excavation have been unavailing.

Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara'ûn
four distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each
line. The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual
type, like those of Gîza and Abusîr, and the southernmost of them has a
peculiar broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle
of inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance
of the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two
pyramids very probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the
Step-Pyramid of Sakkâra. They strongly resemble the Gîza type, and
the northernmost of the two looks very like an understudy of the Great
Pyramid. It seems to mark the step in the development of the royal
pyramid which was immediately followed by the Great Pyramid. But no
excavations have yet proved the accuracy of this view. Both pyramids
have been entered, but nothing has been found in them. It is very
probable that one of them is the second pyramid of Snefru.

The other two pyramids, those nearest the cultivation, are of very
different appearance. They are half-ruined, they are black in colour,
and their whole effect is quite different from that of the stone
pyramids. For they are built of brick, not of stone. They are pyramids,
it is true, but of a different material and of a different date from
those which we have been describing. They are built above the sepulchres
of kings of the XIIth Dynasty, the Theban house which transferred
its residence northwards to the neighbourhood of the ancient Northern
capital. We have, in fact, reached the end of the Old Kingdom at
Sakkâra; at Dashûr begin the sepulchres of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramids