Chui pyramid
| Chui pyramid | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Chui pyramid is a monumental tomb from the first interim period in Egypt , probably 9th or 10th dynasty . It is located near today's place Dara near Manfalut , between Asyut and Mair . The classification of the structure is controversial - it could be a pyramid or a stepped mastaba .
exploration
The building was first mentioned in 1912 in an issue of the magazine of the Egyptian Museum . The building was explored from 1946 to 1948 by the Egyptologists Raymond Weill and Ahmed Kamal . Weill suspected that this was a step pyramid , while Kamal thought it was a mastaba. The poor degree of preservation of the building does not allow a clear conclusion about the original appearance of the building.
Assignment
The tomb is assigned to a local ruler named Chui based on the discovery of a block with his name. The block was in a grave south of the pyramid and could have come from the funerary temple of the tomb. A direct assignment of the structure has not yet been made.
pyramid
The base length of the slightly rectangular building is 146 m × 136 m and thus reaches the size of the Sechemchet pyramid in Saqqara . The corners of the structure were rounded with a radius of curvature of 23 m, which is not the case with any other pyramid. The masonry consists of adobe bricks and forms an approximately 35 m thick coat around the interior, which was probably filled with sand and rubble. The structure of the masonry is only vaguely verifiable, but seems to indicate a stepped construction method. The inward-sloping masonry on the outside can still be seen, but no facing stones have been found. With a remaining height of only 4 m, the appearance of the structure cannot be clearly reconstructed. It is therefore unclear how far the tomb was completed. The structure is roughly oriented to the north.
Burial chamber
A ground-level, initially open corridor led to the burial chamber in the center, which then turned into a descending vaulted tunnel. The descending area was covered with eleven arches. The completely empty burial chamber itself is nine meters below ground level and has the dimensions 3.5 m × 7.0 m. Both the chamber and the last section of the corridor consisted of roughly hewn blocks of limestone , which were probably stolen from the nearby 6th Dynasty cemetery . The substructure of the pyramid has been stripped and largely destroyed, so that traces of a burial were no longer visible. The structure of the substructure is similar to that of the large Mastaba K1 of Bait Challaf from the 3rd Dynasty, which may be due to the fact that a mastaba from the early Dynasty was usurped and rebuilt.
complex
Some remains were found on the north side, which may have come from a mortuary temple, but are not sufficient for a reconstruction of the structure. Remains of a section of an adobe wall were found, but the area is now overbuilt by the village of Dara.
literature
- Raymond Weill: Dara. Campagne de 1946-1948. Cairo 1958.
- Ahmed Fachry : The Pyramids . 1961 and 1969, pp. 202-204. ISBN 0-226-23473-8 .
- Mark Lehner : Mystery of the Pyramids , ECON-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1997, p. 164 ff, ISBN 3-572-01039-X .
- Christoffer Theis: The Pyramids of the First Intermediate Period. According to philological and archaeological sources . Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture, Vol. 39, 2010, pp. 321–339 ( online ).
- Miroslav Verner : The pyramids (= rororo non-fiction book. Volume 60890). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 , p. 416 ff.
Web links
- Alan Winston: The Pyramids of Ibi, Khui and the Headless Pyramid - Pyramids of the First Intermediate Period
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Mark Lehner: Mystery of the Pyramids , p. 164 ff The pyramids of the first interim period
- ↑ a b c d Miroslav Verner: The pyramids , p. 416 ff The monumental grave in Dara
- ^ A b Egyptian History Dyn. 6-11
Coordinates: 27 ° 18 ′ 28 ″ N , 30 ° 52 ′ 18 ″ E