Practice Makes Perfect: Red Pyramid (c. 2580 BCE)
Sneferu gave pyramid building one more go, with much more success. The Red Pyramid, for the Egyptians, was actually a brilliant white, covered in limestone, but as the limestone sloughed off, the reddish stone used in the construction was revealed. Inscriptions on the stone also give early indication that pyramid builders worked in teams. Inscriptions include cartouche with Sneferu’s name, and “Green Gang” and “Western Gang,” early indications of how the work was organized. With his three pyramids, Sneferu is one of the most prolific pyramid builders of the Old Kingdom. But his son Khufu would achieve what his father could not – the largest, greatest smooth-sided pyramid of them all, catapulting him into architectural immortality.