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. . .From the top of the
southern
enclosure wall of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, you find yourself
looking out over a vast ancient Egyptian necropolis (city of
the dead). This place is called Saqqara. The hill
of rubble on the right hand side of this picture is the 5th Dynasty
pyramid of Wenis, who died around 2323 B.C. On the horizon are the
pyramids of Dahshur, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid both built
by the Pharaoh Snofru during the 4th Dynasty. The small pyramid that
you see directly in front of the Bent pyramid is that of Pepy II of
the 6th Dynasty. The giant sarcophagus shaped structure also on the
horizon is called "Mastabet el-Fara'un". It is the burial complex of
Shepseskaf, the last pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty.
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. .
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. . . .Snofru was perhaps the greatest
pyramid builder of all, he oversaw the building of three. The first
two were unsuccessful but through trial and error he developed the
first true (not stepped) pyramid, that is the one on the right above,
called the Red Pyramid. His desire to build pyramids was passed on to
his children, his son Cheops and grandson Khafre built their
monuments on a plateau to the north, called Giza and
with the techniques developed by Snofru built the greatest pyramids
of all.
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