The Pyramid of Elefantine

The pyramid of Elephantine is part of a group of seven very similar small step pyramids, along with the pyramids at Edfu South, el-Kula, Naqada, Zawyet el-Maiyitin, Seila, and Sinki. All of these were built far from the main centres of Egypt and are very poorly understood. The pyramid of Elefantine is located in the northwest part of the Old Kingdom city on the south end of the island of Elephantine in the Nile. The structure was discovered in 1907, but it could only be identified as a pyramid after excavations by the German Archaeological Institute in 1978–79.

On their discovery in 1907, the remains of the pyramid were initially mistaken for part of the city wall. This interpretation was seemingly confirmed by the discovery of a granite cone near the pyramid with an inscription of the Pharaoh Huni, naming him as the builder of a fortress (according to a more recent reading, as the builder of a palace). Another interpretation considered the structure as the remains of a putative temple of Yahweh. Herbert Ricke, finally, interpreted the substructure as a royal palace.

Only with the excavations of Günter Dreyer in 1978/9 could it be clearly shown to be a pyramid. But even with this confirmation, the builder and the purpose of the pyramid remained unknown. Günter Dreyer and Werner Kaiser considered it and the other pyramids named above to be a building project of Huni, the last ruler of the 3rd Dynasty. This proposal was based solely on the suggestion that the aforementioned granite cone was directly related to the pyramid of Elefantine.

The Polish Egyptologist Andrzej Ćwiek expressed doubt about this, since the text of the cone speaks of a palace, not a pyramid. In his opinion, if the cone was ever part of the pyramid, it was only after having been reused as building material. Finds at Seila prompted Ćwiek to suggest that Huni's successor Sneferu (c. 2670–2620 BC), the founder of the Fourth Dynasty, was the builder of all seven step pyramids.

Today, the pyramid of Elefantine is 5.1 metres tall, but the original height would have been between 20 and 24 cubits (10.46 - 12.55 m). The building is oriented parallel to the west bank of the island, which leaves it 17° off north, to the west. The pyramid consists of a core structure which was surrounded by two layers of stone with a thickness of four cubits. Locally sourced pink granite was used as a building material. The substructure is made from large hewn blocks, with a mixture of Nile mud and sand for mortar. No chamber system exists. On the north side of the structure is a cut near the middle, which was made by the 1909 French excavation team led by Henri Gauthier.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata