Dahshur Giza
It is part of the city of Memphis that was the first capital of the country since its unification. Founded around 3100 BC, Dahshur is one of the finest sites in ancient Egypt, a unique place and one of the least frequented. You can visit Dahshur in the same visit to Saqqara.
Dahsur was the southern part of the necropolis of Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt. The pyramids of the kings of the Old and Middle Kingdom were erected on this hill.
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King Senefru chose the rocky plateau of Dahshur to establish his first pyramid to compete with the pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, but he failed to complete it. This first attempt became a broken shape but he built a complete pyramid a short distance away called the Red Pyramid. Nearby, the pyramids dating back to the Middle Kingdom, starting with the pyramid of King Amenemhat II, are in poor condition. The pyramid of King Senusret III is surrounded by the tombs of Princesses Set Hathor and Mint. As for the Black Pyramid of King Amenemhat the Third, it is also in a poor state of preservation. Although its stones are eroded, it is still a short distance from the pyramid of Sneferu.
The Egyptian Museum preserves the stone pyramid, the head of the pyramid. Other pyramids of the Thirteenth Dynasty were built at Dahshur. The Bent Pyramid is one of the pyramids built by King Senefru, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty. It was called "bent" because of its broken lines due to the angle change, an engineering problem in its design. In fact, the construction of the pyramid began at an angle of 55 degrees, but it had to be adjusted to 43 degrees due to the increase in stones, which caused instability. Despite the alterations, the king's designers made a new pyramid a short distance away at Meidum, the Red Pyramid. The first corner of the curved pyramid marks the transition between the design of the Step Pyramid of King Djoser at Saqqara and the later smooth-faced pyramids.
The regular entry fee for adults is 80 Egyptian pounds and for approved students 40 Egyptian pounds.
Dahshur is open daily from 8 am to 4 pm.
The best way to visit Dahshur is to complement it with a trip to Saqqara or reach it directly via Uber, a round-trip hired taxi, (costs around 500LE) or a hotel tour that includes transportation to and from your hotel in Cairo, with entry to both annexes and guided tours. It is located 19 km from the Egyptian capital, so all tours and transportation to Memphis depart from there.
The Bent Pyramid has two entrances, one at the north side, with modern wooden staircases, and the other at the top of the west side. Each entrance leads to a room with an arched ceiling, which gives it that step-by-step effect. The north entrance room is below ground level. As for the western entrance room, it is built on a higher level in the body of the curved pyramid. The Red Pyramid is the tallest pyramid in Dahshur, and its name "Red" is due to the reddish color of its stones. It was not of this color, but a beautiful pure white limestone in Tora, south of Cairo today. All the pyramids had a covering of this white limestone which was reused in the Middle Ages. It is the third largest Egyptian pyramid after Khufu and Khafre at Giza.
The Red Pyramid was one of the three pyramids built by King Senefru after the Pyramid of Bent, located one kilometer to the south, and the so-called Pyramid of Meidum. This pyramid was probably started in the thirteenth year of his reign, and it took 10 years to build. The visitor can access the pyramid from an entrance on the northern side that leads to a corridor (one meter high and one meter wide). It then descends into another hallway which gives access to a room with an arched ceiling, resembling an inverted staircase. Another passage leads to a second chamber located in the center of the pyramid, directly at that chamber's western end. To the south of this corridor leads to a third room believed to have been the burial chamber of the pyramid.
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