A badly damaged white
Tura limestone pyramidion, thought to have been made for the
Red Pyramid of
Sneferu at Dahshur, has been reconstructed and is on open-air display beside that pyramid; it presents a minor mystery, however, as its angle of inclination is steeper than that of the edifice it was apparently built to surmount.
Private brick pyramids with pyramidia
During the
New Kingdom, some private underground tombs were marked on the surface by small brick pyramids that terminated in pyramidia. The four lateral sides included texts and scenes related to the cult of the Sun God (as the representation of
Pharaoh).
The scenes typically depict the course of the sun, rising on one lateral face, setting on the opposite face, and traveling, through the night, through the underworld, ruled by
Osiris.
The pyramidion of
Mose (
mes,s, New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty,
c. 1250 BC, limestone, 53 cm tall) depicts himself making an offering, with his name on two opposite faces. The adjacent opposite faces feature a baboon: "Screeching upon the rising of the Sun, and the Day". (The baboon is also the god-scribe representation of the
Scribe, for the god
Thoth.)[10]
Ptahemwia pyramidion
The pyramidion of
Ptahemwia (19th Dynasty, Ramesside Period,
c. 1200 BC, limestone, 28 cm wide, 42 cm tall) likewise displays sun-related scenes.[8]: 252 The Sun God,
Re-Horakhti, and the god of the Underworld,
Osiris, are shown on one lateral face.
Facing the two gods, on the adjacent lateral face, is the deceased Ptahemwia, standing in an offering pose, facing three columns of hieroglyphs.[8]: 252
Gallery
Pyramidion of the chapel of Nesnubhotep, limestone with relief of a scarab and adoring baboons, 26th Dynasty, Abydos
Pyramidion of Nebamun, limestone, 19th Dynasty, probably from
Deir el-Medina
^
abceditors Regine Schulz and Matthias Seidel (w/34 contributing Authors), Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Konemann, Germany: 1998. Amenemhat III, 1842–1797 BC p. 115
^Peck, William. Splendors of Ancient Egypt, William H. Peck, The Detroit Institute of Arts, (University Lithoprinters Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich.), c. 1997, (p. 67). (Moses Pyramidion from "Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim, Germany".)