Pyramid of Sesheshet

29.8688°N, 31.2228°E.

Sixth-Dynasty queen's pyramid at South Saqqara, attributed to Queen Sesheshet — mother of pharaoh Teti and likely architect of his accession. Construction date approximately 2323 BCE. Discovered in November 2008 by the Hawass mission after two years of digging through 7 metres of overburden, the find was the first new royal pyramid located in Egypt in more than a generation. Original base approximately 22 metres per side; original height around 14 metres. The substructure preserved a vaulted burial chamber, a limestone sarcophagus, gold thread from a funerary garment, and a cache of canopic jar lids inscribed with her name and titles, including Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Westcar Papyrus, written four centuries later, names her as the queen who preserved the dynasty through a succession crisis.

Buried for forty-two centuries under sand at the southern edge of Saqqara, found in one season, and the woman it was built for is the only reason the Sixth Dynasty existed at all.