1001 Mysteries of the Bent Pyramid
[Music] welcome to history for granite join me to explore ancient Egypt together we'll uncover secrets that only stones from Antiquity can reveal please subscribe to the channel to get notified when new videos are published and thank you so much for growing the channel the bent pyramid of darshur is perhaps the only pyramid to rival the Great Pyramid of Giza for its number of mysteries and unique features sadly this pyramid is often disparaged in egyptology the primary focus often highlights it as a failed construction it is reduced to an example of how the ancient Egyptians did not fully understand how to build large-scale monuments the main reason for this criticism seems to be that an explanation is required for why Pharaoh snefru would immediately or concurrently build the Red Pyramid in close proximity to it there's a huge problem with simply calling the bent pyramid a failure because of its shape however the historian's fallacy of judging the past based upon the standards of a later time is very relevant here the most popular timeline for snefer's pyramids is that the bent pyramid was the first one to receive smooth angular casing block blocks that give a pyramid its proper shape even though the my Doom pyramid was probably constructed earlier archeology indicates that it was first built as a stepped pyramid like the one in Sakara the angled casing Stones were then added at a later time this means comparing the bent pyramid to every other traditional pyramid that comes after is somewhat misleading because at the time it was the only Monument to have a somewhat triangular shape surely the bent pyramid would have been seen as more of a success than a failure in that respect it's notable that the fifth Dynasty Sun temples that follow about 100 years later have a central structure that looks halfway between the bent pyramid shape and the shape of an obelisk while much of the attention given to the bent pyramid is focused on justifying or explaining its unique shape there are more intriguing Mysteries contained within its corridors and Chambers I'm not sure the outer change in slope would even make my top 10 most interesting features about the monument unfortunately the bent pyramid is the most neglected pyramid of the fourth Dynasty and very little serious archeology has taken place there for much of the 20th century the structure was completely off limits due to its proximity to military installations only in recent years has anyone been allowed inside and in 2019 it was formally opened for tourism because this pyramid is so unique and contains so many Mysteries we're going to examine the entire inner structure and highlight a bit of everything this way you can let me know in the comments which features you want to explore in Greater detail in future videos firstly I want to thank Keith Hamilton who has written detailed guides about the bend pyramid on academia.edu they have been an extremely valuable resource for my own Journey towards understanding this confusing structure sure I also want to thank the isida project who have generously shared many photos you will see of the Interior these photos were taken before the pyramid was renovated for tourism and so many important details are no longer viewable the asita project website has wonderful photos of all the pyramids of Egypt and a link is in the description on the Northern side of the bent pyramid we are blessed with one of the only pyramid entrances that remains intact all the way to the casing Stones The Enormous lintel that covers the doorway is evidence which counters The Narrative That Old Kingdom pyramid entrances were designed to be hidden the entrance is a little less than 12 meters above ground so this block would be easily spotted from the desert floor the large lintel has now slipped slightly below its own course of masonry as you can see on the adjacent blocks the bent pyramid has many such slips and cracks on both the interior and the exterior but it remains entire fairly unknown if the ancient Egyptians would view these flaws as a serious problem narratives that paint the bent pyramid as a failed Monument rely upon that assumption the entire structure has held up remarkably well for over 4 500 years so it seems unlikely the pyramid was actually approaching a point of failure upon entering the descending Corridor we immediately find some interesting features a large round socket in the upper wall is present and there is a cutout in the ceiling immediately following it a common interpretation is that a movable door once existed here whether adore was original to the structure a later Edition made by restorers or never present at all is a controversial Topic in egyptology mankari's pyramid still has casing Stones around its entrance and a ceiling Gap can also be found there the floor in the bent pyramid's descending Corridor is missing pavement at the entrance there are some interesting steps in the lower masonry here but the modern wooden stairs prevent us from taking a closer look there are several sockets in the walls that are now crudely filled the sockets might have been used to Anchor logs and ropes that could help transport heavy items up and down the corridor continuing our descent at 12.6 meters down the corridor there is a significant slippage of masonry a continuous joint in the corridor has moved 23 centimeters downward in the outer section towards the entrance this point of failure is the largest visible flaw in the pyramid and is often cited as The Smoking Gun that the structure would have been deemed a failure the slipped ceiling lintel has three centimeters of stone chiseled away as