PART 4 : The Red Pyramid

Assuming that the Red Pyramid was to be the replacement burial tomb of Sneferu, we can examine the structures for his afterlife Heb Seds.

Stadelmann found a partial inscription confirming the Heb Sed was to be performed there.

The Red Pyramid had three large chambers, one more than the Bent Pyramid. The burial chamber was accessed by an entrance high up in the wall of the second chamber.



Whilst the second chamber was under the apex, the burial chamber was a bit south of the centre.

The Destination in the Sky

The Red Pyramid, like that of the Bent Pyramid, will have had a counterpart or destination location among the circumpolar stars. It was most likely same square around the celestial pole – the square around the stars Mizar and Kocab.



Notice that the burial chamber matches the location of the pole in the sky, ie it splits the pyramid vertical in the ratio of 9 to 11 - which it does.

The reader will have noticed that in every tomb discussed so far in this Heb Sed article - this same region has been selected - and justified as far as possible. In each case the star Mizar has been the upper star with the pole beneath it. Mizar is one the prominent stars of Ursa Major.

Alioth and Mizar were stars of Ursa Major, represented in star ceilings as the bull Meskhetiu. The bull was tethered to the celestial pole around which is rotated.

Kocab and Pherkad were stars of Ursa Minor, which in star ceilings formed the base of the mooring posts. This one below is from a ceiling of Ramses.



I draw your attention to the bull with its tail. The figure, who some say is Horus, stands exactly between the bull and the base of the mooring post. He held a spear to slay the bull in his left hand (and presumably wore its tail and became the bull.) Where the figure stood matches exactly the position of the square region of the sky (above) for the pyramid.

The relevance here is that over this scene and above the bull is the hieroglyph for Heb Sed (or Festival of the Tail).

This adds some credibility to all the square sky maps near the pole that I have presented !

To explain this scene above in terms of the Heb Sed, we need to refer back to the stages of the Heb Sed given in the Introduction of Part 1.

• a revivication of the king
• ascension to the stars
• meetings and acceptance by the gods
• a run around markers wearing a bull’s tail to show fitness
• a double crowning before the stellar gods

In the sky scene, the revivified Horus king has been received by the two Enneads and arrived near the celestial pole. He will get the tail of the bull to perform the Run across the sky. After that he will receive the double crown before the stellar deities.

New Role for the Bent Pyramid

The Red Pyramid was built with a walled enclosure - but no satellite pyramid.

Without a satellite pyramid, Sneferu would have no southern tomb and the Kings Run would not be possible. But wait ! Here is a quote from Verner concerning Stadelmann’s opinion “As Stadelmann has shown, the Bent Pyramid became an important part of the cult of the deceased ruler and fulfilled – in relation to Sneferu’s actual burial site, the Red Pyramid – the function of a south tomb.” !

Let us proceed this amazing idea.

First the pyramid names. The naming must have been done after the Red pyramid was built. The Red Pyramid was “The Shining Pyramid” Presumably ‘shine’ as in stars.
The Bent Pyramid was called “The Southern Shining Pyramid”. But south of what ? If it meant on the south side of the Red Pyramid then the latter would be called The Northern Shining Pyramid – but it wasn’t. If it meant south of Dahshur, was that so important as to be in the pyramid’s dedication ?

We are left with the Bent Pyramid being the South tomb, the satellite pyramid of the Red Pyramid.

To achieve this new role, certain changes to the Bent Pyramid would be done.

The entrance needed to be from the north, so the west entrance could be closed off.

A passage would be needed into the burial chamber from the upper chamber.

The chamber needed to be smaller like all previous south tomb’s burial chambers.

One more thing – perhaps a critical one. There is a pattern from the previous pyramids burial chambers at Djoser’s complex, Meidum, and the Bent Pyramid - the first pair of burial chambers were well below ground, the second pair at ground level, and the third about 4 cubits above ground level. But in each case both the main chamber and its southern chamber floors were at the same level. Whether underground, ground level or above ground. This makes some sense - in the sky the Kings’ Run cannot be sloping !

