Missing Queenly Pyramid discovered in Egyptian dig
Archaeologists have discovered a pyramid buried in the desert believed to belong to the mother of a pharaoh who ruled more than 4300 years ago. This find was announced by Dr Zahi Hawass, the Antiquities Chief of Egypt, on 11 November 2008. This pyramid, found several months ago in the sand south of Cairo, housed the remains of Queen Sesheshet – the mother of King Teti who ruled from 2323 BC to 2291 BC and was the first and founding Pharaoh of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty. Queen Sesheshet was known to be instrumental in enabling her son to gain the throne, reconciling two of the royal families’ warring factions.
The Sixth Dynasty was a time of conflict in Egypt’s royal family and there was an erosion of centralised power. It is generally considered to be the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom, a term designated by modern historians, after which the nation descended into famine and social upheaval.
Archaeologists had previously discovered pyramids belonging to two other wives of the same king in the area, and had been specifically searching for this one. The five metre high pyramid originally reached 14 metres, with sides 22 metres long, and its base 19 metres underground. Once five stories tall, it was discovered beneath 7 metres of sand, along with a small shrine and a mud-brick wall from later periods.
It was the 118th pyramid found in Egypt, according to the Dr Hawass. The monument would have originally been covered in a casing of white limestone brought from quarries at nearby Tura.
Archaeologists plan to enter the pyramid’s burial chamber soon, although they suspect that most of its contents will already have been pillaged. There is no expectation of finding any important articles in her tomb. Some minor artefacts already found include a wooden statue of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis and funerary figurines dating from a later period, indicating that the cemetery had been reused through Roman times.