Red Pyramid of Sneferu: Egypt's First True Smooth Pyramid

The Red Pyramid of Sneferu, at Dahshur in Egypt, is generally regarded as the first successfully completed true pyramid, with straight smooth sides from base to tip. It was built around 2590 BC for Sneferu, founder of the Fourth Dynasty. Its proportions and techniques led directly to the pyramids of Giza built by Sneferu’s son Khufu and his successors.

Background: Sneferu’s three pyramids

In the century before Sneferu, Egyptian kings had moved from flat mud-brick tombs to the stepped stone pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Sneferu set out to build a pyramid with smooth sloping faces, a shape linked with the rays of the sun and the mound of creation in Egyptian religion.

His first attempts were troubled. The pyramid at Meidum began as a step pyramid and was later converted. The Bent Pyramid at southern Dahshur started at a steep angle of about 54 degrees but had to be finished at a gentler slope after its chambers cracked and settled.

The Red Pyramid, about two kilometres to the north, was designed from the start with a slope of about 43 degrees, the same angle used for the upper part of the Bent Pyramid. Sneferu therefore built at least two huge pyramids in the same area, and in total he moved more stone than any other Egyptian king, including Khufu.

Design and construction

The Red Pyramid has a square base of roughly 220 metres (722 feet) per side and stands about 105 metres (344 feet) high. It is the third-largest pyramid in Egypt, after those of Khufu and Khafre at Giza. Its low slope gives it a broad, squat profile compared with the later Giza pyramids.

Its core was built of local limestone, and its outer faces were covered with fine white limestone, probably from the Tura quarries on the east bank of the Nile. Nearly all of this casing was later stripped away, exposing the reddish core stone that gives the pyramid its modern name. Some casing blocks remain at the base.

The pyramid was crowned by a capstone, called a pyramidion. Fragments of a limestone pyramidion were found at the site and have been reassembled and displayed near the pyramid. It is among the oldest known pyramidions from Egypt.

Builders’ marks and dating

Many blocks carry painted marks left by work gangs, including dates. In ancient Egypt, years were often counted by “occasions” of a national cattle count, which in Sneferu’s time seems to have taken place roughly every two years. Marks on the Red Pyramid’s blocks mention specific counts.

In the 1980s the German Archaeological Institute, under Rainer Stadelmann, studied these marks along with the pyramid’s mortuary temple. Their reading suggests that the Red Pyramid was begun in the later part of Sneferu’s reign and built at a fast pace. The exact length of the reign, and so the exact construction time, remains debated.

Inside the Red Pyramid

The entrance lies on the north face, about 28 metres above the ground. A narrow passage slopes down for roughly 60 metres to two antechambers placed one after the other at ground level. Both have tall corbelled roofs, built of stone courses that step inward until they meet at the top.

A short passage high in the wall of the second antechamber leads to the burial chamber. Unlike earlier pyramids, this chamber is set within the body of the pyramid above ground level. Its corbelled ceiling rises about 15 metres, one of the most impressive interior spaces of the Old Kingdom.

The floor of the burial chamber was dug up in antiquity by treasure hunters. In the 1950s human remains were found there. Some researchers suggested they might be Sneferu’s, but it has not been shown that they date to his time, and they may come from a later burial.

The pyramid complex

A royal pyramid was never a lone building. It was the centre of a complex designed to serve the king’s cult after death. On the east side of the Red Pyramid lay a mortuary temple, where priests made offerings to the dead king. Its remains were excavated by Stadelmann’s team, who found that parts of it had been finished in mud brick, perhaps hurriedly after Sneferu’s death.

No valley temple or causeway for the Red Pyramid has been fully traced, unlike at the Bent Pyramid and at Giza. Nearby, however, archaeologists have found remains of a settlement that supported the cult. Decrees from later kings protected the privileges of the priests serving Sneferu’s pyramids, showing that his cult lasted long after his death.

Exploration in modern times

European travellers visited Dahshur from the 17th century onward. The British engineer John Shae Perring surveyed the pyramid in 1839 as part of Richard Howard Vyse’s survey of the pyramids. Egyptian archaeologists also worked at Dahshur in the mid-20th century.

For decades much of Dahshur lay inside a military zone, and visitors were rarely admitted. It opened to tourism in the 1990s. Since then, Egyptian and German teams have continued to study the pyramid, its temple and the pyramid town that once housed priests and officials.

Myths and facts

A common belief is that the Red Pyramid was painted red. In fact the colour is natural: it comes from the iron-rich limestone of the core, exposed once the white casing was removed. Another misunderstanding is that the Red Pyramid was the first pyramid of all. It was not; the step pyramid of Djoser is about 80 years older. What makes the Red Pyramid special is that it was the first true, smooth-sided pyramid to be completed successfully.

Why the Red Pyramid succeeded

The Red Pyramid shows what the builders learned from the Bent Pyramid. The lower angle reduced the weight on the core and the pressure on the inner chambers. The builders also chose firmer ground and placed the chambers more carefully.

These lessons were then pushed further. Khufu’s Great Pyramid of Giza returned to a steeper slope of about 52 degrees, but with improved foundations, better masonry and relieving structures above the burial chamber. In this sense the Red Pyramid was the prototype for all later true pyramids in Egypt.

Key people

• Sneferu: First king of the Fourth Dynasty, who commissioned the pyramids at Dahshur and is linked with Meidum. Later Egyptians remembered him as a good king.
• Hetepheres I: Sneferu’s queen and the mother of Khufu, whose burial goods were found at Giza in 1925.
• John Shae Perring: British engineer who surveyed the pyramid in 1839.
• Rainer Stadelmann: German Egyptologist who led excavations at Dahshur in the 1980s and studied the builders’ marks.

Timeline

• c. 2600 BC: Problems at the Bent Pyramid force a change of angle.
• c. 2590 BC: Work on the Red Pyramid begins at northern Dahshur at a 43-degree slope.
• Reign of Khufu: Sneferu’s son applies the lessons of Dahshur to the Great Pyramid at Giza.
• 1839: John Shae Perring surveys the pyramid.
• 1950s: Human remains are found in the burial chamber.
• 1979: Dahshur becomes part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• 1980s: The German Archaeological Institute studies the builders’ marks and the mortuary temple.
• 1990s: Dahshur opens to tourists after decades as a restricted area.

Why it matters

The Red Pyramid marks the moment when Egypt’s builders mastered the true pyramid. It turned Sneferu’s experiments into a workable design, and that design shaped the monuments of Giza. Its story is also linked to the tomb of Hetepheres, Sneferu’s wife and Khufu’s mother.