Fun detail I love: the Bent Pyramid's lower chamber is still the earliest known pyramid chamber to step its corbels inward on all four sides to build a vaulted ceiling. Meidum-era chambers only do it on two — and that one sits at ground level with straight end walls. The sockets studding the Bent Pyramid corbels show timber beams once spanned the room to stop the sloping walls from crushing inward. A 2016 reassessment by Monnier and Puchkov scanned the interior and catalogued every socket and its position. Also intriguing: when the ceiling was finished, the chamber stood just above ground level, but the chimney stopped at ground level. Sneferu's builders were improvising at a scale nobody had tried before. What a puzzle. 🪵⏳
Bent Pyramid lower chamber: earliest four-sided corbel vault, needing heavy bracing
EgyptArchitecture
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Key facts
- The Bent Pyramid lower chamber is the earliest known pyramid chamber to step its corbels in on all four sides to create a vaulted ceiling
- Meidum-period chambers have corbelling on two sides only; the Meidum chamber sits at ground level rather than in a pit, with straight end walls and narrowing only lengthwise
- Numerous sockets in the corbels indicate timber beams ran across the chamber to keep the inward-sloping walls from collapsing during construction; the depth to which the corbel stones extend back into the walls is unknown
- A 2016 reassessment by Monnier and Puchkov scanned the pyramid interior and catalogued the sockets and their locations
- By the time the ceiling was completed the chamber stood slightly above ground level, while the chimney terminated at ground level
Sources
cheopspyramide.de
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web.ujaen.es
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digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
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(PDF) The Bent Pyramid, A Layman's Guide part 1academia.edu
The height of the chamber is given as 16.50m. The wall height to the first corbel is less than the lower chamber at 3.21m or 3.33m (there is confusion here in ...
Bent Pyramiden.wikipedia.org
The Bent Pyramid has two entrances connected with two separate chamber systems. ... The entrance to the lower chamber system is located at 11.80 m above ground ...
The internal layouts of the Bent pyramid.researchgate.net
The article researches the design and the purpose of the lower tier chamber in the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu in Dashure. The review of the earlier ...
Dashur: Bent Pyramid of Sneferuancientegyptonline.co.uk
The lower courses of the pyramid were built at an angle of 54 to 55 degrees, but the upper courses at a lower angle of 43 degrees, giving it the unique shape
Bent Pyramidplanegypttours.com
... lower chamber, while the second entrance is located on the western side and leads to another room carved on the ground level and known as the upper chamber ...
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