Unfortunately this is one of the forgotten sites of Egypt. Rarely will you find it included in the regular tourist itineraries, as most of the visitors nowadays follow a very traditional and established itinerary, which mainly includes Pyramid sites such as the Pyramids of Giza, and the Step Pyramid of Sakkara! I have noticed, in the last few years, that some travel agencies are starting to organize trips, to the Pyramid of Meidum and the Pyramid of Dashour, in a one-day trip. We just hope they keep doing this, as this Pyramid has a special magic! In my opinion, a visit to this collapsed Pyramid is very worthwhile! It is one of those sites that had, and still keeps, lots of secrets!!
Meidum Pyramid is located 65 Km to the south of Saqqara. To visit to it you simply drive along the road that takes you to Sakkara, go pass that site, and continue straight on for about an hour until you see the Pyramid. There is another way to reach Meidum that is a little longer, but a lot faster. You take the road to the Fayoum Oasis and then join the Assyut desert road. After about 77Km you will see the Pyramid on your left side. There is an admission fee of 25 LE.
In the last few years I have led special groups to this Pyramid. Every time I go there I am overwhelmed with it, as well as having a feeling that there are still dozens of secrets in this site still undiscovered! I class it as a virgin site because Egyptologists have never really done a proper investigation here.
The Plan of the Pyramid
The last King of the 3rd Dynasty, King Huni, built the Pyramid of Meidum in the style of a Step Pyramid, originally being 8 steps built on top of one another! For a long time Egyptologists thought that the Pyramid was built by King Snefru, the builder of the two Pyramids in Dashour,
Believing this as they found some graffiti in the funerary Temple, located at the eastern side of the Pyramid, which had been discovered at the end of the 19thcentury. But some Ancient Egyptian travellers, from the 19th Dynasty (1300 B.C), had left this graffiti; recording their admiration for the great structure that King Snefru had built here! It now seems more likely that King Huni had left his Pyramid unfinished, and his successor, King Snefru, finished the building for him, therefore latter generations thought it was the work of Snefru.
It is hard today to believe that one King would actually have had 3 Pyramids built for him, the two in Dashur, and a third one in Meidum. Today, many believe that it had been the work of Huni in the first place, completed by his son after his death.
The Pyramid is called the Collapsed Pyramid as it looks from afar like a huge tower surrounded by a pile of rubble. The Pyramid was 93m high and built with a square base with sides measuring about 114m long. The entrance of the Pyramid was located almost 30m above ground level, in the northern face. It leads to a corridor that descends for 54m, which it is unique among all the other descending corridors, as you don’t have to bend down inside it, unless you are really a tall person! You need a torch to light your way, as most of the lamps are broken (I have told the inspectors there, several times, to change them, but none of them listened to me!). At the end of the corridor you will find a small chamber, roughly cut in the bedrock, exactly underneath the apex of the Pyramid, and at the end of this room you will find a wooden ladder that leads up to the burial chamber. On your climb up, you will notice some huge beams of cedar wood that are 4600 years old.