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The main pyramid was built from roughly hewn limestone blocks bound with mud mortar and encased with fine white Tura limestone. It had a base of about 78.5 m (258 ft; 149.8 cu) to 78.75 m (258.4 ft; 150.29 cu) long converging at either 50°11′40″ or 50°30′ towards the apex between 47 m (154 ft; 90 cu) and 48 m (157 ft; 92 cu) high.
Most pyramids built then were little more than mountains of mud-brick encased in a veneer of polished limestone. In several cases, later pyramids were built on top of natural hills to further reduce the volume of material needed in their construction. The materials and methods of construction used in the earliest pyramids have ensured their ...
The restored pyramidion of the Red Pyramid at Dashur, on display beside the pyramid. A badly damaged white Tura limestone pyramidion, thought to have been made for the Red Pyramid of Sneferu at Dahshur, has been reconstructed and is on open-air display beside that pyramid; it presents a minor mystery, however, as its angle of inclination is steeper than that of the edifice it was apparently ...
This step had a north-south orientation, and was cut into bedrock – reserved for the tomb whilst the stone around it was quarried for the Giza Pyramids – and encased in fine white Tura limestone with a given slope of about 74°. [3] [19] The casing was well preserved on the west and north faces, but near totally destroyed on the south face ...
The main pyramid had a six-stepped core built from roughly cut limestone bound together by clay mortar which was then encased in fine white Tura limestone reaching a peak height of 52.5 m (172 ft; 100.2 cu). The casing has been plundered, and the top three steps of the core have been lost, leaving the pyramid a paltry 24 m (79 ft; 46 cu) tall.
The shape of a pyramid is also thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun, and most pyramids were faced with polished, highly reflective white limestone, in order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from a distance. Pyramids were often also named in ways that referred to solar luminescence.
Part of a limestone frieze, model of lamps on a stand. 12th Dynasty. From Hawara, Fayum, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London. Amenemhat III was the last powerful ruler of the 12th Dynasty, and the pyramid he built at Hawara is believed to post-date the so-called "Black Pyramid" built by the same ruler at Dahshur. This is ...
The core of the pyramid was built six steps high, constructed with roughly dressed limestone blocks which decreased in size in each step. [22] The construction material for the core would, ideally, have been locally sourced. [32] [33] This was then encased with fine white limestone blocks [34] quarried from Tura. [35]