The Red Pyramid at Dahshur takes its name from the reddish limestone exposed on its sides. It once looked very different: a casing of white Turah limestone covered the structure. Egypt’s antiquities ministry ranks it as the country’s third-largest pyramid, after those of Khufu and Khafre at Giza.
Before Dahshur
The earlier Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara had six stacked mastaba forms. It was built in the Third Dynasty, before Sneferu’s reign and the development of the large smooth-sided pyramids.
Meidum records part of that development: a seven-step pyramid was enlarged to eight steps and eventually given smooth sides. The ministry attributes the building to Sneferu, rather than Huni.
Its layered debris, the ministry explains, indicates gradual deterioration rather than the sudden construction-stage collapse once proposed.
Two pyramids at Dahshur
Sneferu’s Bent Pyramid changed from a steeper lower slope to a shallower upper one. The ministry associates this adjustment with structural instability.
The Red Pyramid stands about a kilometre north of the Bent Pyramid. Both belong to Sneferu, as does the pyramid at Meidum. The ministry gives a possible construction start in his thirteenth regnal year and a duration of ten years; these are estimates, rather than an exact building schedule.
A route through three chambers
The Red Pyramid’s entrance is on its northern side. A low passage leads down towards chambers with corbelled ceilings, whose courses step inward above the open space. Beyond the first two chambers lies a third, which the ministry identifies as the likely burial chamber.
The community around the monuments
The pyramids also supported lasting communities. The German Archaeological Institute’s Dahshur project describes priests living in pyramid settlements near the cultivated land and maintaining Sneferu’s cult through the Old Kingdom. Their tombs form part of the wider cemetery under investigation, alongside the royal monuments.
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