A 3000-year-old pyramid

The pyramid dates back to the 13th century B.C., i.e. the 19th ancient Egyptian dynasty, and the reign of Ramesses II to be precise (circa 1279-1213 BC). During this period, the great royal pyramids fell into disuse. The biggest of the 200 or so Egyptian pyramids known today date from the Old Kingdom, a period during which they were integral to royal funerary culture. By the New Kingdom, the sovereigns of Egypt were being buried in the Valley of the Kings, under a mountain whose natural rock formation was similar to that of a pyramid. However, like Khay, some individuals resorted to smaller built pyramids. For instance, this was the case of another vizier two centuries before Khay, who chose to crown his funerary monument with a pyramid. Despite these precedents, Vizier Khay clearly wanted to stand out from his contemporaries, both through the choice of a pyramidal form and by placing his funerary monument in the middle of a 200-year-old necropolis. Its position in the very axis of the Ramesseum, the funerary temple of Ramesses II, bears witness to his importance.

Vizier Khay

Vizier Khay is an historical figure well known to Egyptologists, thus explaining the importance of the discovery of his pyramid. Numerous documents, statues and stelae bear witness to his existence. In ancient Egypt, a ‘vizier’ was more or less the equivalent of the pharaoh’s prime minister. He was the head of the state apparatus in Upper and Lower Egypt, responsible for the opening and closing of the treasury, as well as minister of justice (a role traditionally assumed by the king himself in the ancient Near East). For more than fifteen years, Khay was the right-hand man of Pharaoh Ramesses II, one of Egypt’s greatest ever kings.

During the reign of Ramesses II, Egypt went through a particularly prosperous period in its history. The pharaoh left his mark on the country's entire monumental landscape, building temples such as the famous one of Abu Simbel. Indeed, the name of Ramesses II was well known right up until the Roman era. Thus, when Germanicus, the promised future emperor of Rome, visited Egypt, he specifically asked to see the monuments of the great Ramesses. Even today, this last great pharaoh of Egypt is still one of the most famous. In Western tradition, his reign is associated with the episode of the Exodus in the Bible.