The Unfinished Pyramid of Abusir was an ancient Egyptian royal tomb that was probably abandoned shortly after the start of construction in the 5th Dynasty. It is located in the necropolis of Abusir. Shepseskare, a Pharaoh about whom almost nothing is known and only from a single roughly contemporary seal impression from the mortuary temple of Neferefre, has been suggested as the pyramid’s builder.
Location of Unfinished Pyramid of Shepseskare
To the northwest of the pyramid of Sahure, about halfway to the Solar Temple of Userkaf at Abusir, an unfinished platform for a pyramid has been discovered. It would have had a base length of approximately 100 by 100 metres if finished, making it one of the giant pyramids at Abusir. It is impossible to estimate the height it would have had since the building activity stopped a few weeks after it had been started.
Exploration
The structure was first discovered in the 1980s by a Czech archaeological team led by Miroslav Verner, who noticed the levelled ground and the pit. Additional elements of the complex could not be found.
Date
The site cannot be directly connected with any ruler since the few finds from the site did not include any inscriptions. An inferential assignment to Shepseskare is based on the site’s location in the cemetery. Because of the area’s proximity to the Pyramid of Sahure and the Sun temple of Userkaf, Verner suggested that Shepseskare belonged to the same branch of the royal family as these two rulers.
The chronological position of Shepseskare is not entirely clear. While Manetho lists him in the Aegyptiaca as a successor of Neferirkare, the discovery of a seal impression in the Mortuary temple of Neferefre suggests that he was Neferefre’ssuccessor and completed his sun temple. The arrangement as the successor of Neferefre is consistent with the fact that Neferefre was able to begin construction on the same orientation towards Heliopolis. In contrast, this was no longer possible for his successors due to space limitations.
Construction
When Shepseskare came to power, there were already three pyramids in the necropolis of Abusir. These were arranged with their northwest corners in a line, probably pointing to the obelisk of Heliopolis (the so-called “Abusir Diagonal”). To maintain this orientation, Shepseskare would have had to erect his pyramid further into the desert than the unfinished Pyramid of Neferefre, making transporting materials difficult. Instead, he chose an area northwest of the Pyramid of Sahure, halfway to the Sun temple of Userkaf, as his building site.
Shepseskare died after only a short reign, which led to the abandonment of the construction. His successor, Niuserre, did no further work on this tomb. The location of Shepseskare’s interment is unknown, but it is assumed that he was not buried in this barely started tomb.
Pyramid
Construction of the actual pyramid structure was never begun. Only the terrain levelled to a flat, square area was carried out. In the middle of the levelled area is a T-shaped pit, where the burial chamber and its entranceway would have been installed.
The dimensions of the levelled area and the pit allow it to be suggested that the building would have been a similar size to the Pyramid of Neferirkare (105 m x 105 m) and thus that it was planned to be the second-largest tomb at Abusir, after the pyramid of Neferirkare. The actual dimensions are not recoverable since the stonework was not installed. Additionally, the slope of the sides and, thus, the planned height are unknown due to the lack of cladding stones.
Remains of a pyramid complex, including the traditional elements of the mortuary temple, temenos wall, cult pyramid, causeway and valley temple, were not found. These components probably never began since they would have gotten in the way of the building work on the pyramid during the early stages of construction.
