Back to Our Egypt Trip

It was built by Sneferu (c.2613-c.2589 BC) and is thought to be the first "true" pyramid. The base of the Red Pyramid is almost the same size as the Great Pyramid but it's angle is lower.

 An old entrance to the Red Pyramid with later mud brick construction in front.

    It's called the Red Pyramid because of the iron oxide, in the limestone, that gives a reddish appearance to the stone. It's very slight.

   The guards gave us some more photo opps.

  After a 100 ft. climb up it's outer surface, we entered the pyramid and descended about 200 yards, in a stooped position, to this room. The walls are cut out of the bed rock, at the bottom of the pyramid, and the corbelled ceiling is made of massive (10 to 20 ton) blocks of granite, stacked on top of each other to the 60' ceiling. This was done so the chamber could withstand the enormous weight of the rest of the pyramid, stacked on top of it. There were 2 of these chambers that connected end to end. You then had to climb about 25 feet to a third chamber. The actual sarcophagus was off to the side of this 3rd chamber in a crude notch cut out of the pyramid. All this work was done to deter tomb robbers and it still didn't work. The ventilation system was not working when we were there and, the deeper we got, the more intense was the smell of ammonia. The dots in the photo are actually dust particles, we stirred up, as we walked.