Saujet el-Meitin pyramid

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Saujet el-Meitin pyramid
The step pyramid of Saujet el-Meitin
The step pyramid of Saujet el-Meitin
Data
place Saujet el-Meitin
builder Huni  ?
construction time 3rd dynasty  ?
Type Step pyramid
Building material limestone
Base dimension 22.50 m
Height (originally) ~ 17.00 m
Height (today) 4.75 m
stages 3
Cult pyramid No

The pyramid of Saujet el-Meitin belongs together with the pyramids in Edfu-Süd , Elephantine , El-Kula , Ombos , Seila and Sinki to a group of a total of seven very similar small step pyramids , all of which were built far away from the great centers of Egypt and beyond which is very little known. It is located about seven kilometers south of the central Egyptian city of Al-Minya . It is the only Egyptian pyramid on the eastern bank of the Nile . It was researched in 1911 by the French Egyptologist Raymond Weill and later by Jean-Philippe Lauer .

Data

The pyramid has a square base with a base length of 22.5 m and once consisted of three or four steps. Today it is a maximum of 4.75 m high, but it was originally around 17 m high. It was built from local limestone and has no chamber system. Their alignment was parallel to the course of the Nile at that time, i. H. its west side deviates by about 20 ° to the NW.

Edification and function

The builder and function of the pyramid are unknown. Ali Radwan considers Djoser (around 2720–2700 BC), the second king of the 3rd dynasty, to be a possible builder in their case . Günter Dreyer and Werner Kaiser, on the other hand, consider them, like the other pyramids mentioned above, to be a coherent building project by Pharaoh Huni , the last ruler of the 3rd dynasty . Andrzej Ćwiek sees this in a similar way, but suspects Huni's successor Sneferu (around 2670–2620 BC), the founder of the 4th dynasty , as the builder . Speculations about the function of the pyramids range from a representation of the king to a representation of the original hill or a symbol of the political and religious unity of the country to cenotaphs of the royal wives.

literature

  • Jan Bock: The small step pyramids of the early Old Kingdom. In: Sokar. Tape. 12, 2006, pp. 20-29.
  • Richard Bussmann: The pyramid of Zawyet Sultan: local perspectives. In: Sokar. Volume 36, 2018, pp. 6-19.
  • Andrzej Ćwiek: Date and Function of the so-called Minor Step Pyramids . In: Göttinger Miszellen Vol. 162, Göttingen 1998, pp. 39-52 ( online ).
  • Günter Dreyer and Werner Kaiser : To the small step pyramids of Upper and Central Egypt. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. Volume 36, 1980, pp. 48-49.
  • Jean-Philippe Lauer : Histoire monumentale des pyramides d'Égypte. Cairo 1962, pp. 225-227.
  • Mark Lehner : The Secret of the Pyramids in Egypt. Orbis, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-572-01039-X , p. 96.
  • Ali Radwan: The step pyramids. In: Zahi Hawass (ed.): The treasures of the pyramids. Weltbild, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-8289-0809-8 , p. 111.
  • Miroslav Verner : The pyramids (= rororo non-fiction book. Volume 60890). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 , p. 196.

Web links

Commons : Pyramid of Saujet el-Meitin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Zāwiyat el-Maiyitīn  - travel guide

Coordinates: 28 ° 2 ′ 45 "  N , 30 ° 49 ′ 43"  E