Archaeologists closing in on the lost tomb of a murderer pharaoh
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A history as long as that of ancient Egypt must include an assassin who murders a ruler and becomes pharaoh, if only for a brief period.
Such is the story of Userkare, second pharaoh of the 6th Dynasty who ruled between Teti and Teti’s son Pepi I. He took power after Teti was murdered, perhaps in a conspiracy he himself had maneuvered.
The pyramid of this obscure pharaoh has been missing for some 4,300 years.
Giulio Magli, professor of archaeoastronomy at Milan’s Polytechnic University, asserts that the lost pyramid of Userkare lies in the intersection of a series of invisible lines in South Saqqara. Using new astronomical and topographical research, Magli has devised a grid that connects up some of the major pyramids at Saqqara and South Saqqara.
Magli suggests that Userkare’s tomb is located approximately in the middle of the line connecting Pharaoh Pepi I and Pharaoh Merenre’s diagonals, in alignment with Djoser’s pyramid.
Another Egyptologist, Vassil Dobrev from the French Institute of Archaeology in Cairo has been looking for Userkare’s tomb and believes it will be discovered at South Saqqara but not in the area where Magli expects to find it. Dobrev has already uncovered a number of tombs of 6th Dynasty priests in a 15-hectare area in Tabbet al-Guesh. Priests and officials were usually buried close to the tomb of their king, thus indicating the proximity of the lost tomb of the murderer pharaoh.
Sources: Discovery News and Talking Pyramids
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