Quick answer
Dahshur is a desert royal cemetery about 10 km south of Saqqara where Sneferu, Khufu's father, built the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, the first true smooth-sided pyramid. You can usually climb down inside the Red Pyramid's corbelled chambers, and there are often only a handful of other visitors on site.
Why is Dahshur so important?
Dahshur is where Egyptian builders learned to make a true pyramid, in two attempts by one king, Sneferu, a generation before the Great Pyramid. Sneferu, founder of the Fourth Dynasty and father of Khufu, moved more stone than any other pharaoh, building or completing three large pyramids: Meidum, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid.
The sequence is easy to follow on the ground. Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara stacked platforms. At Meidum, a step pyramid was later filled in to make smooth sides. At Dahshur, the Bent Pyramid was started at a steep angle, ran into structural trouble and changed its slope halfway up. The Red Pyramid was then built from the outset at a gentle, safer angle, and it worked. Khufu's builders took that experience to Giza. Read more about the king in our Sneferu profile.
What makes the Bent Pyramid unique?
The Bent Pyramid rises at about 54 degrees, then switches to about 43 degrees roughly halfway up, giving its unmistakable kinked profile, and it keeps more of its original limestone casing than any other pyramid in Egypt.
The likely reason for the bend is instability: cracks appeared in the interior chambers as the weight grew, and the builders reduced the angle to lighten the load. The surviving casing is the best place in Egypt to see what a finished pyramid face looked like, with tightly fitted blocks still sharp at the corners. Unusually, it has two entrances, one on the north face and one on the west, each leading to its own chamber system.
The interior was opened to visitors in 2019 for the first time in decades, along with a small satellite pyramid on the south side, but access has not always been consistent since; ask before you go. Even from outside, walk round to the south-east corner for the best view of the casing.
What is it like inside the Red Pyramid?
Going inside the Red Pyramid means climbing an external stairway to an entrance about 28 metres up the north face, then descending a long, low passage into three soaring corbelled chambers. It is usually included in the Dahshur site ticket at the time of writing, and you may have it almost to yourself.
- The climb: about 125 steps up the outside of the pyramid; take water and go before midday in summer.
- The passage: about 60 metres down at a steady slope, around 1 metre high, so you descend bent over, backwards if you prefer, holding the rails.
- The chambers: two antechambers with corbelled roofs rising about 12 metres, then a wooden staircase up into the burial chamber, the highest of the three, about 15 metres to the apex. The masonry is superb.
- Conditions: the air is stale and can smell sharply of ammonia; there is little light beyond the installed lamps.
The pyramid takes its name from the reddish limestone of its core, exposed when the white casing was stripped. At about 105 m high and with a base of about 220 m it is the third-largest pyramid in Egypt.
What else is at Dahshur?
On the horizon to the east stand the dark, eroded Middle Kingdom pyramids of Dahshur, most strikingly the mud-brick Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III. Built some 700 years after Sneferu, these pyramids had cores of mud brick behind stone casing; once the casing was taken, the brick slumped into rugged heaps. They are not usually visited, but they show how pyramid construction declined after the Old Kingdom.
Excavations here also produced the famous jewellery of royal women of the Twelfth Dynasty, found by Jacques de Morgan in the 1890s. Dahshur sits next to a military zone, which is one reason it stayed closed to tourists until the 1990s and why it still feels remote: no hawkers, no coaches lined up, just desert and two vast pyramids.
How do you get to Dahshur, and when?
Dahshur is about 40 km south of central Cairo and roughly an hour's drive from the Giza hotels, best combined with Saqqara and Memphis in one full day by private car. There is no useful public transport. The classic order is Saqqara first at opening, Memphis briefly, then Dahshur around midday, when it is still quiet.
Allow 1.5 to 2 hours: about 45 minutes at the Red Pyramid including the descent, then a short drive to the Bent Pyramid. There is very little shade and limited facilities, so bring water and a hat. Tickets are sold at the site entrance; at the time of writing prices and online options are listed on egymonuments.gov.eg. If you are choosing between pyramid sites, see Giza vs Saqqara vs Dahshur.
Dahshur: FAQs
Can you go inside the Red Pyramid?
Yes, at the time of writing the Red Pyramid is normally open to visitors and its entry is part of the Dahshur ticket. The descent is long, low and stuffy, but rarely crowded.
Why is the Bent Pyramid bent?
Its builders reduced the angle from about 54 to about 43 degrees partway up, most likely because the structure was showing cracks under the weight at the steeper angle.
Is Dahshur worth it if I've seen Giza?
Yes. You see the experiments that led to the Great Pyramid, the best-preserved casing in Egypt and a pyramid interior with almost no crowds.
How far is Dahshur from Giza?
About an hour by car from the Giza hotels, depending on traffic, and about 20 minutes south of Saqqara.
Can I do Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur in one day?
Yes. It is the standard full-day route south of Cairo, usually returning by mid to late afternoon.
