How Many Pyramids Does One Man Need?

[Anomalocaris]

I think sneferu had three built, the maidum pyramid, the bent pyramid, and the red pyramid.

The important thing is the three sneferu built were all big pyramids that were built on the grand Old Kingdom scale comparable to the great pyramids of Giza, not the feeble little wannabes of the middle kingdom like the two mentioned above.

Sneferu also ruled for at least 24 years and there are some indications that it was even longer.

Worse, take a close look at this photo of tourists climbing on the Red Pyramid.



Generally speaking you can count 3+ layers of masonry behind each person indicating that the individual stones were on the order of 1.5 feet wide.

Now contrast that with this photo from the Great Pyramid.



The individual stones are much larger and they fit together much better.  The GP is a whole order of magnitude superior in workmanship.

Well, the great pyramid had the luxury of learning from the three pyramids sneferu built, and secure in the knowledge that sneferu finally got it right on the third try, and the Giza pyramids can simply be enlarged versions of the sneferu' red pyramid.

When sneferu was building his pyramid 3 he had no luxury of time. He already screwed up twice, so the third pyramid had better be finished fast before he died. Still, as it is, it is the 3rd largest Egyptian pyramid, 2/3 as tall as the biggest and 1/3 as massive. It was still all dressed masonry through and through.

The 13th dynasty pyramids described above were mud Brick piles With a thin facing of dressed stones. They were 1/3 as tall as sneferu' pyramid and 1/100th as massive. Sneferu' screw could have finished 10 of these pyramids each year.