Dahshur

Dahshur is a pyramid field 26 kilometers south of Giza on the Nile's west bank, where Pharaoh Sneferu of the 4th Dynasty built two monumental pyramids around 2600 BCE. This is where the smooth-sided pyramid form was invented: the Bent Pyramid abruptly changes its angle from 54 to 43 degrees halfway up, likely because engineers detected cracks in the masonry. Sneferu then built the Red Pyramid a few kilometers away - the first true geometrically smooth pyramid, the prototype for Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza. Middle Kingdom mudbrick pyramids of Amenemhat II, Senusret III and Amenemhat III were added later. Today the site lies far from the tourist routes in stark desert. Visitors can descend a narrow shaft into the Red Pyramid and stand inside three corbel-vaulted chambers.