At Dahshur we had a mismatch of levels, The Bent chamber was 4 cubits above ground. In Keith Hamilton’s drawing of the Red Pyramid the floor of the Red Pyramid burial chamber at 16 cubits above the ground.



So to level them up, the burial chamber of the Bent Pyramid was filled with smallish blocks of limestone up to the height we are told of 6.54 meters above the floor (see diagram below). This is about 12 cubits. Add the four cubits for the height of the floor above the ground, we get 16 cubits from the ground level. The two burial chambers were now both at 16c above ground level.



Above the new floor in the burial chamber the corbelling was chiselled away very roughly. Monnier and Puchkov wrote “The raising of the floor led them to smooth the overhangs so that the space thus obtained should look like a burial chamber, and not a simple space under a vault”. And they ask “The question then arises as to what motivated the architects to raise the floor”.

Here is an answer : To create a small satellite tomb at the same level as the main tomb !

A similar filling was done in the lower chamber. Fakhry wrote, “The lower chamber was filled with small square blocks up to the corbellment line, which were partly removed by treasure hunters in ancient times and partly by Perring, while the remainder were completely removed between 1946-48”.

So to get to the burial chamber, the upper chamber was first filled with limestone blocks with steps right up to the height of where the new passage would be hacked through to the burial chamber. This upper chamber was of course no longer needed for a satellite pyramid - but the steps were. So it remained filled up until 1946 !

The Bent Pyramid was now like the satellite pyramid. An entrance in the north face, a passage down to below ground level, and another single route up to a small burial chamber.

The small satellite pyramid south of the Bent Pyramid was sealed as it was no longer needed.

The valley Temple

The Valley temple of the Bent Pyramid was turned into the cult centre. Size 47 x 26 m. At the front were scenes of people from the estates bringing food, and Heb Sed scenes dominated the rear columns. Two below are the king with the bull’s tail, and a fragment depicting the king kissing a god.

. . .

Keith Hamilton wrote “we do not know if a causeway, subsidiary pyramid or valley temple was envisioned by Sneferu for the Red pyramid, he might have been content with the Bent pyramids valley temple etc, and saw no need to duplicate these items.” Yes agreed, there was no need for them !

The King’s Run

The temple on the east side of the Red Pyramid was much bigger than the temporary chapel built at the Bent Pyramid. From the loose scattered remains Stadelmann and his team have reconstructed what they think the structures were like. (The central buildings are shown as cutaways) There was court with 12 columns.



A fragment of a false door in pink granite was found. This false door led from the pyramid into a small chamber then into the court where the King met the gods before and after the King’s Run.

The King’s Run across the two skies would use the two burial chambers 16 cubits above ground. The run would start from the false door of the Red Pyramid on the east side. From there to the north entrance of the Bent Pyramid and into the newly created satellite chamber. Then back to the temple at the east of the Red Pyramid.

The Sky Markers

What about sky markers ? For previous pyramids the markers of the run had been similar to each other at each end. The Red Pyramid was about the same height as the Bent Pyramid and the shape of the Red Pyramid had copied the upper section of the Bent Pyramid. So it seems we have the two almost matching sky markers :



Here is a question – was the shape of the Red Pyramid similar to that of the Bent Pyramid because of a match needed for the two sky markers ?

Conclusions

The counterparts of the tombs in the north sky at the celestial pole beneath Ursa Major was the destination of the risen King in the Hed Sed for all pyramids.

The Bent Pyramid had a new role as a satellite pyramid and got ‘mutilated’ in the conversion.

The conversion of the Bent Pyramid to a satellite pyramid to be used in the Heb Sed provides an explanation for most of the changes made to the Bent Pyramid.

Heb Sed requirements probably influenced many other structural decisions including the shape of the pyramids.