if a smaller slip had been corrected for at an earlier time the remaining 20 centimeters of protruding Stone could have been easily removed without risk and maintained a smooth Corridor appearance but that job was never done there are many ways to interpret this other than the ancient Egyptians simply abandoning the structure about 11 meters lower in elevation than the slipped ceiling the descending Corridor penetrates the Bedrock and continues below ground the corridor continues downwards until the elevation is close to 30 meters below the desert floor it remains unknown if the descending Corridor tunneled into the Bedrock similar to the Great Pyramid or if instead it was dug in an open trench the corridor masonry becomes more deteriorated As you move downwards probably due to Greater amounts of moisture becoming trapped at the bottom of the corridor the ceiling opens up a bit so that large objects might more easily navigate the change in Direction here about 30 meters below ground we find ourselves arriving at a key mystery of the bent pyramid the corridor continues horizontally for about 5 meters but the ceiling is over 12 meters tall with small corbels narrowing to form the roof a modern stairwell hides the flat and vertical Bedrock wall that lays behind it why did the ancient Egyptians tunnel so far down into the ground only to reverse course and head upwards again the architecture here is reminiscent of the grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid with a tall and narrow ceiling that defies an obvious explanation it also projects upwards following an earlier Corridor that was traveling down even more mysterious is the condition that John shape Herring found this Corridor in 1839 in order to gain access pairing needed to clear the descending Corridor which was clogged with sand and debris at the bottom of the descending Corridor pairing records that this corbled space was filled with small masonry blocks that formed a steep staircase not unlike the modern wooden staircase that exists today the stone staircase was is not simply loose fill the blocks were roughly squared and mortared to the walls was this masonry an original design a modification or a later restoration the high Corridor design might have originally been an obstacle for Access as we see in the red pyramid's upper chamber with its vertical elevation acting as a deterrent but adding a stone staircase makes the design entirely aesthetic without an obvious function on the South Side the narrow corbels open to a chamber about seven meters above the floor before installation of the stone staircase this room is called the lower chamber and its ceiling reaches about 17 meters in height with beautiful corbling on all four sides of the room there are 15 courses of corbled masonry before the blocks meet to form the ceiling of the chamber despite the enormous height of the lower chamber only the top two or three courses of masonry might reach high in enough to penetrate above the Bedrock consequently the structure lies almost entirely below ground John pairing also found the lower chamber with lots of small stone masonry piled along the floor this room is difficult to wrap one's head around and there is no consensus for its purpose other than perhaps an abandoned burial chamber this assumption is made because there is another chamber higher in the pyramid that would have been slightly grander but if the lower chamber is an abandoned burial chamber it certainly wouldn't have been because of Any structural problems with the pyramid itself because the chamber is built almost entirely into the Bedrock the corbled ceiling is quite secure with no lateral pressure exerted upon it these corbels remain in excellent condition with sharp corners and minimal cracks or flaking the Bedrock walls of the lower chamber were once tiled with thin Limestone slabs many of which are now missing due to damage inflicted it by time and visitors there are an enormous number of notched cutouts in the walls of this room presumably to Anchor scaffolding or help raise objects upwards to reach the upper chamber system of the pyramid some notches have been filled in others remain open and others appear shallow as if they were started but never completed I have never found a document which diagrams and analyzes them all so it's difficult to speculate on what purpose each Notch might have held on the south side of the lower chamber another doorway opens opposite the northern entrance a short two meter hallway then opens to a tall vertical shaft that is commonly referred to as the chimney this shaft is about 15 meters tall reaching almost as high as the lower chamber itself it's estimated that the top of the chimney would be approximately level with the base of the pyramid where it meets the surrounding Bedrock however the chimney seems to lead nowhere covered with two large Limestone slabs which form a ceiling the chimney is rectangular in shape about 1.5 meters long and 0.9 meters wide making it slightly larger than a standard pyramid Corridor four meters up the chimney a small ledge has been designed on the Western Wall 75 centimeters deep this ledge still holds a Tura Limestone block which now leans precariously towards the open shaft a 30 centimeter ledge opposite the block would allow it to be tipped over and close access up the chimney another six meters up the chimney exists another pair of Ledges for a limestone block to be tipped over the only difference is the arrangement is flipped with the Eastern ledge being the deeper one for the block to stand on apparently most of this upper tour Limestone block is now missing but I've never seen a photograph taken