pyramid of Sneferu

The Leaning Pyramid of Sneferu or the Curved Pyramid is one of the pyramids of Egypt and one of three pyramids built by Sneferu.

It was called the leaning pyramid, as it began to build the pyramid to ascend at an angle of 58 degrees, and when the construction of the pyramid reached about half its height, it was decided to build the upper part at an angle of 43 degrees. This technique benefited Sneferu and his engineers to build an entire pyramid with a new technology in the town of Dahshur next to it called the Red Pyramid.

It took 14 years to build the leaning pyramid, and it seems that Sneferu did not like it, so he decided to build the red pyramid according to the experience learned by its engineers when building the leaning pyramid. He chose the place for his burial, about 2 km north of the leaning pyramid, in the town of Dahshur.

When building the sloping pyramid, the pyramid was built of stones with diagonal angles relative to the ground estimated at 59 degrees. It is likely that by constructing the building in this way, the building began to sink due to the stone loads. In addition, the large angle causes a large sharp rise to the pyramid, making it difficult to work to complete it and build the upper part of it.

To remedy this problem, the engineers built reinforcement walls that made the angle of inclination 55 degrees for the building, which is not yet completed. Then they completed the construction with a curved angle of 43 degrees, which made it called the curved pyramid. Thus, I discovered the technique of building the complete pyramids by laying horizontal floors of stones.

Each square layer of stones is topped with a lower layer in area, provided that the angle of inclination is 52 degrees, instead of building at an angle of 55 or 43 degrees, as was the case in the case of the curved pyramid. And this shape became the complete shape of the pyramid as we know it today.

Sneferu, using the new technology, built his gigantic pyramid and named it the “Northern Pyramid,” and we call it today the Red Pyramid. The Red Pyramid is located about 1.8 km north of the curved pyramid of Dahshur. And based on the construction technique of the red pyramid of Sneferu, the pyramids were built in Giza. Khufu, son of Sneferu, built the Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau and reached a height of 157 meters.

Then his son Khafre followed him and built his pyramid next to his father’s pyramid and it was lower than it. Then his son Menkaure came and built the third (small) pyramid, and the three pyramids are in Giza. Those pyramids were tombs for them.