Egypt’s Monuments Part VI: The Pyramids Part III; The Great Builder Snefru

Like I said in my last post I am going to deal with one of Egypt’s famous kings, and his most famed feat during his lifetime was the four pyramids he constructed. In Miroslav Verner’s chapter, The Fourth Dynasty – The Greatest Of The Great, he talks about the pharaohs who are behind the greatest architectural accomplishments within Egypt’s history; three of those pyramids being the Pyramids of Giza. The Third Dynasty rulers invented the pyramid, King Djoser, but the Fourth Dynasty kings improved upon them and created some of the world’s greatest structures. The first king of the Fourth Dynasty was Snefru, and he inherited the throne from King Huni. Most pharaohs only built one pyramid in their life time but Snefru is famous for building four, which signifies that he lived and reigned for a long time. He made two pyramids that were near where he eventually resided in Dashur, and then one in Medium, and one in Seila. Miroslav Verner talks about the progress made in the Fourth Dynasty with King Snefru: “Under his reign the strongly centralized Egyptian state reached the apex of its power, and indirect but eloquent testimony to this fact is provided by the mighty pyramids in Dashur and Giza.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids: Their Archaeology and History. New York: Grove Press, 1997, p. 153). Many people think that King Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid, was the greatest builder of all time, but Snefru built four pyramids during his time when Khufu only built one. So the title, as well, can go to Snefru for being the greatest builder in Egypt. Khufu was the son of Snefru so we can claim that he got his ingenuity for building from his father. In this post I will give brief summaries of Snefru’s four pyramids and their architecture.

The first pyramid of Snefru’s that Verner examines is the Pyramid at Medium. Medium is located on the map near the Nile and was called Medium because it literally was the middle part of Egypt. It was a few miles from Giza and Memphis. The Pyramid was believed to be started by Huni, Snefru’s predecessor, and Snefru was put to the task of finishing it. King Huni, the last King of the Third Dynasty, built the pyramid to be a Step Pyramid, but Snefru modified it and made it into a true pyramid with an apex. Most Step Pyramids did not have an apex on them, the tip of the pyramid, and the tops of the Step Pyramids were flat. Snefru took Huni’s idea and improved upon it, and this started what is called the Golden Age of the Old Kingdom. But Verner goes on to say that this idea of King Huni building the first sections on the pyramid and Snefru taking it over is questioned because only Snefru’s name appears on the pyramid. “Huni’s name was not found at the pyramid in Medium; on the contrary, since the Middle Kingdom many written documents have emerged that suggests that both the Medium pyramid and the nearby residential city were once called Djedsnefru, and therefore that Snefru was then considered to be their builder.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 167). But if Snefru was the finisher of the pyramid then it would make sense for his name to be in it and not Huni’s, but this is still debated. The remodeling of Huni’s Step Pyramid not only shows the architectural change but also the religious, because pyramids and the ancient Egyptian religion went hand in hand. “The monument’s step-shaped formed was abandoned in favor of a pyramid form, and the north-south orientation in favor of an east-west orientation. This apparently reflects an important shift in religious ideas that occurred during the transition from the Third to the Fourth Dynasty.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 167). Where as in the Early Dynasties the king was looked on as a god who would pass from this world to rule, in the Fourth Dynasty some scholars believe that this was when the Osiris legend came into being. “The king identified with Osiris, the ruler of the realm of the dead, and his death became a mythical event.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 167). So, again, the ruler was still looked on as a god but in a different way, and because of this religious ideal some pharaohs claimed themselves as Osiris in life. After looking over the construction of the pyramid at Medium most archaeologists’ claim that it was built in stages, where Snefru built on it, then stopped and after some years, started on it again. “What did surprise them [the archaeologists] was the smooth outside surface of each level, which seemed illogical and must have considerably decreased the cohesion of the layers and that of the structure as a whole. The explanation was provided largely by [Ludwig] Borchardt. He showed that the Medium Pyramid was built in three stages, during which the outward appearance changed significantly.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 162).

The second pyramid that King Snefru built is “one” of the smallest ever made; the Seila Pyramid. I say this because there are actually more than just four pyramids that have been found with Snefru’s name in them. So even though he is most famous for building only four there are actually six more pyramids that are questioned to be built by him. All of these pyramids are Step Pyramids and are quite small in structure. These other six Step Pyramids are found in Zawiyet El-Meiyitin, Sinki, Naqada, Kula, Edfu, and Elephantine. Looking at King Snefru’s pyramid in seila Verner comments: “It is surprising that the pyramid has no chambers either inside it or in its substructure and that, with the exception of the previously mentioned stela and offering tables, no evidence of a funerary cult has been found near it. Its meaning thus remains unclear, as does that of the structures associated with it.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 169). All the rest of the pyramids that were found with Snefru connected to them are still debated if he actually built them or not. Another one of these six pyramids I will cover in this paragraph is the one in Kula. The pyramid at Kula had more than just Egyptian culture influencing it, and during the time it was built there was a great deal Mesopotamian influence within Egypt, and the Kula pyramid shows this. The Mesopotamians built what is called ziggurats. These Mesopotamian style structures were very similar to the Egyptian Step Pyramids, which had the pyramid shape but with a flat top. They were made with sun-baked bricks and fire-baked bricks, which were similar to the materials used with Egypt’s pyramids, although Egyptians used limestone which was a much finer building material than just bricks. Also, like with the Egyptians, ziggurats were used for religious purposes. Verner goes on to explain the influence that Mesopotamian ziggurats had on the pyramid at Kula: “Since the Mesopotamian ziggurats were oriented in the same way, the pyramid in Kula and the nearby predynastic fortress in Hierakonpolis have been seen as further proof of Mesopotamian influence in Egypt – and as a place that was then playing an important role in the initial formation of the ancient Egyptian state. Hierakonpolis was at that time the capital of Upper Egypt and the center of the cult of the falcon god Horus. It has been proven that there were contacts between the Nile Valley and the Near East before the end of the Early Period, but this does not allow us to draw any conclusions regarding the relationship between the pyramid in Kula and the ziggurats.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramid, p. 171-172). These two small Step Pyramids, plus the other five, raise many questions for archaeologists and Scholars, and most of these questions will continue to be unanswered because many of the answers have died with the ancient Egyptians.

