Qualla: Buried Pyramid

Buried Pyramid: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NeferKaRe Made by NeferKaRe, Public domain. On June 26, 1954, Egyptian archaeologist Zakaria Goneim pried open an alabaster sarcophagus that had been sealed for over 4,600 years. It was carved from a single block, its vertical lid mortared shut, found deep inside an unfinished burial chamber beneath the sands of Saqqara. The room had never been decorated. The passage leading to it had been blocked with rubble and masonry. Every indication pointed to an undisturbed royal burial. The sarcophagus was empty. No mummy, no wrappings, no explanation. The Buried Pyramid, constructed for Pharaoh Sekhemkhet of the Third Dynasty, had guarded its most baffling secret: there was nothing to guard.

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Image: NeferKaRe Made by NeferKaRe | Public domain

Buried Pyramid: Found by Accident

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit R.F.Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0. The pyramid was completely unknown until 1951, when Goneim noticed an odd rectangular outline in the desert while excavating the nearby Unas complex at Saqqara. Digging revealed a rubble-coursed enclosure wall, tall and thick, extending into a perimeter filled with false doors an...

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Image: R.F.Morgan | CC BY-SA 3.0

Buried Pyramid: Gold, Rubble, and an Empty Tomb

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Franck Monnier, Public domain. A descending passage on the north side led Goneim into a gallery blocked with rubble and masonry. The debris itself was rich: animal bones, demotic papyri, stone vessels from the Third Dynasty, and a decayed wooden casket containing gold bracelets, cosmetic cases, beads, and jars...

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Image: Franck Monnier | Public domain

Buried Pyramid: The Fate of Goneim

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Juan R. Lazaro, CC BY 2.0. The discovery should have made Zakaria Goneim's career. Instead, it destroyed him. Rumors spread, wrongfully, that he had helped smuggle an ancient artifact out of Egypt. The accusations were baseless but relentless, and they cast a shadow over his professional reputation at a mo...

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Image: Juan R. Lazaro | CC BY 2.0

Buried Pyramid: A Child in the South Tomb

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GDK, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1963, French archaeologist Jean-Philippe Lauer reopened the excavation, driven by the possibility of a south tomb and the hope of finding Sekhemkhet's missing mummy. Under a mastaba-like structure offset from the pyramid's central axis, Lauer found the foundations of a south t...

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Image: GDK | CC BY-SA 3.0