Mazghuna (also known as Al Mazghunah or Al-Muzghumah), 5 km south of Dahshur, is the site of several mudbrick pyramids dating from the 12th Dynasty of Egypt.
Location of Mazghuna
Mazghuna, 5 km south of Dahshur, is the site of several mudbrick pyramids dating from the 12th Dynasty. The area was explored by Ernest Mackay in 1910 and was excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1911.
Excavations at Mazghuna
The area was explored by Ernest Mackay in 1910 and was excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1911. Amenemhat IV and Sobekneferu have been suggested to be the owners of two unfinished pyramids at Mazghuna, but there is no conclusive evidence. The southern pyramid is about 3 miles from Sneferu’s Bent pyramid. The base was 52.5 meters square, but it was never finished. The outer burial chamber contains an inner monolithic burial vault made of quartzite, like the one for Amenemhat III at Hawara. A large granite plug was ready to slide over the top; however, it was never used since no one was ever buried there.
A second pyramid, even more prominent than this one, was planned in north Mazghuna, but the superstructure never began. A U-shaped passage led to the burial chamber containing another monolithic burial vault. There was scarcely 2 cm (less than 1 inch) clearance between the vault and the chamber. A 42-ton quartzite slab was waiting to be slid over the burial chamber.
Mazghuna Pyramids
Mazghuna is a little-known pyramid field about 5 kilometres (three or so miles) south of Dahshure. The pyramids at Mazghuna, known as the Northern and Southern Mazghuna Pyramids, may belong to Sobeknefru (Queen Nefrusebek), the last pharaoh of Egypt’s 12th Dynasty Amenemhet IV, respectively. Still, no inscriptions bearing their names have been found, and their ownership is far from certain. If these pyramids belong to Sobeknefru and Amenemhet IV, they are evidence of the decline at the end of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom.
The Northern Pyramid
The Northern Mazghuna Pyramid is the largest of the two ruins in the Mazghuna field. However, the pyramid core was never even begun, and the elaborate seal that led to the substructure entrance was never used. Because the seal resembles that used on the pyramid of Ameny-Qemau, there is reason to believe this structure may date somewhat later than Egypt’s 12th Dynasty.
The entrance to the pyramid was located on the east side of the pyramid. Here, a short stairway descended to a square chamber. The underground corridor doubles back on itself in a U shape before arriving at the burial chamber, suggesting the structure of other Late Middle Kingdom pyramids found at South Saqqara.
In the square section at the bottom of the entry stairway, a passage stairway descends at a right angle, sloping down to the first portcullis chamber. The 42-ton quartzite plug lies in a recess to this chamber’s north. All its exposed areas were painted red, like every other quartzite component within the substructure. It would have slid into the chamber over a quartzite slab forming a wall but was never closed.
The corridors continue past this area with a right angle and turn past a second barrier chamber similar to the first before arriving at an antechamber north of the burial chamber.
The burial chamber was filled with a monolithic quartzite sarcophagus vault, with a receptacle for the coffin on its north and the canopic container on its south side. The lid to the sarcophagus was never put in place. It remained in a low chamber, waiting to be slid over the top of the vault and locked by a slab pushed over from a side recess. The exposed part of the quartzite sarcophagus was covered in plaster and painted red, like elsewhere in the pyramid. On this painted surface are patterns of vertical black strokes bounded by fine horizontal lines.
The Southern Pyramid
The Southern Pyramid was investigated by a British archaeologist named Ernest MacKay in 1910. A wavy enclosure wall surrounded the complex, which we typically see at the beginning of the early Middle Kingdom. The broad entrance in the wall is a vestibule built into the far east end of its south side. The area about this entrance was covered in limestone chips. Along the centre of the eastern part of the enclosure wall was a mudbrick mortuary temple, really nothing more than a chapel that consisted of a large central chamber or court and several storage annexes to either side of the chamber. Attached to the rear or southwest corner of the main room was an offering hall, which oddly did not abut the pyramid.
The pyramid substructure, though complex, was never completed. Only one or two courses of brick were laid to form the core of this pyramid, and a trench was dug around the outer edge in typical Middle Kingdom fashion to hold the casing securely in place. However, no casing stones have ever been found.
The entrance to the pyramid is in the middle of its south side. It opens into a stairway with shallow steps and side ramps that slope to level. The first barrier, consisting of an excellent portcullis block, is found at this transition. The lower part of the passage is blocked by a granite slab so that when the plug was slid into place from its recess, it blocked the continuation of the course at the higher level. From this higher opening, another stairway ramp descended to a second block. This barrier is similar to the first, but the plug was left open. From here, corridors twisted around the eastern part of the burial chamber in three 90-degree turns before arriving at a service chamber for the burial chamber on its north side. This small service chamber had a trench dug to assist in introducing funerary equipment into the burial chamber.
The burial chamber on the pyramid’s vertical axis is fascinating. It probably had a ceiling reinforced by a saddle vault of limestone blocks. A single block of red quartzite fills its space. It constitutes an inner burial chamber similar to the section built for Amenemhet III in his vault at Hawara. This similarity and parallel in the passages led many Egyptologists to believe that this pyramid is attributable to Amenemhet IV. There are receptacles for the coffin and a canopic chest in the block’s interior. A lid to this inner burial chamber featured two large slabs resting on the rim of the vault, with a gap left between them. Supports, resting on sand-filled shafts, held the missing lid piece. Side channels allowed the sand to be removed so the missing lid piece would slip into its slot.
Some grave goods were discovered in this pyramid. These included an alabaster vessel as a trussed duck, three limestone lamps in the small service chamber before the burial chamber, a small alabaster kohl pot and a piece of glazed steatite left in the inner burial chamber.
In fiction
The Amelia Peabody mystery The Mummy Case (by Elizabeth Peters) was set in Mazghuna.
