Astronomy, Architecture, and Symbolism: The Global Project of Sneferu at Dahshur

 http://jha.sagepub.com/content/46/2/173.abstract

Astronomy, Architecture, and Symbolism: The Global Project of Sneferu at Dahshur

1. Juan Antonio Belmonte
   1. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna, Spain
2. Giulio Magli
   1. Politecnico di Milano, Italy

1. Juan Antonio Belmonte, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Universidad de La Laguna, C. Vía Láctea S.N. La Laguna, 38200, Tenerife, Spain. Email: jba@iac.es

Abstract

The two pyramids built during the Old Kingdom by the Fourth Dynasty King Sneferu at Dahshur are usually considered as two consecutive projects, the second – that of the Red Pyramid – being generated by a presumably failure of the first, the Bent Pyramid. In the present paper, we show that the archaeological proofs of such a scenario are far from obvious and that, on the contrary, a series of architectural, topographical, epigraphic, and astronomical hints point to a unitary project probably conceived from the very beginning in terms of the two pyramids and their annexes. Altogether the two pyramids are thus shown to form a conceptual, sacred landscape associated with the power of the Pharaoh and his afterlife.

• Archaeoastronomy
• orientations
• pyramid architecture
• Dahshur
• Sneferu
• Pyramid Texts
• Egyptian symbolism