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Ninety seconds on Red Pyramid
Yes, when the interior is open. A long, steep tunnel leads down to the chambers. Ask at the Dahshur gate whether it is open that day and whether it needs anything beyond the site ticket.
King Sneferu built it as his third pyramid, after the Bent Pyramid a short way off. The work took about 10 years, and it was finished as a complete pyramid.
A pyramid of King Sneferu at Dahshur, the southern part of the great cemetery of ancient Memphis. Only the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre at Giza are bigger.
There are three chambers inside the pyramid Sneferu finished after the Bent, and a low tunnel from the north side takes you down to all of them, under stepped stone ceilings.
The stone you see now is reddish, and the pyramid takes its name from that colour. When it was new, it was white, sheathed in fine limestone brought from Tura, south of modern Cairo. The sheathing was carried off for reuse in the Middle Ages.
Sneferu built it after the Bent Pyramid, and this time he finished the job: a complete pyramid, a short drive from the first, which he had also meant as a true pyramid.
Every object has been removed from the chambers, the sarcophagus included, so the interest is overhead. The ceilings are corbelled, built up in overlapping courses of stone that close in toward a narrow top.
Dahshur's usual order is the Bent Pyramid first and this one second, a drive of under five minutes between them.
The entrance is on the north side, up a flight of steep stone steps in good condition.
The passage down is about a metre high and a metre wide and runs for roughly 60 metres. Go down backwards, as you would on a ladder, bent over so you do not hit your head on the roof.
At the bottom is the first corbelled chamber. A passage leads to a second chamber in the middle of the pyramid, and another to the third, believed to be the burial chamber. Then climb back up the same way.
Take water in with you, because you will be sweating long before you reach the bottom. There is little shade outside, so wear sun protection for the walk to the steps and back.
Use your phone for photos rather than carrying a camera down the tunnel, since phone photography is allowed on the site.
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