The Smell That Won't Go Away
A walk through the Red Pyramid of Dahshur, where a pungent ammonia smell surprises visitors - and the mainstream explanation leaves questions unanswered.
The Red Pyramid of Dahshur is the third-largest pyramid in Egypt. It gets its name from the reddish shimmer of its limestone blocks. For tourists, it is an insider tip - less crowded than Giza, but equally impressive.
The entrance is about 28 meters above the ground. A narrow corridor leads steeply down into the interior - 63 meters long, at an inclination of 27 degrees. Hunched over, with one hand on the rough stone wall, you descend.
And then there is this smell.
Hundreds of TripAdvisor reviews mention the smell: [TripAdvisor Reports - Red Pyramid]
"The ammonia smell in the lower chamber is almost unbearable."
"Bring a cloth. The smell is very strong."
"It smells like a poorly ventilated chemistry lab."
The smell is not a myth, not an exaggeration. It is real, documented, confirmed by thousands of visitors.
The Red Pyramid has three chambers, stacked above one another:
The first chamber: At the end of the descending passage. This is where the smell begins.
The second chamber: Accessible through another passage. The smell gets stronger.
The third chamber: The highest and deepest. Here the smell is most intense - to the point that some visitors turn back.
The official explanation is: Bat guano. [Mainstream Explanation: Bat Guano]
Bats live in many Egyptian tombs and pyramids. Their urine and feces contain uric acid, which decomposes into ammonia over time. In an enclosed space without ventilation, this smell accumulates.
This explanation is not implausible. It is the simplest solution.
But Geoffrey Drumm, a self-taught researcher who spent years studying Egyptian pyramids, questions it.
Drumm visited many Egyptian tombs and temples inhabited by bat colonies. He knows the smell of bat guano. [Geoffrey Drumm - Land of Chem]
He describes it as a "rodent cage smell" - organic, animal-like, musty. The typical ammonia smell you know from animal stalls or poorly maintained small animal cages.
The smell in the Red Pyramid is different, he says:
Chemically pure: Not organic-musty, but sharp and clear - like industrial ammonia.
Intensity pattern: In bat caves, the smell is strongest where the bats nest - typically near the entrance or at resting places. In the Red Pyramid, it is strongest in the deepest chamber.
No bats: Drumm claims he saw no significant bat population in the Red Pyramid.
Ammonia (NH3) is a fundamental substance in the chemical industry. It is the starting material for:
Without industrial ammonia production, modern civilization would be unthinkable. The Haber-Bosch process, developed in 1913 to synthesize ammonia, now feeds about 40% of the world's population through nitrogen-based fertilizers.
Drumm's thesis: The Red Pyramid was a facility for ammonia production.
The modern Haber-Bosch process requires:
Limestone - the building material of the pyramids - would burst under these conditions. No ancient technology we know of could achieve these parameters.
Drumm's counter-argument: Perhaps the builders knew a process we do not know today. Low-pressure methods, acoustic catalysis, biological processes. The absence of a known mechanism does not mean the absence of a function.
The smell is real. That is beyond question.
The question is the interpretation:
Bat guano explains the smell simply and without assuming unknown technologies.
Industrial residues would explain the smell, its intensity, and its pattern - but require assuming a technology for which there is no other evidence.
What we can say with certainty:
In the next subchapter, we follow the water - from the Nile through the Valley Temple, along the causeways, to the pyramids. A filtration system that makes sense when viewed as an engineering work.
If the Red Pyramid was a chemical facility, it certainly needed one thing: pure water. But the Nile is full of silt. How do you solve this problem?
The smell is real. The question is not whether it exists. The question is: What created it - and why is it still there after 4,500 years?