The Ancient Bent Pyramid of Dahshur

Approximately 40 kilometers from South of Cairo, a beautiful Bent Pyramid located at the royal necropolis of Dahshur. This is unique marvel in the area, and popular tourist destination as well. It is so called one of unusual pyramids of ancient Egypt, famous for numerous pyramids. This specific pyramid was fairly popular due to outside archaeological circles, however there as an army camp adjacent and restricted no go area. The Pyramid eventually brings into being with a very steep angle of 54 degrees but halfway through construction the builders comprehended that the angle was too steep. Therefore, the upper half was completed at a shallower angle of 43-degrees to avoid the structure from collapsing. This reason gives the Pyramid a “bent” appearance leading to its modern name.

It is strongly believed that the Bent Pyramid was the first Egyptian pyramid intended by its builders to be a "true" smooth-sided pyramid from the outset. Previous pyramids were either stepped, or first built as stepped and later filled in to make a smooth outer casing. The “Bent Pyramid” also boasts of being the only pyramid to have its unique polished limestone outer casing largely intact. Numerous Egyptian pyramids, including the “Great Pyramid of Giza”, at first had a smooth outer casing of highly polished white limestone that must have be skilled at dazzlingly under the desert sun. Nevertheless, these were stripped away during far ahead generations and carted off to build other structures around Egypt. Moreover, the blocks of stones we see these days on the pyramids are actually core structure. On the “Bent Pyramid”, the outer casing is still noticeable which helps to show how the ancient Egyptians intended their pyramids to look, though it has lost its shine and parts of it are crumbling away. The Bent Pyramid is distinctive in having two entrances. The first entrance is on the north face around twelve meters above ground level, while the second entrance is on the west face around one meter marginally above ground level.

The Pyramid was commissioned by “Sneferu”, who was the father of “Khufu”, who commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza. Therefore, Snefru’s first major undertaking was the Pyramid at Meidum which was originally began by his father King Huni. Though, Sneferu never finished the pyramid. Though, it was believed that the Meidum Pyramid had partially malformed during construction and was consequently abandoned. Sneferu then moved his capital to “Dahshur” where he started constructing his second pyramid, the Bent Pyramid. Sneferu’s third and his last pyramid stand around one kilometer to the north of the Bent Pyramid.  Which is called “Red Pyramid” or the “North Pyramid” actually the largest and the most effective of the three. So as the time goes, he learned from his past mistakes, Sneferu ordered the Red Pyramid to build at the same shallow 43 degree angle as the upper section of the Bent Pyramid, which gave the pyramid a noticeably squat appearance compared to other Egyptian pyramids of comparable scale. The Red Pyramid was the first productively completed smooth-sided pyramid of Egypt, a project that was later adopted by numerous of his successors including his son Khufu, when he built the magnificent “Great Pyramid of Giza”.