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The Egyptian Desert Reveals its 18th Pyramid

Published: 05/22/2009 by Marwa Yahya

On July 2008, The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities informally announced the discovery of a new pyramid near the world's oldest pyramid at Sakkara, located south of the capital, Cairo. Assumptions were made that the Pyramid belongs to one of the relative queens of King Teti who was the founder of the 6th Dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom. Mistakenly in the past, archaeologists never thought that this area would contain any ancient remains; this is why they used it as a location in which they would put the sands taken from other excavations areas into this area. For that same reason, the discovery of this pyramid has taken over two years of excavations in the area.

Later on November 11, 2008, an official announcement was made by the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass, about this recent discovery. The official announcement stated that Dr. Hawass along with his team have discovered the pyramid of a 6th Dynasty queen at Sakkara Dr. Hawass was especially eager about discovering the true identity of the pyramid's owner. He stated that "you can discover a tomb or a statue, but to discover a pyramid it makes you happy. And a pyramid of a queen—queens have magic". Initial guesses had proven that the pyramid belongs to Queen Sesheshet, mother of King Teti. The assumption was made due to the fact that "the only queen whose pyramid is missing is Sesheshet" Dr. Hawass said. The area at which the pyramid was discovered is known as one of the most famous burial grounds for rulers of ancient Egypt. At the same site, archaeologists had previously discovered pyramids belonging to King Teti's wives and the only pyramid missing was that of his mother Queen Sesheshet, which is what strengthens the initial assumption.

The 5 meters high structure is believed to have originally reached 14 meters in height. The pyramid's sides originally sloped at a 51 degree angle forming a square base. The length of each side of the square base is 22 meters, and the entire pyramid was originally covered in a casing of fine white limestone from Tura.

Within the next couple of weeks, the excavators will manage to reach the pyramid's burial chamber and by then they would manage to find a real proof of its owner. A sarcophagus or at least an inscription of the queen would be sufficient to prove that the pyramid belonged to her. However, Dr. Hawass doubts that the burial chamber would continue anything else that would add more information. His skepticism is due to the shaft present at the top of the pyramid which proofs that raiders had known about the pyramid's location long ago and had already stolen most of its contents.

Archaeologists had previously learned about Queen Sesheshet from their findings of a papyrus paper that contained a hair strengthening recipe which was prepared at her request. Other inscriptions found elsewhere in Egypt also proved the Queen's existence. However, the queen's burial site had not yet been discovered. Accordingly, until a formal inscription is found inside the burial chamber, all presumptions about the pyramid's identity are no more than educated guesses.