2007) p.71

Archaeologists speculate its design may be an outcome of engineering crises experienced during the construction of Sneferu's two earlier pyramids. The first of these being, the Pyramid at Meidum, collapsed in antiquity, while the second, the Bent Pyramid, had the angle of its inclination dramatically altered from 54 to 43 degrees part-way through the construction due to complications that accrued during the three construction phases.

Some archaeologists now believe that the Meidum pyramid was the first attempt at building a smooth-sided pyramid, and that it may have collapsed when construction of the Bent Pyramid was already well under way – and that the pyramid may by then have already begun to show alarming signs of instability itself, as evident by the presence of large timber beams supporting its inner chambers. The outcome of this was the change in inclination of the Bent Pyramid, and the commencement of the later Red Pyramid at an inclination known to be less susceptible to instability and therefore less susceptible to catastrophic collapse.Kurt Mendelssohn (1974), The Riddle of the Pyramids, Praeger

The Red Pyramid is {{convert|105|m|ft}} high, and {{convert|220|m|ft}} wide.Lehner (1997) p. 104 Fragments of a rare pyramidion, or capstone, for the Red Pyramid was uncovered and reconstructed, and is now on display at the Red Pyramid's site at Dahshur. However, whether the fragments were actually ever part of a pyramidion is unclear, as the reconstruction's angle of inclination differs from that of the pyramid for which it was apparently intended.

The Red Pyramid, along with the Bent Pyramid, was closed to tourists for many years because of a nearby army camp. It is now usually open for tourists and a somewhat intrusive ventilation system has been installed which pipes air down the entrance shaft to the interior chambers. Visitors climb steps cut in or built over the stones of the pyramid to an entrance high on the north side. A passage, {{convert|3|ft|m}} in height and {{convert|4|ft|m}} wide, slopes down at 27° for {{convert|200|ft|m}} to a short horizontal passage leading into a chamber whose corbelled roof is {{convert|40|ft|m}} high and rises in eleven steps. At the southern end of the chamber, but offset to the west, another short horizontal passage leads into the second chamber. This passage was probably closed at one time and the offset was a measure intended to confuse potential tomb robbers.

The second chamber is similar to the first and lies directly beneath the apex of the pyramid. High in the southern wall of the chamber is an entrance, now reached by a large wooden staircase built for the convenience of tourists. This gives onto a short horizontal passage that leads to the third and final chamber with a corbelled roof {{convert|50|ft|m}} high. The first two chambers have their long axis aligned north-south, but this chamber's long axis is aligned east-west. Unlike the first two chambers, which have fine smooth floors on the same level as the passages, the floor of the third chamber is very rough and sunk below the level of the access passage. It is believed that this is the work of tomb robbers searching for treasure in what is thought to have been the burial chamber of the pyramid.

Image:Red-pyramid - entry.jpg|Entry to the pyramid

File:Massive corbel-vaulted ceiling of the Red Pyramid's Main burial chamber (14609359948).jpg|Detail of the massive corbel-vaulted ceiling of the main burial chamber

File:Dahchour0019.jpg|Pyramidion reconstructed from fragments found at the site

{{Commons category|Red Pyramid}}

• List of tallest freestanding structures
• List of Egyptian pyramids
• List of megalithic sites
• List of tallest structures built before the 20th century

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Bárta|first1=Miroslav|title=Location of the Old Kingdom Pyramids in Egypt|journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal|year=2005|volume=15|issue=2|pages=177–191|doi=10.1017/s0959774305000090|s2cid=161629772}}
• {{cite book|last1=Lehner|first1=Mark|year=2008|title=The Complete Pyramids|location=New York|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-28547-3}}
• {{cite book|title=The Riddle of the Pyramids|first=Kurt|last=Mendelssohn|year=1974|isbn=978-0-500-05015-6|publisher=Praeger|url=https://archive.org/details/riddleofpyramids0000mend}}
• {{cite book|title=The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited|first=John|last=Romer|year=2007|isbn=978-0-521-87166-2|publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge}}
• {{cite book|last1=Verner|first1=Miroslav|title=The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments|date=2001d|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8021-1703-8|url=https://archive.org/details/pyramidscomplete00vern}}

• Verner, Miroslav, "The Pyramids{{spaced ndash}}Their Archaeology and History", Atlantic Books, 2001, {{ISBN|1-84354-171-8}}

• [http://www.ancient-egypt.org/history/old-kingdom/4th-dynasty/snofru/pyramids/red-pyramid-at-dashur.html The Red Pyramid of Snofru]

{{s-start}}

{{s-ach|rec}}

{{succession box

|before=Bent Pyramid

|title=World's tallest structure

|years=c. 2590 BCE–2570 BCE
104 m

|after=Great Pyramid of Giza}}

{{s-end}}

{{Egyptian pyramids}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 26th century BC

Category:Dahshur

Category:Pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt

Category:Former world's tallest buildings

Category:Sneferu