Conference Report: Discoveries at Seilla pyramid

Heritage Key (Owen Jarus)

With photographs.

Thanks to Owen Jarus for pointing me at the above article about recent work carried out at the pyramid at Seila. Here's a short extract.

A Brigham Young team excavated the pyramid in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Much of their work has yet to be published. Professor Muhlestein said that they are working on getting all of it into publication as soon as possible. (Note - it is not unusual, in archaeology, for full publication of results to take many years).

Muhlestein also told the audience that the university sent a team of engineers out to the Seila Pyramid last year. The engineers, using sophisticated GPS equipment, created a map of the pyramid and and a digital reconstruction. They also analyzed the site’s topography.

The pyramid was built by Snefru, the father of Khufu and first king of the Fourth Dynasty. Snefru built two pyramids at Dashur – the Red and the Bent Pyramid. He also built a pyramid at Meidum (although some think that his predecessor, Huni, started it). Snefru was the first pharaoh to construct “true” pyramids rather than step-pyramids.

The pyramid he built at Seila is located six miles west of the Meidum pyramid. It’s smaller than the other three pyramids and appears rather isolated. It was built on a 52 degree angle, almost identical to that of Meidum, and has a causeway that goes nowhere (there’s no building at the end of it).

Jarus goes on to describe four of the major discoveries made by the team at Seila.