Satellite Pyramid of Bent Pyramid

29.7895°N, 31.2095°E.

The satellite pyramid of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur, immediately south of the main pyramid of Sneferu, built ~2613–2589 BCE. Original base 53 metres per side; original height around 32 metres at a steep 60° slope. The function of Old Kingdom satellite pyramids — small ritual pyramids attached to the south face of major royal pyramids from Sneferu through Pepi II — has been debated since the nineteenth century: candidates include a ceremonial substitute tomb, a dedicated solar shrine, or a placeholder for the king's ka. Excavated by Ahmed Fakhry between 1951 and 1955. The substructure preserved a small granite burial chamber, a shallow descending corridor, and a fragmentary set of ritual deposits including model copper tools and offering vessels — but no human burial.

The earliest documented satellite pyramid in Egyptian funerary architecture, built next to the pyramid where Sneferu changed his mind about the slope mid-construction, in a template that every major pyramid for the next four centuries would copy.