PYRAMIDPyramid
Hawara Pyramid
28.6640, 30.2625
The Hawara Pyramid rises at the desert edge of the Fayoum, a weathered mound of mudbrick built for Amenemhat III of the Middle Kingdom. Stripped of its limestone casing over the centuries, it looks more like a great earthen hill than the sharp geometry of Giza, but its story is extraordinary: at its foot once sprawled the legendary Labyrinth, a vast mortuary complex that ancient writers like Herodotus rated a wonder surpassing the pyramids themselves.
The Labyrinth is long gone, reduced to rubble and foundations, but the pyramid endures alongside traces of the burial chamber famous for its ingenious sliding-stone security. It is a place for imagination and quiet over spectacle, an off-the-beaten-track stop that pairs the romance of a vanished wonder with the empty calm of the Fayoum.
Know before you go
There is little signage or infrastructure here, so a knowledgeable local guide greatly enriches what is otherwise a bare, evocative ruin.