In the interior of the pyramid a descending passage led , behind three granite portcullises , to an antechamber , three magazine rooms and the burial chamber . In it , pieces of alabaster and a faience bead on a gold thread was discovered as well as many fragments of what was originally a large sarcophagus of dark grey basalt . The sarcophagus was sunk into the floor of the burial chamber together with a niche for the canopic chest of the king to its north @-@ east . An almost complete mummy was discovered in the remnants of the sarcophagus . An examination by Ahmed Batrawi of these skeletal remains , excavated in the mid @-@ 1940s under the direction of Abdel Salam Hussein , suggest that Djedkare died at the age of 50 to 60 years old .