Chefren's Pyramid
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This pyramid (XXVI century BC) that offers the peculiarity of still having around its peak (more pointed than Cheope’s one) the best part of its original covering, it’s in the highest place of the pianoro and it’s a little behind the Great Pyramid. 136,40 m, with 210,5 m sides at the base, its facades have an inclination of 53 ° and 8 ‘ and its volume is calculated around two million m3. The inside is less interesting than Cheope’s one and it’s the result of two following different projects. There are two entrances, both on the northern façade, one at 15m from the base and the other one at the ground. This leads to the first sepulchral hall excavated in the stone (10,42 x 3,14m) and at the superior corridor, which from 11,53m above the level of the base goes down for 32m with a slope of 25 ° and 55’ to about 3m under the level of the base and becomes horizontal leading to the sepulchral hall (14,10m, 4,95, 6,85 high) which is exactly in the middle of the pyramid. Excavated in the stone, this presents coverings only once and it has a royal sarcophagus of pink granite, undecorated, found empty in 1918 by Giovanni Belzoni, who, the first one in modern epoch, entered inside the pyramid (which had been violated in 1200). What renders Chefren’s pyramid historically exceptional is the fact that its structures are sufficiently well kept to offer a valuable documentation on Egypt of this period: it’s in fact the first example of a sepulchral complex in which every element foreseen by the “canon” is present. In 1910 were returned to light, at the feet of the pyramid, on the eastern side, the remainders of a great funeral temple, Chefren’s high temple, where the essential structures are recognizable, distributed in a section accessible by the believers and another one destined only to the cult. Rectangular, it measures about 110mx45 and its axis is toward the center of the pyramid: the entrance is at the east. Connected to the temple, by a processional ramp, is Chefren’s temple downhill, the best kept example of monumental architecture of ancient Egypt. It was discovered in 1852 by Mariette, who during the excavations discovered even Chefren’s famous statue, of diorite, which today is in the Museum in Cairo. The excavations were completed in 1910 by the Von Sieglin expedition. Of a square plan (about 45m each side), it had two entrances that led to a hall and a big hypostyle chamber made by a transversal room and a longitudinal one that formed an upside-down T (the 16 monolithic granite pilasters, the architraves, the alabaster limestone and the walls are kept); along the walls there were probably 23 statues of the sovereign. The temple was destined to the purifying ceremonies and to the mummification of the mortal remains. –
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