The mystical remnants of the ancient Egyptian civilisation lie slumber under the sands of the Giza Necropolis, which have been baked by the sun.
Even though the mysterious Sphinx and the spectacular Great Pyramid are likely the first things that spring to most people’s minds when they think about pyramids and tombs, there are really a great number of pyramids and tombs that are unknown to the vast majority of people
The moniker “Buried Pyramid” is not used for literary effect.
This is its actual name due to the fact that it was seemingly an incomplete construction of a step pyramid with the base barely rising above ground level, hence the name Buried Pyramid.
It is also known as the Pyramid of Sekhmekhet after the pharaoh Sekhmekhet Djoserty, second ruler of the Third Dynasty from 2686 to 2613 BC.
It is very near to, and similar to, the much more well known Step Pyramid of Saqqara, which was built for Sekhmekhet’s predecessor Djoser. The Buried Pyramid did have its fifteen minutes of fame in the early fifties when it was first discovered.
In 1951, Egyptologist Zakaria Goneim was participating in excavations at the Unas Complex when he found what turned out to be the wall of another complex, and eventually he uncovered the pyramid at the complex’s center.
There was understandable, collective disappointment and some headlines criticized Goneim, but interestingly, among the state officials present was the then Egyptian President Nasser, who actually defended Goneim and praised him for his efforts.
Goneim went on to publish his book The Buried Pyramid and also went on a corresponding lecture tour of the United States, all of which was very successful.
But around this same time, for reasons that are unclear, Goneim was being targeted by the same Egyptian state officials present at the excavation.
Each time Goneim returned home to Egypt he was subjected to interrogation by the authorities and he was under constant surveillance. To reiterate, there was no discernable crime or wrongdoing of any kind. After already having been subjected to this for sometime, Goneim was officially accused of smuggling a valuable artifact out of the country.
At this point, the stalking and interrogations intensified even though his reputation was impeccable and other esteemed Egyptologist colleagues, such as the famed Jean-Phillipe Lauer, were steadfastly defending him.
Lauer managed to find the relic Goneim was accused of smuggling, hidden away in the bowels of the Egyptian Museum. But just as Goneim was about to be publicly vindicated for a crime he never committed, his lifeless body was found floating in the Nile.
The case was never definitively solved. Some suggest it was suicide, a theory which his friends and family found offensive and vehemently reject. Others believe it was some kind of conspiracy.
Lauer took up the torch of his friend and colleague, and in 1963 he did more excavations at the complex.
Twenty-five years before Goneim uncovered the Buried Pyramid, he participated in excavating what seems to have been a section of the Giza Necropolis dedicated to elite dwarves.
Between 1925 and 1926, Goneim and his colleagues located the tomb of Seneb, a wealthy advisor to Khufu and Djeder, whose lavish mastaba tomb indicated that he was of extremely high status.
A statue of Seneb and his family is currently on display in the Cairo Museum.
The statue (among other artistic depictions) leads Egyptologists to strongly suspect that Seneb suffered from the disability achondroplasia.
Decades later, surrounding mastaba tombs were also found to contain little people of high status, like Pereniankh, Djeho, and Khnumhotep. It is further speculated that Pereniankh may have been the father of Seneb
In 1970, this random patch of desert was designated a restricted military zone, making modern investigation and public access impossible.
Perhaps the strangest fact regarding the Layer Pyramid, is that all these subterranean passages, chambers, and galleries have been deliberately filled in with sand.
Another oddity worth pointing out is that this “military zone” is small patch of desert in the center of Egypt with no militaristic or strategic significance.
The restrictions only apply to this one little piece of a vast desert, the remainder of which is fully accessible to the public all the way up to the borders.