By this time, however, Athribis had been almost entirely covered over by the modern city of Banha, the pyramid had been completely destroyed and its exact location could no longer be determined.

The dimensions of the pyramid were never exactly determined, so they can only be estimated from the information in the Description de l'Egypte.

On the basis of mastabas appearing in the map, Ćwiek calculated that the pyramid measured about 20 m (66 ft) on each side.

The Egyptologist Nabil Swelim[3][4] and the former director of the DAI in Cairo Rainer Stadelmann[5][6] connect it with a group of seven small step pyramids (Elephantine, Edfu South, el-Kula, Naqada, Zawyet el-Maiyitin, Seila and Sinki) which were built at the end of the 3rd Dynasty (reigned c. 2686-c. 2613 BCE) or the start of the 4th (reigned ca.

Stadelmann sees these structures as local instantiations of royal power, comparable to the Kaiserpfalz-system of the Holy Roman Empire, while Swelim instead suggests a religious purpose.