The two pyramids in Dashur created by the great builder, King Snefru, are the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. The Bent Pyramid was made as an experiment because Snefru wanted to change the Step Pyramid shape into an actual Pyramid form. Some Scholars believe that the south Bent Pyramid was meant to be the final resting place for Snefru, but in all the pyramids he created his remains have not been found. So where Snefru was laid is still a mystery, whether his body was stolen or moved archaeologists have yet to find his body. As I said before the Bent Pyramid was meant to be the start of pyramids changing from their step form into an actual pyramid: “This pyramid [The Bent Pyramid], whose form and name seem rather contradictory, was the first to have been planned from the outset to have the shape of a true pyramid.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 174). But this metamorphism from step pyramids to a true pyramid form had a lot of things go wrong with it and after some time Snefru had to abandon the Bent Pyramid because of its unstable structure. Snefru may have had the right idea for how to change the pyramid into a true pyramid shape, but sometimes the actual construction does not fit with the drawn up blueprints. Building any kind of structure can be tricky and especially when you want to change it from the old way into something new. Verner comments on the foundation on which the Bent Pyramid sits and its instability: “The foundation on which the pyramid was built consisted not of rock but rather of a relatively soft layer of slaty clay. The builders apparently did not take this sufficiently into account, and this seriously compromised the stability of the whole structure. The core, made of local limestone, rests directly on the clay, whereas the casing of fine white limestone, which is here better preserved than on any other Egyptian pyramid, stands on an artificially built foundation.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 174). Not only was the Bent pyramid unstable on it’s foundation but with the structure itself and so Snefru’s first attempt at making a true pyramid form was abandoned and the Red Pyramid was built in it’s place as the last pyramid Snefru made before his death. “Technical construction problems and the threatened collapse of the west corridor and the upper chamber in the Bent Pyramid seem to have led not only to the decision to build a new pyramid, but also to excessive caution.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 184). The reason it is called the “Red” Pyramid is because the limestone outer casing that used to cover up the red core structure has been either removed or eroded over time. One view is that during the Middle Ages people took off the limestone covering because of its value, this limestone came from Tura and that was considered one of the finer qualities of limestone. One interesting thing that makes Snefru stand out from many other Kings is that not only did build the most pyramids out of any Pharaoh, but that he built a pyramid town. This town was where the workers lived during the years it took to build the pyramids, where materials were stored, and was just like any other town except it was created specifically for the pyramids. Another interesting factor that Verner brings up is that when the Fourth Dynasty King, Snefru, wanted to change the old step pyramid form into a true pyramid, he also changed the religious aspect of the burial chamber in the Red Pyramid. “Whereas the burial chamber in the two preceding Snefru pyramids still followed Third Dynasty tradition in being oriented north-south, here for the first time the burial chamber was aligned with the orientation of the pyramid complex as a whole.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 186).

Snefru truly was the greatest pyramid builder of all Egypt, and even though his son, Khufu, built the biggest pyramid known to man Snefru built the most quantity of pyramids. But what is more important, quantity or quality? There are those who call Khufu the greatest builder of ancient Egypt and then there are those who give Snefru that title. But I believe both can share the title because if Snefru had not built his mass amount of pyramids maybe Khufu wouldn’t have been challenged to surpass his father and build the Great Pyramid of Giza. Snefru’s accomplishments just encouraged Khufu to strive to make one of the world’s seven wonders and the greatest man-made structure in history. But nonetheless Snefru was one of the greatest Kings of Egypt not only for his pyramids but also for his other accomplishments such as his military campaigns and other building projects. Later descriptions of King Snefru call him a benevolent ruler: “According to later tradition, Snefru was a great, benevolent ruler. Written documents – especially the annals inscribed on the famous Palermo stone – suggest that he built great ships and a palace of cedar wood, opened the diorite quarries near Abu Simbel, and conducted military campaigns in Nubia and Libya. However, his most spectacular feat in the course of his long reign was the construction of four pyramids.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 153). The last thing I will mention in this post is the chronology of the four pyramids, which is difficult to date the pyramids because as I mentioned before the Medium pyramid wasn’t built in one sitting but in different stages. “From the evidence available at this point we can conclude that Snefru first undertook the construction of the pyramid in Medium. At the end of stage E2, work on that construction was interrupted and the construction of the Bent Pyramid in Dashur begun. When problems emerged, the builders, undaunted, began constructing the Red Pyramid, but probably the rebuilding of the Medium Pyramid (E3) was undertaken at the same time. At present, the pyramid in Seila cannot be situated chronologically with greater precision.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 188). From this we can see why it is still debated if those other six pyramids were built by Snefru or possibly were just built to commemorate him, and if this is the case then Snefru must have indeed been a great ruler to his people.