George Maher
Dr. Khaled El-Enany Minister of Antiquities inaugurated yesterday for the first time since 1965 both Senefru’s Bent and satellite Pyramids
Giza governor and 40 ambassadors from foreign, Arab and African countries such as France Germany Italy Cameron Kongo Jordan Hungary and others
The Bent Pyramid is an ancient Egyptian pyramid located at the royal necropolis of Dahshur, put on the UNESCO’s world heritage list as part of the Memphis necropolis.
It was built under the Old Kingdom King Sneferu (c. 2600 BC) and it is a unique example of early pyramid development construction in Egypt, as it represents a transitional form of pyramid construction development between the Djoser step pyramid and Meidum pyramid and the red complete pyramid built also by Senefru after he found that the bent pyramid had steep angles of inclination the structure showing the beginning of instability during construction, forcing the builders to adopt a lower angle to avoid the structure’s collapse
The discovery
After the inaugurate Dr.El-Enany announced a new discovery carried out almost 300 meters south of King Amenemhat II’s pyramid at Dahshur necropolis by an Egyptian archaeological mission headed by Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities stumbled upon remains of a Middle Kingdom winding wall stretching along 60 meters towards the east along with other objects.
El-Enany explains that the mission has also found a collection of stone, clay and wooden sarcophagi which some of it still houses its mummies. The mummies are in a very well conservation condition.
A collection of wooden funerary masks was also unearthed along with instruments used in cutting stones from the Late period which indicate that the area was reused in a later period.
Dr.Waziri pointed out that the mission has selected such area to carry out excavation because during archaeological survey in Dahshur, a collection of large stone blocks were found in its surface along with limestone and granite fragments indicating the existence of archaeological graves.
The mission started excavations in August 2018 and completed its season in April 2019. Work will continue to uncover more of the area’s secrets.
