Page 147 - اثار مصر الفرعونية2

likely that the architects of this pyramid sought to avoid the
complications that builders of Khufu's pyramid had encountered
with their technically difficult system of passageways, barriers
and chambers.

As with earlier pyramids, the burial chamber has a
rectangular, east-west oriented ground plan which places it at a
right angle to the passage system. With the exception of its
ceiling, it was excavated completely out of the rock. Located
over the pyramid's base, the burial chamber's gabled ceiling is
built from enormous pented, limestone blocks. Originally, the
intention may have been to cover the burial chamber's walls of
this chamber in pink granite. There are shaft entrances in both the
north and south walls of the burial chamber that, at first, appear
similar to those in the Queen's and King's cambers of the great
Pyramid, but are rather short, horizontal openings that could have
been used to reinforce a wooden structure inside the tomb.

Near the west wall of the burial chamber, almost directly
under the vertical axis of the pyramid and situated within a niche
stands the black granite sarcophagus of the king that originally
was surmounted by a sliding lid. The lid was found in two pieces
close by. Near the sarcophagus, a small shaft in the floor
probably held royal canopic vessel, which would have been the
first instance of this funerary equipment placed in a pyramid.. No
positively identifiable remains of the king's mummy or his other

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