Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The pyramids of Egypt have long attracted visitors intrigued by their ancient history, and now travelers have the opportunity to visit a distinctive structure just south of Cairo.
Minister of Antiquities Khaled al Anani led a party of foreign ambassadors to the Dahshur Necropolis to inaugurate the so-called Bent Pyramid on Saturday, according to state media agency Al Ahram.
Tourists will be able to get inside the pyramid for the first time since 1965 thanks to a restoration project, with a 79-meter-long (260-foot) passageway leading to two burial chambers, Reuters reported.
The 4,600-year-old pyramid, which sits 25 miles south of the Egyptian capital Cairo, gets its name from its unusual shape, with two different angles of inclination.
The 101-meter-high (331 foot) structure was built for Pharaoh Senefru — also known as Sneferu or Snefru — around 2,600 BCE, and is a prime example of early pyramid development.
Builders noticed signs of instability during construction and changed the angle of the pyramid part-way through the project, leaving it with a distinctive shape.
The Bent Pyramid later started to show wear and tear, so another structure — the Red Pyramid — was built nearby as a royal burial site, according to state media.
Archeologists started work at the site in August 2018 and finished the dig in April 2019.
Excavations uncovered stone, clay and wooden sarcophagi as well as a collection of wooden funerary masks and tools for cutting stones.
Perhaps the most famous are the three pyramids at Giza, while other well-known sites include Saqqara — home to the world’s first true pyramid — and the Temple of Karnak, which is the largest ancient temple in Egypt.
