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 The
core of pyramid was made of mudbricks, but it no longer had a stone
masonry framework and covering the casing of white limestone. J.de
Morgan had great difficulty finding the entrance to the pyramid, because
the north chapel was once conceived in a way intended to confuse
potential grave robbers. The burial chamber did not lie on the pyramid's
vertical axis, but northwest of it.The walls of the granite chamber were
finished with a thin layer of white stucco. On the west wall of the
chamber stood a marvelous granite sarcophagus, whose fifteen niches
probably represented stylized gateways. J.Wagner,
M.Lehner and other, expressed the view that Senweseret III was not
necessarily buried in the pyramid in Dahshur, but in his large and
funerary complex in Abydos. North of the pyramid J.de Morgan discovered
princesses' tombs arranged in two galleries of unequal height.
In hidden place in the lower gallery de Morgan found splendid jewelry as
well as other items from the burial equipment of princesses Sithathor.
This equipment
was containing 333 pieces of her treasure. A gold
pectoral spelled the name of Senweseret II and a scarab was inscribed
with that of Senweseret III. The next day he found another treasure,
belonging to Princess Merit, which containing many of the same elements
as Sithathor's but was even more extensive. In 1994 the shaft of 'tomb
9' (J) was discovered. A tunnel leads to an antechamber, burial chamber
and canopic chamber actually under the southwest corner of the king's
pyramid. A granite sarcophagus fills the west end of the burial
chamber, the floor of which was littered with pottery, wood, a few
alabaster fragments and scattered bones. The name Weret, was found on a
canopic jar and an inscribed board. In 1997
D.Arnold's investigations uncovered evidence that the seven
superstructure bases north and south of the pyramid in its inner
enclosure belonged in fact to small pyramids and not mastabas, as had
previously been thought.
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