from within this space and if the chimney to Nowhere wasn't mystery serious enough there's also a small corbled opening between the chimney and the lower chamber that is commonly referred to as the window this small access point is about two meters tall and widens to 0.9 meters at the bottom plenty of space for a person to crawl through it must be observed that the window is placed directly above the lower Tura Limestone blocking device in the chimney which would render it completely useless as an obstruction and finally the chimney itself did not originally begin at the floor level of the lower chamber in fact there is a filled in continuation of the chimney at least another eight meters downward egyptologist Ahmed Fakhri reported in 1948 that the bottom had not yet been reached before having it filled in independent researcher Keith Hamilton found an article in The Illustrated London news from March of 1947 which is our only look inside it states access to the lower chimney was cleverly disguised with different masonry that would appear to be the same as the surrounding Bedrock an eight meter section of the chimney continuing downward would place it lower in elevation than the bottom of the descending Corridor so here we are not even halfway through the bent pyramid and were already overflowing with Mysteries and incomplete investigations remember to let me know in the comments what you want examined further returning to the lower chamber there is an access tunnel cut into the South Wall about 13 meters up this tunnel is rough and irregular and would not have been an originally designed feature of the bent pyramid a key question has always been to ask when this tunnel was created since it's obviously an excavation the general consensus is the tunnel was created by the builders because it is very accurate in connecting the upper chamber system with the shortest connection possible furthermore starting at tunnel 13 meters high up in the wall of a chamber would only be done by individuals with knowledge of the pyramid design there is one detail that vexes me which is the similarity of the bent pyramids connecting tunnel entrance to the neighboring red pyramid's upper chamber access Corridor both tunnels are placed centered high on the South Wall at five or six masonry courses below the ceiling if the goal of the builders was to keep these access points a secret why would they replicate them in both pyramids the red pyramid's design leaves open the possibility that looters from a later time chose to tunnel in that location based upon the knowledge they gained by accessing The Red Pyramid assuming the bent pyramid's connecting tunnel is original once again the Old Kingdom Egyptians would have abandoned secrecy as a defense mechanism for the pyramids notably the connecting tunnel bends slightly word and then corrects itself Westward before reaching the upper horizontal Corridor other pyramid tunnels such as the well shaft in the Great Pyramid also contain these seemingly intentional course adjustments they may be designed simply to stop Rock Falls from hurting workers this is another reason why most agree the tunnel is original because it is assumed looters would not dig so carefully another key reference point is that the connecting tunnel begins beneath the Bedrock and then passes up into the pyramid masonry about halfway through the connecting tunnel reaches the upper horizontal Corridor at half its height and opens below where the floor pavement would have been laid this horizontal Corridor connects an upper entrance on the bend pyramid's western side to an upper chamber this upper chamber system would have been completely isolated from the lower chamber system if not for the connecting tunnel however the chimney next to the lower chamber raises the the question of if the chimney was originally intended to be a connection Point traveling from the connecting tunnel Westward toward the upper entrance we immediately find another entirely unique pyramid feature there is a four meter deep rectangular pit about 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide the
walls of this pit reveal the masonry is even and well dressed proving it to be an original feature the floor of this pit is reportedly the Bedrock the pyramid sits upon there is a large depression cut into the upper Western Wall of the pit which is reminiscent of how the top of the grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid may have originally looked these grooves might have facilitated ropes to transport heavy objects above the pit are five pairs of squared notches in the walls of the corridor placed mostly towards the West presumably these notches supported beams that would also assist with moving heavy objects with with ropes just west of the pit we encounter a limestone portcullis that was closed and sealed but has an access hole cut into an upper corner the portcullis closed diagonally from north to south sliding to below the level of the floor this ingenious design is one of the most important aspects of the bent pyramid and I will be analyzing it in future videos it would be 600 years until another pyramid would adopt a similar transverse porcullis design past the porcullis the corridor shortly begins to climb Upward at about 25 degrees and then increases its inclination to 30 degrees before reaching the upper entrance on the west side of the pyramid John pairing was the first explorer to spot the Western entrance which was still perfectly sealed with a casing Stone in 1839 two sets of d-shaped holes are cut into the walls where the outer casing Stone once lay the corridor that sends from this upper entrance was still