Pyramid of Seila

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Pyramid of Seila
West and south sides of the Pyramid of Seila
West and south sides of the Pyramid of Seila
Data
place Seila
builder Snofru  ?
construction time 4th dynasty  ?
Type Step pyramid
Building material limestone
Base dimension ~ 25.00 m
Height (today) ~ 6.80 m
stages 4th
Cult pyramid No
North side of the Pyramid of Seila

The Pyramid of Seila belongs together with the pyramids in Edfu-Süd , Elephantine , El-Kula , Ombos , Saujet el-Meitin and Sinki to a group of a total of seven very similar small step pyramids , all of which were erected far away from the great centers of Egypt and over which is very little known. It is located on a mountain range between the Fayyum and the Nile Valley , about 6 km north of the railway line from Wasta to Madinat al-Fayyum . Its builder was probably Pharaoh Sneferu , the founder of the 4th Dynasty . It was discovered in 1889/1890 by William Matthew Flinders Petrie and visited again in 1898 by Ludwig Borchardt .

Data

The pyramid has a side length of about 25 meters and still reaches a height of 6.50 to 6.80 meters today. It is not exactly aligned with the cardinal points, but deviates by about 12 ° to the northwest. The reason for this deviation may be that the structure, like the pyramids in Elephantine, Ombos and Saujet el-Meitin, is aligned with the course of the Nile, which is difficult to verify due to the great distance to the river. The pyramid originally had four steps and consists of three shells that are arranged around an inner core. Local limestone was used as the building material and a mixture of Nile mud and sand was used as mortar . A chamber system does not seem to exist.

Edification and function

In 1987 fragments of a sacrificial table , two steles and the remains of an access path were found on the east side of the pyramid . One of the steles bears the name of Sneferu, which can be seen as an indication that he was the builder. The purpose of the building is unclear, however. Jean-Philippe Lauer assumed that it could be the original tomb of Queen Hetepheres I , but this is unlikely due to the lack of a chamber system. Other Egyptologists see the above-mentioned pyramids as a coherent construction project, but here too there is no consensus about their purpose. Speculations about the function of the pyramids range from a representative site of the king to a representation of the primeval hill or a symbol of the country's political and religious unity to cenotaphs of the royal wives.

literature

  • Juan A. Belmonte Avilés, Mosalam Shaltout (Ed.): In Search of Cosmic Order. Selected Essays on Egyptian Archaeoastronomy . Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, Cairo 2009, ISBN 978-977-479-483-4 ( limited online version ).
  • Juan A. Belmonte Avilés, Mosalam Shaltout, Magdi M. Fektri: Astronomy and landscape in Ancient Egypt. Challenging the enigma of the minor step pyramids (= Trabajos de Egiptologia. Papers on Ancient Egypt. Vol. 4). Pp. 7-18 ( PDF; 2.8 MB ).
  • Jan Bock: The small step pyramids of the early Old Kingdom . In: Sokar. No. 12 (1/2006), pp. 20-29.
  • Ludwig Borchardt : The pyramid of Silah . In: Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte . Volume 1. Cairo 1900, pp. 211-214 ( PDF; 17.0 MB ).
  • 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 , Werner Kaiser : To the small step pyramids of Upper and Middle Egypt . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department . Volume 36, von Zabern, Mainz 1980, p. 49f.
  • Jean-Philippe Lauer : Histoire monumentale des pyramides d'Égypte . Cairo 1962, p. 223.
  • Mark Lehner : The Secret of the Pyramids in Egypt . Orbis, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-572-01039-X , p. 96.
  • André Pochan: Pyramide de Seila (au Fayoum) . In: Bulletin de l'IInstitut français d'archéologie orientale . Vol. XXXVII. Cairo 1937 ( PDF; 0.4 MB ).
  • Ali Radwan: The step pyramids . In: Zahi Hawass (ed.): The treasures of the pyramids . Weltbild, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-8289-0809-8 , p. 111.
  • Rainer Stadelmann : Snofru - Builder and Unique Creator of the Pyramids of Seila and Meidum . In: Ola El-Aguizy, Mohamed Sherif Ali (Ed.): Echoes of Eternity. Studies presented to Gaballa Aly Gaballa (= Philippika. Marburg antiquity treatises. Vol. 5). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06215-2 , pp. 31-38 ( online version ).
  • Nabil Swelim: An Aerial View of the Layer Monument of Snfrw a Seila . In: Eva-Maria Engel, Vera Müller, Ulrich Hartung (Ed.): Signs from the sand. Streiflichter from Egypt's history in honor of Günter Dreyer (= MENES. Studies on the culture and language of the early Egyptian times and the Old Kingdom. Vol. 5). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05816-2 , pp. 647-653 ( PDF; 290 kB ).
  • Nabil Swelim: Reconstruction of the Layer Monument of Snfrw at Seila . In: Ola El-Aguizy, Mohamed Sherif Ali (Ed.): Echoes of Eternity. Studies presented to Gaballa Aly Gaballa (= Philippika. Marburger Altertumskundliche Abhandlungen. Vol. 5) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06215-2 , pp. 39–56 ( PDF; 1.5 MB ).
  • 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 von Seila  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Pyramid of Seila  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ^ W [illiam] M. Flinders Petrie: Illahun, Kahun and Gurob: 1889-1890 . Nutt, London 1891, p. 31, §§ 58 f., panel XXX .
  2. ↑ Ludwig Borchardt: The pyramid of Silah. Extract from a report . In: Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte . tape 1 , 1900, p. 211-214 .

Coordinates: 29 ° 22 ′ 57 ″  N , 31 ° 3 ′ 13 ″  E