Early-modern "Pyramids of the Mummies" served as a cover term for Saqqara and Dahshur

October 27, 2026EgyptGeneralShare

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Key facts

• George Sandys wrote in 1610 of "many huge pyramids" near the mummies south of Giza, an early pairing of pyramids with mummies that started the presenter's archival search.
• Benoît de Maillet's map of 1735 also prompted the presenter to look for the area that early authors meant by such phrases.
• Pietro della Valle, who visited Egypt in 1616 and published a travel book in 1650, distinguished the Great Pyramids of Giza from "the pyramids of the mummies" and described deep shaft tombs cut into rock, which the video matches to Saqqara's Persian-era pit tombs.
• Jean Coppin (1638) placed the Pyramid of the Mummies 13 to 17 miles from Old Cairo, mentions the village of Saqqara four miles away, and describes exploring the Step Pyramid.
• Jean Thévenot (1650) and Johann Wansleben likewise separated the Giza pyramids from those "near Saqqara"; Giovanni Gemelli (1699) visited the "pyramids of the mummies", entered the Red Pyramid, and noted the adjacent pyramid could not be climbed for lack of steps, i.e. the Bent Pyramid with casing largely intact.
• The video argues the phrase was a general cover term covering Saqqara and Dahshur from the early 17th century, later narrowed as the village names were applied to adjacent pyramids.
• By the late 18th century the Red Pyramid was renamed the "Great Stone Pyramid of the North" and the Bent the "Great Stone Pyramid of the South", replacing the misapplied "Pyramid of Rhodope".

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