Of the three Middle Kingdom pyramids at Dashur, the best remains belong to Amenemhet III, a ruler of the 12th Dynasty. (two other 12th dynasty pharaohs — Senusret III and Amenemhet II — also built pyramids here, but they are completely ruined.

None of these pyramids is that remarkable, and they were looted completely early in antiquity. However Amenemhet’s pyramid, the southernmost of the three, is still recognizable as a pyramid. Sort of.

The core of the pyramid was built of dark, almost black mud brick (hence the name Black Pyramid), which still stands as an odd-shaped sentinel. The stone casing has completely collapsed around it. It’s a striking sight, looking almost like a natural rock outcropping (or that odd tower thing from Close Encounters.)

We didn’t hike over to the site, although we took quite a few pictures of the ruins. There is little to see at the actual site, and you can no longer enter the pyramid. The interior structure, though, is completely different from the complex series of chambers in the pyramids at Giza, the height of the pyramid building age. It is only possible to conclude that these were tombs, nothing more, nothing less.

So we passed on getting a much closer view of the pyramid That did mean that we missed the extensive tombs and funerary temples that surround these younger pyramids — finds of exquisite jewelry from these tombs is in the Cairo Museum.

West notes that Middle Kingdom jewelry-making is the true height of the art. It is some of the finest jewelry produced in Egypt.