Headless pyramid attributed to early Egyptian ruler

By Jonathan Wright

SAKKARA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Thursday he had identified a badly eroded pyramid south of Cairo as that of the Fifth Dynasty Pharaoh Menkauhor, who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC.

The identification by Zahi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, could end the long controversy over the structure known as the Headless Pyramid, first described by the German archaeologist Lepsius in the 19th century.

Some archaeologists have associated the pyramid with the Tenth Dynasty Pharaoh Merykare, who ruled about 400 years later, and others with the Twelfth Dynasty, which ruled Egypt between 1991 and 1786 BC during the period known as the Middle Kingdom.

But Hawas, whose teams have excavated the lower levels of the pyramid more thoroughly than any previous expeditions, said he was now convinced that the pyramid was that of Menkauhor, who is known from inscriptions to have built one somewhere.

"Now we are sure that this pyramid is of a style of a pyramid of Dynasty V and belongs to a king called Menkauhor," Hawas told reporters during a tour of the site.

The archaeologists did not find inscriptions with the name of the pharaoh, so Hawas based his attribution on architectural features, coupled with the fact that Menkauhor is the only Fifth Dynasty ruler whose pyramid has not been identified.

He pointed out large red granite blocks at the entrance to the burial chamber and said these were characteristic of pyramids of that period, of which there are many examples.