Missing Egyptian Pyramid Uncovered

Egyptian archaeologists uncover a missing pyramid which only the base remains.

Egypt's antiquities chief said on Thursday that archaeologists in Egypt discover what is believed to be the "missing pyramid" of a pharaoh and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls.

"We have filled the gap of the missing pyramid," Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief, said.

Hawass said the pyramid is believed to be that of King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years more than 4,000 years ago.

German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius mentioned Menkauhor's pyramid among his finds at Saqqara in 1842, calling it the "Headless Pyramid" because its top was missing.

However, the desert sands covered Lepsius' discovery, and no archaeologist has been able to locate it since.

What remains is the pyramid's base, or the superstructure as archeologists call it, after a 25-foot-high mound of sand was removed. A burial chamber also was discovered inside a 15 foot-deep pit dug out by workers, with heaps of huge rocks marking its entrance and walls.

The Old Kingdom spanned from a period of 140 years. That would put it about two centuries after the completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza, believed to have been finished in 2,500 B.C.

Hawass announced a discovery that was a part of a ceremonial procession road, dating back to the Ptolemaic period, which ran for about 300 years before 30 B.C.