Meidum Pyramid

Why does the Meidum Pyramid look so strange?

Meidum looks like a stepped tower rising from a hill of rubble because its outer layers slipped away, leaving the steep inner core standing about 65 metres high. Locals have long called it el-Haram el-Kaddab, the 'false pyramid'.

It was built in stages: first a seven-step pyramid, then enlarged to eight steps, then finally filled in and cased to make a smooth-sided true pyramid. The final casing rested on sand rather than bedrock and its blocks were not well bonded to the steps beneath, which probably explains the collapse. When it happened is debated: once thought to be a catastrophic event during construction, most scholars now favour gradual collapse and stone robbing over many centuries. The debris mound hides the lower part of the original structure.

Who built it?

The pyramid is usually credited to Sneferu, first king of the Fourth Dynasty, though it may have been started by his predecessor Huni, last king of the Third. No contemporary inscription names Huni here, while New Kingdom visitors left graffiti in the small temple on the east side praising Sneferu. If Sneferu did convert it to a true pyramid late in his reign, it shows him returning to his first project after the experiments at Dahshur, which makes Meidum the place to see the step-to-true transition in a single building. Our Sneferu profile follows the whole story.

Can you go inside the Meidum Pyramid?

Yes, the interior is usually open: you climb steps up the debris to an entrance on the north face, descend a long, low passage, then climb a short vertical shaft into the burial chamber.

• The passage: roughly 57 metres down into the rock, about 1 metre high, bent over on wooden boards.
• The chamber: small, with a corbelled roof, and one of the earliest examples of this roofing technique in a pyramid. It was never finished and contains no sarcophagus. Old wooden beams, perhaps left by the builders, are still wedged in the shaft.
• Conditions: stuffy and dusty, with some ladder-like climbing, and not suitable for anyone uneasy in tight spaces.

On the east side stands a small, well-preserved offering temple with two uninscribed stelae, and the causeway that led down towards the valley.

What else is there at Meidum?

Around the pyramid is a cemetery of large mastaba tombs belonging to Sneferu's family and officials, which produced some of the most famous works of early Egyptian art. The painted limestone statues of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret, with their startlingly lifelike inlaid eyes, came from a mastaba here, as did the painting known as the Meidum Geese from the tomb of Nefermaat and Itet. Both have long been star pieces of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo; see our Egyptian Museum, Tahrir page and check where they are displayed when you visit, as objects have been moving between museums.

North-east of the pyramid stands Mastaba 17, a huge anonymous tomb whose burial chamber, reached by tunnelling, still held a granite sarcophagus. Access to the mastabas varies.

Is Meidum worth the long drive?

For anyone who has caught the pyramid bug at Giza, Saqqara and Dahshur, yes: Meidum completes the story and you will almost certainly have it to yourself. The drive south runs through farmland, villages and canals, a side of rural Egypt most visitors never see from a tour coach. Standing at the foot of the core, you can see the smooth outer faces of the inner steps, which were dressed when each stage was meant to be the last, and the loose packing of the final casing, which is the clue to why it failed.

If you only have a few days in Cairo, though, the same chapter of history is told almost as well at Dahshur, an hour closer. Meidum earns its place on a second visit, a longer private itinerary or a trip that continues to the Fayoum.

How do you get to Meidum?

By private car with a driver: Meidum is about 100 km south of Cairo, roughly 1.5 to 2 hours each way from Giza depending on traffic and checkpoints. It sits in Beni Suef governorate on the desert edge near the road into the Fayoum. Travel south of Cairo involves police checkpoints, and at times foreigners have been required to travel with escorts on some routes; your operator will handle the paperwork. Check current advice on smartraveller.gov.au before you go.

Allow about 1.5 hours on site. The natural pairings are Dahshur and Meidum in one long pyramid day, or Meidum on the way to the Fayoum Oasis. Tickets are sold at the site; current prices are on egymonuments.gov.eg. Facilities are minimal, so bring water and snacks.