Though
stripped of its limestone casing and somewhat
eroded, the Pyramid of Hawara
remains remarkable for its complex system
of secret passages.
Amenemhat III (1855-1808 BC) built
both this pyramid and the Black Pyramid
at Dahshur,
and it is thought that he abandoned this
one because of the rising water table,
which eventually flooded the burial chamber.
A number of dead ends and pits conceal
the passage to the burial chamber. The
chamber itself
was hewn from a single piece of quartzite
and contained two sarcophagi. A bowl
and a few other objects belonging to Amenemhat’s
daughter Neferuptah were also found inside,
which have led some to propose that she
was temporarily interred in her father’s
pyramid while her own was being built.
Due to the flooding, the interior of
the pyramid is closed to visitors.
The
pyramid complex includes a queen’s
pyramid and a mortuary temple. Once elaborate
and sumptuous, composed of courtyards within
courtyards?the temple, and perhaps the
surrounding necropolis as well, is believed
to be the Labyrinth that Herodotus praised
above the Pyramids at Giza and everything
the Greeks ever built. After years of quarrying,
however, very little is left of this.
To
the north and northeast of the pyramid
lies a mastaba field, where a number
of Middle Kingdom officials and
nobles were buried. This
also includes the Roman
cemetery
where
Petrie found many beautiful "Fayum
portraits," wooden panels on which the
faces of the deceased were painted with
colored wax and then attached to the mummy.
A
number of
these
can be seen at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
HOURS OF
OPERATION:
Daily, 9 AM - 5
PM
TICKET COST:
Egyptian: 2 LE
Foreign: 30 LE
50% reduction for bearers of International Student ID Card
LOCATION:
Off Beni Suef Road
12 km southeast of al-Fayoum
DIRECTIONS:
BY BUS: Buses between Beni Suef and al-Fayoum
stop at Hawarat al-Makta, which is a short
walk from the pyramid.
BY
TAXI: ask for “harum
hawara” |