Double Pyramid

Double Pyramid / Lepsius XXV
Remains of the eastern tomb
Ancient name	rś mrwj Res Merwy The Two [Pyramids] are Watchful
Constructed	5th Dynasty ?
Type	Double pyramid ?
Material	limestone
Height	6 m (current)
Base	1: 27,70 m × 21,53 m 2: 21,70 m × 15,70 m
Slope	78°

The Double Pyramid also known as Lepsius XXV designates a pair of adjacent monuments located on the south-eastern edge of the Abusir necropolis, south of the pyramid Lepsius XXIV and of the pyramid of Khentkaus II. The pair of monuments was built during the mid-Fifth Dynasty, likely during Nyuserre Ini's reign, for two female members of the extended royal family.

Because of its unique architectural characteristics, such as the absence of mortaury temple, a funerary chapel located inside the monument superstructure and a north-south descending corridor to the burial chamber, the monument is seen as a distinct type of Ancient Egyptian tomb, called a "double pyramid" by the Egyptologist Miroslav Verner. This conclusion is debated, with the Egyptologist Dušan Magdolen arguing that it is simply a double mastaba.

On his Egyptian expedition () (1842-1845), the German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius located a small pyramid structure and included it in his list of pyramids as number XXV (25). Ludwig Borchardt classified it as a double mastaba in his research sixty years later, but he did not examine it any more closely.

Since for a long time no intensive research was conducted, the structure was believed to be the pyramid of a queen of the 5th dynasty, similar to Lepsius XXIV directly to the north, although preliminary investigations appeared to indicate that the funerary temple was located, unusually, on the western side of the structure.

A Czech archaeological team led by Miroslav Verner conducted the first intensive excavation between 2001 and 2004, in which the unusual character of the structure as a "Double pyramid" became clear. Both sections of the structure have a slightly rectangular base plan, oriented in a north-south direction with extremely steep sides, which make it impossible that the structure was ever a true pyramid. In the masonry, a relatively large number of building inscriptions and marks were found. These included the name of the structure, which can be translated as "the two [pyramids] are watchful."