Il mistero della quarta piramide

It is a somewhat international day today, with the following piece in Italian. Thanks very much to Pierfranco Dotti for sending me the link. The article is looking at the pyramid built by Djedefre at Abu Roash. It is generally of particular interest because Djedefre was the son of Khufu and his successor. Khufu, of course, built his pyarmid on the Giza Plateau and the other two pyramids on the plateau were built by other members of his family - Khafre (brother of Djedefre) and Menkaure (son of Khafre). There is a video on the La Repubblica site. If you haven't got access to video, there is a good collection of photos of the Djedefre pyramid on Guardians.net.

If my attempts to translate Spanish make you flinch you may want to skip straight to the Italian below, or just move straight on to the next post :-). Pier - you might correct any real errors?

In summary (not word for word translation) it says that although the Giza pyramids are the best known, the pyramid of Djedefre was far more impressive in terms of its majesty, beauty, wealth and dimensions even though it was located away from Giza. It is now located in a military zone to which there is severely restricted access. it is in very ruinous condition today, and there is very little to see. Some archaeologists, and in particular Zahi Hawass of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, suggest that the pyramid had been completed, that it was actually the tallest of all of the pyramids and made out of more valuable materials, but that during the Roman period the pyramid was dismantled for building material. The excavations have been taking place for twelve years and have given rise to new interpretations of the mysteries concering Djedefra and why he chose to build his pyramid at Abu Roach rather than on the Giza plateau with its predecessor, but was instead in a more secluded and elevated place. One view which was held for many years was that the Pharaoh had suffered some misfortune or disagreement with his family, but today Hawass thinks that his choice of location was designed to emphasize his independence and that the higher location was chosen in order to be closer to the sun itself, which the Pharaohs worshipped.

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