The Pyramid that Inspired Giza – INSIDE the Red Pyramid

Hello everyone from Giza, the site of wonder. Behind me the Pyramid of Giza, but it didn't just appear out of nowhere. It's a result of the pyramid building process. The builders of the Great Pyramid simply followed the solutions of their predecessors. By the time it was created, pyramids had already been built for a hundred years in Egypt. Today we're heading 30 kilometers south to the Royal Necropolis of Dahshur to see the direct predecessor of Khufu's pyramid. The Red Pyramid was the first structure fully designed and built as the so-called True Pyramid. It's the third largest pyramid in Egypt, with about two-thirds the volume of the Great Pyramid and three-quarters that of Khafre's. What really stands out is its precision and austere simplicity of form. This minimalist style, as we would say today, would be imitated by pharaohs for the next thousand years. Let's go! Almost completely devoid of cladding, the pyramid today stands 100 meters tall, with a slightly rectangular base. North and south sides measuring approximately 218 meters long, east and west sides 221. Its base length is therefore quite close to that of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, around 230 meters, and almost identical to the base of the Pyramid of Khafre. Unlike the Giza pyramids, however, the Red Pyramid has a much gentler angle of inclination, 43 degrees, 20 minutes. OK, it's always windy in Dahshur, but this time, as you can see, it looks like a sandstorm is coming, we'd better get inside quickly. Later, we'll take a closer look at the pyramid from the outside and walk around it a few times, I promise, so stay with me. Modern stairs lead to the entrance, located 30 meters above the base. Ahead of us a 60-meter entrance shaft, with an inclination of 27 degrees, in my opinion much more demanding than the ascending passage of the Great Pyramid. You have been warned. The walls are built from single blocks and set at right angles to the slope of the corridor. The corridor floor runs beneath the side walls as in the Great Pyramid, rather than being inserted between the walls as seen, for example, in the Bent Pyramid of Snefru, built almost at the same time as the Red Pyramid. The space here is so tiny. It's 1.5 meters high and 1 meter wide. And we've got here this modern wooden floor, which makes the space even smaller. But it has to be here. It's very steep. And pro tip, the best way to go down is backwards. Unlike later pyramids, there are no granite blocks here. We are surrounded by millions of tons of limestone. Nothing but limestone. A 7-meter long horizontal corridor leads us to the first chamber. Here we can finally stand up straight and rest. The lower chambers are in excellent condition, measuring over 8 meters by 3.5 meters. But it's the ceilings that are truly spectacular. All the pyramid chambers feature a corbelled vault ceiling. At the very top, at a height of 12 meters, it's only 35 centimeters wide. These dark running stains are caused by bats urinating on the walls. For decades, the structure was called the Bat Pyramid by locals. But I've been visiting it for years and have never seen a single bat here, luckily. In the neighboring Bent Pyramid, there are plenty of them. The north and south walls aren't corbelled, whereas in the Bent Pyramid, all four sides were corbelled. These blocks vary in size, with some so large that they couldn't be transported through the descending corridor. So the chambers are part of the architect's original plan. The lower course of the wall disappears behind the floor slabs, just like in the king's chamber of the Great Pyramid. Unfortunately, we won't see this. Today, a wooden floor covers the original paving. A gigantic block placed above the chamber entrance catches our attention. Here in the first chamber, we've got this single monolith extending deep into the eastern wall. But how much? We still don't know. And again, a similar massive lintel is found above the entrance to Khufu's king's chamber. The first brief research was conducted here in 1839 by John C. Perring, a British engineer, excavator, and discoverer of the Mamphite Pyramids. The renowned British Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, wanted to conduct a more detailed study in 1883. But as it turned out, he was underprepared for the task. He only reached this spot, and upon seeing what he saw, he likely fled in terror. He wrote, Some animal has a lair in the inner chamber. I did not disturb it, being unarmed and miles from any help. And a pair of hyenas with a family might have proved awkward acquaintances. I wonder how many tomb raiders have encountered the hyenas guarding these hidden chambers, and how many of them never returned to the surface. We're in the second lower chamber. Of course, the enormous modern wooden staircase instantly grabs our attention. It leads to the upper chamber, hidden behind an entrance located 8 meters above the floor. Real challenge for early explorers. And thanks to the staircase, we can now admire the highest part of the corbel ceiling up close. The second lower chamber is a twin to the first. The two lower chambers are at the same level as the desert surrounding the pyramid. Some believe the chamber floors are 3 meters above the pyramid's base. The interior is so well preserved that we don't know much about the pyramid's construction. Does its central core rest directly on the bedrock? Is it regular, or perhaps stabbed? We also don't know the actual thickness of these walls and floors. Let's go to the third, upper chamber, sometimes called the burial chamber. Not without reason. This was undoubtedly the spot the tomb robbers focused on. They ripped out the floor of the 7 meter long corridor leading to the chamber, so there must have been something valuable inside. Something large that couldn't fit through the narrow passage. We're in a room measuring 8 by 4 meters, 14 and a half meters high. It's perfectly preserved, except for... the floor. There's practically no floor here. A hole like that couldn't be covered with a wooden floor. So we can admire it from a distance. But why was this chamber so badly damaged? One theory suggests that the ancient architects didn't place a typical sarcophagus in here, so the floor and the sarcophagus. Instead, they first put the box from the sarcophagus, surrounded it with the floor blocks, and then put a stone slab above. The plunderers, while searching all around, probably thought that treasures were hidden under the sarcophagus. They started to dig and dig and dig, and that's why we've got this enormous pit reaching even 4 meters in some places. They practically destroyed the entire floor. It's estimated that 250 tons of stone were removed from this chamber and thrown into the second, lower chamber to form a ramp that would make it easier to carry out the heavy loot. Interestingly, the pyramid of Khafre in Giza contains such a sunken sarcophagus, surrounded by granite blocks. Was Khafre drawing inspiration from his great ancestor? Historians today have no doubts. The Red Pyramid was built in the first half of the 26th century BC by Snefru, the founder of the 4th dynasty of the Old Kingdom and father of the famous Khufu. What still remains controversial is the final purpose of the structure. Was it Snefru's tomb, his final burial place? Indeed, among traces of later, most likely Ptolemaic intrusive burials, very old remains were discovered here, fragments of a partially mummified male body. Zahihawa stated in 2000 that Remains of Snefru, the first pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, were discovered with resin inside the empty skull, which tells us that by this time Egyptians had begun to solve the problem of deterioration by applying resin to preserve the inner cavities, from which the brain and other internal organs, the first parts of the body to deteriorate, had been removed. But others believe that Snefru's actual remains may still be located under the floor of the upper chamber in the neighboring Bent Pyramid. We explored it together last year, link in the description. Is it possible that the Red Pyramid served only cultic purposes? Why then was the entrance to the upper chamber permanently sealed and hidden? Up here we have a beautiful view of southern Saqqara, but also of the upper reaches of the pyramid's walls. As you can see, the fierce desert winds that have battered its bare body for centuries have left deep scars on these blocks. The limestone used for the construction comes from a neighboring mountain, from a quarry located about 500 meters west of the pyramid. Its reddish stones also served to build the Mastaba al-Firaon in Saqqara, the tomb of the last ruler of the 4th dynasty, Shapseskav. The lower sections of the pyramid haven't been excavated or uncovered for a long time. Today, such mounds of sand and rubble around the Giza pyramids can only be seen in 19th-century photographs. The landscape of today's Dahshur is somewhat similar to Old Giza. Once a desert place far from settlements, here in Dahshur we can feel like early explorers. You won't find souvenir stalls, observation decks, hotels or restaurants. And let's keep it that way. Just take a look, there's no one here. Literally, I am completely alone. That is, Sneferu shines in the north. That's what they called this pyramid in ancient times. It was built just one and a half kilometers north of the Bent Pyramid, known as Sneferu shines in the south. Interestingly, it was built at the same shallow angle as the upper