A pyramidion was the capstone of a pyramid — the point where the monument met the sky. This one crowned the pyramid of the 12th Dynasty king Amenemhat III at Dahshur, a mudbrick pyramid known today as the Black Pyramid.
On its east face, turned to the sunrise, a winged sun disc spreads above a pair of eyes, with signs for “beauty” and a sun disc below. The inscription expresses the king’s wish to behold the beauty of Ra as the sun rose each morning.
The pyramid itself began to subside while it was still being built, and Amenemhat III was eventually buried in a second pyramid at Hawara. The capstone was found in the rubble at Dahshur in 1900.
