" This was considered to be the tomb of the Vth Dynasty king,
Unas, until his pyramid was found by Prof. Maspero at Sakkara. From its
form it might be thought to belong to a monarch of the Hid Dynasty, but
the great size of the stone blocks of which it is built seems to point
rather to the XIIth. All attempts to penetrate its secret by actual
excavation have been unavailing.
Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara'un
four distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each
line. The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual
type, like those of Giza and Abusir, and the southernmost of them has a
peculiar broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle
of inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance
of the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two
pyramids very probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the
Step-Pyramid of Sakkara. They strongly resemble the Giza type, and
the northernmost of the two looks very like an understudy of the Great
Pyramid. It seems to mark the step in the development of the royal
pyramid which was immediately followed by the Great Pyramid.
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