plugged with Limestone blocks until 1951 when Ahmed fakhre finished the work of Abdel Salam Hussein who had begun clearing it out Hussein died unexpectedly in 1949 with all of his records lost fockery did a poor job of documenting how exactly the corridor had been sealed and so once again we are left with essential pieces of evidence completely destroyed I dare say ancient looters would have given us more to work with than those 20th century egyptologists you'll notice how the quality of the corridor is extremely well preserved in the upper section that was sealed for 4 500 years this is probably what every pyramid Corridor looked like in its original condition traveling back Eastward and down this upper Corridor there are a few notable details about 11 meters from the pyramid entrance a continuous joint can be found in the walls floor and ceiling it it also has a pair of notches cut into the walls on its inner side this is similar to The Continuous joint in the lower descending Corridor which had slipped 23 centimeters both of these features indicate that the pyramid may have been expanded outward as a separate building stage near the bottom of the upper descending Corridor a small coffin was discovered in 1947 containing the mummified remains of a bat and other small animals this is presumed to be an intrusive burial from Egypt's late period thousands of years after the pyramid was constructed where the descending Corridor levels out to horizontal another mysterious pit can be found in the floor it also appears to have evenly dressed masonry and is likely an original construction it's common to find extra space where a pyramid Corridor changes direction to allow large objects to navigate the turn but this pit is 1.5 meters deep and a little over a meter long making it an awkward shape for such a purpose as we head east through the horizontal Corridor we go back through the closed portcullis over the deep pit and past the connecting tunnel we then find another transverse porcullis which remains open and this may be the most important clue the bent Pyramid has to offer the device is mirrored from the closed portcolis and would have slid in from south to North I have never seen an image of how this open portcolis is seeded from behind where supposedly a square stopper block lay against it the other stopper Block in the closed portcullis is easily visible although I have precious few photographs of it a tall person with a selfie stick could capture images of this space behind the open portcolis and I humbly request that a kind viewer helped me out here a few meters east of the open portcullis we enter the upper chamber with an angled ceiling block cut to facilitate access there is a small excavation in the floor leading towards the upper chamber but it doesn't go far the fire damage shows this dig was caused by looters and is not original a large stone wall obscures access to the upper chamber but when pairing first discovered this space it was also filled with small squared Limestone blocks that would somewhat facilitate access only a few of these blocks remain scattered about with modern ladders having replaced them climbing to the top of the upper chamber wall reveals the enormous room now in a terrible state of preservation the four-sided ceiling corbels are almost unrecognizable having deteriorated into something that looks more like a cave the very upper core Bowl can still be spotted along with an original wooden log bracing the ceiling looking down into the bottom of the chamber there remains a scaffold-like structure of large wooden logs this area was almost entirely filled up with small masonry as well in 18 39 except for an exploratory excavation 4 meters down John pairing described the space as having been entirely ruined masonry still clings to the walls on two levels showing that the chamber floor or ceiling once existed at those elevations depending upon how you interpret the usable space it was once assumed the log scaffold was designed to brace the chamber when it began to have structural problems but a closer inspection reveals this is unlikely the logs were set into the masonry in such a way that adds a negligible amount of reinforcement it's also entirely unknown when the upper chamber began to have its corbels fail and interpreting the chamber's features as compensation for design problems is entirely speculative reportedly a painted Cartouche of snefru was found somewhere near the bottom of the upper chamber but I've never seen exactly where it's supposed to be well this video is already getting long and we've only scratched the surface of the bent pyramid hopefully I've given you a conceptual framework to start posing interesting questions about its design many researchers have been overwhelmed by the number of mysteries and simply thrown up their hands and proclaimed the pyramid was just a failed building experiment but this convenient narrative isn't at all satisfying or conclusive in many ways the bent pyramid most closely resembles the Great Pyramid in its internal design and I've yet to come across a researcher who calls that Monument a huge failure thanks again to the aceta project for giving us a detailed look inside the bent pyramid before tourism Renovations obscured so many critical details and remember to let me know in the comments what you think are the most interesting questions to pose about this amazing structure thanks to everyone who watched this video to the end please subscribe to the channel to see more of this content give a like or comment as you see fit and above all remember to ask your friends if they take their history for granted [Music]
2022-10-17 11:29
