Just a few weeks ago, was discovered along the banks of the Nile: an intact pyramid was found at Abu Roasch, north of the Giza Plains, in the outskirts of Cairo. The object of this sensational discovery is the 110th pyramid to be found. It belonged to a queen, probably one of the wives of Djedefre, the son of Cheops. The discovery is considered to be an extremely important development, which can shed new light on the history of the sovereigns of the old kingdom. We know now where was the resting place of one of the favourites of the most famous families in history—the family of the sovereigns of the IV dynasty, the builders of the Giza Pyramids.
But, let us proceed in chronological order.
The Pyramid of Djedefre is in Abu Roasch, and forms part of a large funerary complex at which both the archaeological mission of the Swiss CNR and the French Archaeological Institute (directed by Michael Valloggia of the University of Geneva) have been working for eight years. Dr. Valloggia explained, “during the recently completed recovery process, we were digging around the South-East corner of the wall surrounding the sacred area of the Djedefre Pyramid.”

“One day we found out with great surprise,” he continued, “that our workers had noticed a prominence right below the surface layer. Immediately, we concentrated our efforts around that area. After a few days, we understood that the prominence was a new pyramid of fairly respectable dimensions (two and a half meters high and more than ten meters wide)".
Day after day, the details of the structure became more and more clear. It was a satellite pyramid, which had been built for a queen, or more precisely, for one of Djedefre’s wives. Inside, we found some religious items, an untouched well, two storage areas for offerings for the after-world of the deceased and, of course, the mortuary chamber. In the chamber we found the most important artefact, a granite sarcophagus with cover. It had almost surely contained the queen’s mummy, which we could not find, because it had been most probably been stolen by ancient grave robbers. “We have the impression that this pyramid was left incomplete,” explained Dr.Valloggia.
“In fact, it has a rough look, with large, unfinished steps.” The experts’ opinion is that the pyramid perhaps was not the queen’s true burial place. Perhaps Djedefre’s wife rests in a more sumptuous complex, which is yet to be discovered. In any case, the elements found in the area were abundant and of extraordinary significance with respect to the history of the IV dynasty. On the sarcophagus, for instance, there is a clearly legible dedication by Queen Hetepheres, Cheops’s mother and progenitor of the entire family.
The prospects for Dr. Valloggia’s team of archaeologists are considerable. They will continue to work around the area of the new pyramid in the hopes of finding new funerary elements—above all, additional solar boats, of which only one example has been discovered so far.
“In any case, this is by itself an incredibly important discovery,” emphasizes Dr. Stefania Sofra, an Egyptologist at the University of Rome. In fact, the discovery confirms that the pyramids were the sovereigns’ burial places, and that the tombs of other family members were built around them. The pyramids were the tombs of the sovereigns of the old kingdom and, as this latest discovery shows, they can all be explained within the history of the Egyptian civilization, without recourse to odd or exoteric explanations".
Traslated by Interpres