section of the Bent Pyramid. They are wonderfully preserved. Well, that happens all the time on this flat western desert plateau. So I lost my hat three times already and I've been here for less than a half an hour. So what was I saying? The name Red Pyramid comes from the reddish hue of the pyramid's core stones. Originally, however, it was clad with the highest quality white Tura limestone. This cladding was only dismantled in the Middle Ages and used by the builders of Cairo's mosques. Damaged fragments of the cladding remain near the pyramid's eastern face, many of them bearing graffiti on the rear side inscribed by work crews. An inscription dating back to the 30th year of Sneferu's reign has been found. According to British Egyptologist John Romer, this graffiti indicates that the Red Pyramid was completed in just 10 years and 7 months, with half of the construction completed in the first three years. Egyptologists estimate that Sneferu's reign lasted 30 or 48 years. So it's Sneferu's age that explains the haste in completing the complex. No satellite pyramid has been found here, nor has even a valley temple been discovered. Only the remains of a modest mud-brick pyramid temple. Today we can admire its foundations, adjacent to the pyramid's eastern wall. Perhaps this temple, as well as the complex's modest brick enclosure walls, were completed by Khufu after his father's death. In front of us, the reconstruction of what's believed to be the Pyramidion of the Red Pyramid, fragments of which were discovered here in 1982. The angle of the Pyramidion corresponds more to that of the Great Pyramid than to that of the Red one. It certainly isn't 45 degrees. So what was it doing here? At the point where the temple adjoined the pyramid wall, a miraculously preserved section of the original facing, once covering the entire structure, has survived. Unlike many pyramids, this one is finished. But it seems that the rest of the complex, with its infrastructure, wasn't planned at all in the original, initial design. Why? Sneferu, reigning supreme as a living god over an empire already experiencing its golden age, couldn't complain of a lack of resources or manpower. We know that from his plundering expeditions into Libya and Nubia, he brought tens of thousands of captives, likely harnessing them for his grand construction projects. It's possible that after completing the first step stage of the Bent Pyramid, Sneferu may have even found himself with a surplus of labor. So he decided to build another pyramid nearby, perhaps intended from the outset to complement the Bent Pyramid. If so, he built two pyramids within a single complex, thus eliminating the need for two valley temples, traditionally serving as gateways to the pyramid complex. Nearby are the ruins of the stone valley temple of the Bent Pyramid. Unfortunately, it's still forbidden to approach them. Some believe that while the pyramid was being completed, Sneferu directed part of the workforce to locate it 50 kilometers to the south Maidum to transform the step pyramid there into a true one, using a new method of laying casing blocks horizontally. Although this ruler is often credited with the raising of the third pyramid in Maidum, the evidence only points to his connection with the final phase of its construction. Did it originally belong to Sneferu's supposed father, the last ruler of the third dynasty Huni? Can you hear something? Me neither. I love this place. I actually think that this is the best spot to start your adventure with Egypt's pyramids. They are not only older than those in Giza, but they are surrounded by a peaceful scenery and they are wonderfully preserved. There are also hardly any tourists, as you can see, which makes the experience even more special. The Red Pyramid is a Giza-class pyramid in terms of quality. As Petri himself claimed, the Great Pyramid of Dahshur is of fine work, about equal to that of the Second Pyramid of Giza. Sneferu's pyramids at Dahshur are true milestones in the development of civilization. They are a more important archaeological site than is commonly believed. A place you simply must visit when in Cairo. One of my favorites. Thank you for watching. If you enjoy our historical adventures and want to help me continue this, please join my Patreon community. Link below the video. Please like, comment and share my video with your friends. I'd like to thank all the supporters of my channel, especially my dear patrons. Thanks to you I can create new content. Thank you Omar and Suzanne for supporting me at the top tier on Patreon. Thank you. If you're new here, I recommend you watch my videos from other ancient sites, as well as my podcasts about ancient Egyptian beliefs and history. 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