Buried Pyramid

29.8567°N, 31.2167°E.

Unfinished pyramid of fourth-dynasty pharaoh Sekhemkhet at Saqqara, immediate successor to Djoser. Construction began approximately 2645 BCE and was abandoned at the second of a planned seven steps; the existing podium measures 120 metres on a side and only 8 metres tall. The substructure, sunk 32 metres below the desert pavement, contains a sealed alabaster sarcophagus discovered in 1954 by Egyptian archaeologist Zakaria Goneim. When opened on national television, the sarcophagus was empty — the burial seals intact. Sekhemkhet's reign lasted approximately seven years; the abandonment of his pyramid is conventionally attributed to his early death and political instability. The complex was visible above the sand only as a low rise until 1951.

A pharaoh's sarcophagus sealed for 4,500 years was opened on live television in 1954 and contained nothing — and we still cannot say where the king is buried.