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The Serapeum |
The Serapeum houses the rock-cut underground burial chambers of the
Apis cops. Apis, the sacred bull of the god Ptah, was worshiped in a temple of his own, and after his dying was embalmed and buried with serious pomp. From the time of Amenophis III, and belike earlier, the Apis tombs consisted of an underground chamber recorded by a sloping shaft. In the prevail of
King Ramses II, Prince Khaemweset fabricated a common burial position for all the Apis bulls consisting of an underground corridor 100 meters long flanked on both sides by chambers in
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Statue of Apis at the Serapeum |
which the woody coffins of the bulls were included. 20 of the chambers here settled contain the sarcophagi of processed black or red granite, each hewn from a one block where the Apis bull mummies were housed. They standard some four meters in length and are estimated to press 65 tons.