´Private Pyramids´: Deir el-Medineh and Abydos

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Towards the end of the 18th dynasty, necropolis workers and high officials began to build small pyramids above their private tombs. Although there was no concept of ´private´as opposed to royal in the modern sense, the pyramid was simply no longer the exclusive prerogative of the king. Archaeologists have also found remains of small New Kingdom pyramids at sites ranging from Nubia to Memphis.

A series of small pyramids once perched on the hillsides above the royal workmen´s town of Deir el-Medineh. above is a possible reconstruction of such tomb.

A reconstructed pyramid belonging to one of the tombs in the workers´ cemetery at Deir el-Medineh, Thebes.

Section and plan of a pyramidal tomb of Abydos. The corbelled vault resembles ancient Egyptian granaries and ovens.

M. Lehner (The Complete Pyramids, 1997)