Headless Pyramid

29.8753°N, 31.2236°E.

Ruined Fifth-Dynasty pyramid at North Saqqara, Egypt, attributed to pharaoh Menkauhor Kaiu and built ~2421–2414 BCE. The superstructure was already gone by the time Karl Richard Lepsius surveyed it in 1842, leaving only a square depression in the desert and the upper edge of the substructure — hence the field nickname. Lepsius catalogued it as Pyramid XXIX; it disappeared again under drift sand and was not relocated until Zahi Hawass reopened the site in 2008. The substructure follows the late-Fifth-Dynasty template: descending corridor, granite portcullis, antechamber, burial chamber on the west, and a serdab on the east. No pyramid texts were inscribed on the walls — Menkauhor's reign ends one generation before Unas, who introduces them. The base measured roughly 52 metres per side; original height is estimated at about 50 metres. The associated valley temple and causeway have never been located.

The smallest royal pyramid of its century, built for one of the shortest reigns of the Fifth Dynasty, and the entire upper monument has vanished without a trace.