The Bent Pyramid’s Light Magic – An International Phenomenon?

King Sneferu (Snofru, Seneferu) was the father of Khufu and is famous for being responsible for two pyramids, plus finishing his predecessor’s at Meidum. His two pyramids at Dashur lie within sight of each other and are remarkable for their low slanting angle at about 43° – only the upper half of the Bent pyramid has this angle, though; the lower part’s angle has 54°. The reason for changing the angle midway is to address the beginning deformation in the lower part, aiming to minimize the load on its chambers. This article offers another eye-catching possibility…

A Celestial Blueprint: Understanding the Chamber Arrangement

It bothers me every time I read that the greatest pyramid builders of ancient Egypt changed plans during the building of their pyramids. I don’t believe it. It has an aura of indulgence with the trial-and-error method that devalues the ingenuity of the pyramid architects.

In Khufu’s pyramid both the subterranean chamber and the so-called Queen’s chamber are always described as abandoned during the building process. The subterranean chamber has a great part of the bedrock left in it implying that it was never finished, and the Queen’s chamber is supposed to be missing a thick layer of floor tiles.

In another article I have asserted that both chambers were intentionally designed to look the way they do. I believe the chambers were shrines planned to honor the local (Heliopolis) cosmology gods, who were nature element gods: therefore, earth god Geb had rock – his element – left in his subterranean chamber. ‘Water’ (rain and mist) goddess Tefnut had a low basin for water in her chamber, called the Queen’s chamber. The third chamber we know of, the King’s chamber, honored air god Shu and had built-in air channels. The flat top of the pyramid was originally the seat of sky goddess Nut’s chamber, and somewhere between the flat top and the King’s chamber (/Shu’s),  a fifth chamber honoring the sun god ReAtum is still waiting to be found. The chambers are even ordered as in nature and constitute in this way rungs of a ladder to the sky for the deceased king’s spirit.

When an archaeologist in 1872 smashed the thin granite layer blocking what he thought were unfinished air shafts in the Queen’s chamber, he unknowingly spoiled our chance to demonstrate what marvelous water-dripping devices they were.

My elements as ladder to the sky theory. (Author provided)

Many details suddenly become meaningful through my ‘elements as ladder to the sky’ hypothesis. The change-of-plans explanations suddenly become redundant, and we can deduce much more about how Khufu’s pyramid once was ‘furnished’. Besides, it is quite interesting to realize that the Egyptians had come up with a concept of elements which survived almost unchanged for thousands of years, even though the Greeks re-invented them without divine personifications.

Reading about Khufu’s father’s alleged change of mind made me speculate whether this again was too hastily concluded.

Below I propose a different and more positive view on the two angles design of Sneferu’s Bent Pyramid. It may very well have been planned that way from start, and have to do with light magic.

Transforming The Deceased King Into Sun God

When the king died, he was supposed to join the sun god in his solar boat, crossing the sky. One purpose of his pyramid was to help the deceased king’s spirit mount from the ground to the sky, changing him from incarnated sun god to the real deal.

Egyptologist Mark Lehner teaches us in his book “The Complete Pyramids” (1997) that: “The Pyramid Texts speak of the Sun’s rays as a ramp by which the king mounts up to the Sun, just as the older step pyramids may have been seen as giant stairs. But the pyramid was much more than a magical device for the king to mount to heaven. It was a place of physical and spiritual transformation that tied the king’s ascent to the creation of the world and to the daily rebirth of the Sun”.

The Sun reflected

The king’s ascent to heaven was symbolically mirrored by sunlight reflected from the Bent pyramid’s sides in an almost magical way. It gave spectators a directly visible connection between the rising sun and the pyramid, and thereby the king’s ascent.

The sides’ white lime casing stones reflected the Sun, so that the sides stood out brighter than the surroundings – and brighter than today.

In summer, the Sun rises from the horizon to almost 84° at midday at the pyramid’s site. Now imagine how the Sun’s rays were reflected from the white surfaces during its rise. Obviously, the light reflected from a flat surface increases in intensity the more perpendicular the sunbeams meet it, which means that just after sunrise the lower part of the Bent pyramid shone brighter than the upper part, as demonstrated with this cardboard model illuminated by a flashlight.

1) At sunrise the upper part is darker (Author provided)

But in a matter of hours the Sun rose so high that it shifted. At an angle of 48°-49° the intensity was equal on both the lower and upper parts for a short while, reflected from the side angles 54° and 43°, but after that the reflected light was more intense on the top.

2) A few hours later both parts shine equally bright. (Author provided)

The sharp edge between the two different angled sides made the shift stand out more clearly after a while. The result: In the middle of the day the top pyramid shone brightly. Just as the pyramid enabled the king’s spirit to mount to the sky, the Sun confirmed this directly every day by illuminating first the earthbound lower part of his pyramid, and then his pyramid’s top.

3) High sun makes the top shine brighter. (Author provided)

It is not as if the light was totally gone from the lesser enlightened part; it is a question of less or lighter. But wouldn’t they notice the difference?

In the afternoon and evening the opposite phenomenon showed: the king’s spirit would descend and return to his everlasting mummified body in the pyramid’s low section.

What a magnificent demonstration of light magic!

I hope it was planned from the start!

Top image: The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, Egypt. Source: WitR/Adobe Stock

By Niels Bjerre Jorgensen