The Double Pyramid, also known as Lepsius XXV, designates a pair of adjacent monuments located on the south-eastern edge of the Abusir necropolis, south of the pyramid Lepsius XXIV and the pyramid of Khentkaus II. A couple of monuments were built during the mid-Fifth Dynasty, likely during Nyuserre Ini‘s reign, for two female members of the extended royal family.
Because of its unique architectural characteristics, such as the absence of a mortuary temple, a funerary chapel located inside the monument superstructure and a north-south descending corridor to the burial chamber, the monument is seen as a distinct type of Ancient Egyptian tomb, called a “double pyramid” by the Egyptologist Miroslav Verner. This conclusion is debated, with the Egyptologist Dušan Magdolen arguing that it is simply a double mastaba.
Location of the Double Pyramid
Pyramid Lepsius XXV lies just a few meters southeast of the Lepsius XXIV. It appears like a couple of small mounds of rubble.
Exploration
On his Egyptian expedition, the German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius located a small pyramid structure and included it in his list of pyramids as number XXV (25th). Ludwig Borchardt classified it as a double mastaba in his research sixty years later, but he did not examine it more closely.
Since, for a long time, no intensive research was conducted, the structure was believed to be the pyramid of a queen of the 5th Dynasty, similar to Lepsius XXIV directly to the north. However, preliminary investigations appeared to indicate that the funerary temple was unusually located on the western side of the structure.
A Czech archaeological team led by Miroslav Verner conducted the first intensive excavation between 2001 and 2004, in which the unusual character of the structure as a Double pyramid became apparent. Both network sections have a slightly rectangular base plan, oriented in a north-south direction with highly steep sides, making it impossible that the structure was ever a true pyramid. In the masonry, a relatively large number of building inscriptions and marks were found. These included the structure’s name, which can be translated as “the two are watchful.”
Dušan Magdolen questioned the classification of the building as a double pyramid and stressed the typological similarity of the remains to a mastaba. Among the points raised by Magdolen is the observation that neither the eastern nor the western tomb has a square plan, when all Egyptian pyramids, except for the earliest one, that of Djoser, have square bases. In addition, Magdolen observes that the 78 degrees of inclination of the walls of Lepsius XXV only falls within the normal range of mastabas and step pyramids, while Lepsius XXV is not the latter. Furthermore, some mastabas have had a few architectural elements similar to those found in pyramids, particularly the north-south orientation of the descending corridor leading to the substructure, as is the case here.
Eastern tomb (Lepsius XXV/1)
Superstructure
The larger of the two tombs has a base measurement of 27.7 m x 21.53 m and is made of large blocks of white limestone. The outer walls only roughly worked and had an incline of 78°, indicating that the structure was either a mastaba or a pyramid base rather than a true pyramid. The height cannot be determined.
Substructure
The tomb chamber’s entrance is a descending passage from the middle of the structure’s north side. The chamber measures 4.5 m x 2.7 m and is in a north-south orientation. The sarcophagus is located in a niche on the west side of this section. Although grave robbers had thoroughly stripped the chamber, the burial remains could be found. In addition to parts of a woman’s remains, fragments of her limestone canopic jars and grave goods were found in the rubble of the chamber.
West tomb (Lepsius XXV/2)
Superstructure
The smaller west tomb’s base measures 21.7 x 15.7 m and has an incline 78°. Thus, this portion appears also to have been a mastaba or truncated pyramid-like structure. Unlike the eastern tomb, the western one is roughly hewn grey limestone. It has experienced heavy spoliation, so only a few layers remain today. The tomb probably did not ever have a cladding of fine white limestone. The stratification of the surviving masonry indicates that the west tomb was built after the eastern one.
Substructure
The underground structure of the western tomb has been thoroughly destroyed. Only the upper part of the descending passage, which was also on the north side, and the foundations of the tomb chamber survive now. This arrangement is typical for the pyramids of this period. In the ruins of the tomb chamber, very few traces of the burial of a woman were found, as well as a single object of the grave goods.
