Unfinished Northern Pyramid of Zawyet el'Aryan

29.9181°N, 31.1097°E.

Unfinished fourth-dynasty pyramid at Zawyet el-Aryan, 6 km south of Giza. The structure consists of an open foundation pit measuring 25 by 11 metres and 20 metres deep, with the lower courses of granite paving and limestone walls in place. Construction is conventionally attributed to a pharaoh recorded only as “Baka” or “Bikheris,” a probable son of Djedefre whose reign was brief and whose name is not securely placed in the king lists. The site contains an oval granite sarcophagus already in place at the bottom of the pit, sealed and never disturbed in antiquity but found empty when excavated by Italian archaeologist Alessandro Barsanti in 1904–1911. The pit was the early phase of what would have been a major royal pyramid; construction was abandoned, the workers walked away, and Egyptian builders never returned to the site.

A pharaoh whose name we are unsure of left a perfectly carved 80-tonne granite sarcophagus open at the bottom of an empty foundation — and never came back.