How many pyramids are there?

Answer 1

If you count all the pyramids across the world - Egypt, Nubia, Central America, France etc - there are two or three hundred in identifiable condition, and likely still some left to be found.

All of Egypt's pyramids are sited on the west bank of the Nile and most are grouped together in a number of pyramid fields.

The German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-84) produced the first modern list of pyramids in 1842. He identified 67. A great many more have since been discovered, in November 2008 118 pyramids had been identified. The location of Pyramid 29 for example, the so-called "Headless Pyramid", was lost for a second time when the structure was buried by desert sands subsequent to Lepsius' survey. It was only rediscovered again during an archaeological dig conducted in 2008.

Many pyramids are in a poor state of preservation or buried by desert sands. If visible at all they may appear as little more than mounds of rubble. As archaeological techniques improve Egyptologists are continuing to identify and study previously unknown pyramid structures.

The most recent pyramid to be discovered is that of Queen Sesheshet, mother of 6th Dynasty Pharaoh Teti, located at Saqqara. The discovery was announced by the Egyptian Council of Antiquities, on 11 November 2008.