The condition of the burial chamber of Pyramid 1 was better than the temple, fortunately. We had blocked the door into the pyramid burial chambers with a door that was in two parts—a lower part that roughly matched the original doorway, and an upper part that attempted to fill in the looters’ cut above it, both covered with mesh. The upper section was down when we arrived.

One of our workmen claimed it was blown in by wind, but this is dubious at best as there was a rope left dangling into the space left by the fallen section. There could be no damage to the burial chambers themselves because we had left a considerable quantity of sediment in the outer two rooms (using them to contain fill from the innermost room), and the innermost room retained its massive fill of 4.5 m of sediment capped by 1 meter of stone.

Photo by Yvonne Richter (visitor to the site)
However, the opening was inviting to bats and they have reoccupied the pyramid, leaving a thin scattering of droppings…not nearly as noxious as at the start of excavation last year.

2 thoughts on “Return to El Kurru: The Pyramid”

  1. I am sorry to see the trash and firth that has accumulated while you guys was gone, and i can now understand why the entrance of the burial chamber is block. Is there a sign to telling people not to deposit trash there? Also is there affordable ways for the local to deposit trash? Please tell them the importance of this site, and how it may benefit them in the future in regards to developing that region and tourism.

  2. Also, this is unrelated, however i am going to ask anyway. Are there any Sudanese teams excavating the Pyramids fields of Nuri yet especially the burial chambers of Taharqa, which is intriguing? I remembered we briefly talked about this on this very blogg last year, and you told me that in the future a Sudanese team will be excavating at the complex, but inquiring minds is wondering when? Also when they excavate do they plan on blogging like you and the team of Amara west is doing?

    http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/sudan/amara_west_research_project.aspx

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