Astronomy and landscape in Ancient Egypt: Challenging the enigma of the minor step pyramids

Abstract

The minor step pyramids (MSPs) form a coherent group of seven monuments distributed along Egyptian geography with a series of common characteristics that make them unique and distinct from other buildings of similar typology. The purpose of these pyramids is a matter of dispute among Egyptologists and most proposals could be interpreted as sad examples of vox nihil. By contrast, our archaeoastronomical study of the monuments would suggest that minor step pyramids were built at certain locations and with particular orientations that might relate them to the preliminary stages and consolidation, during the reign of king Snefru, of two master creations of early dynastic Egypt, the civil calendar and the stellar Afterlife later appearing in the Pyramid Texts.