Famous Pharaohs

Pyramid of Teti

The pyramid of Teti was constructed at North Saqqara on the only left spot, south of the 1st and 2nd Dynasty mastabas and to the north of the pyramid of Userkaf. By this time, the layout of the complex, both inside and right, had become almost standardized, though the chapel in front of the entrance to the tomb is somewhat of a freshness. The pyramid had a paced core with a smooth outer incase. Inside, a corridor comes from the north to a chamber. After this, a further, horizontal corridor passes by three portcullises before

Text show cartouche of Teti from his pyramid

The mortuary complex outside was accessible by means of a valley temple and causeway, both now lost. Large magazines flanked the long entrance hall and the court behind, here embedded by square granite pillars reminiscent of those of the fourth Dynasty. Beyond the endless and bare transverse hall lay the inner apartments of the temple; a chamber with 5 cult niches followed by a square vestibule and the offering chapel itself, also embedded by magazines.

The Pyramid of Userkaf

The Pyramid of Userkaf is settled at Saqqara at the northeast of Djoser's complex. It was built by pharaoh Userkaf, first pharaoh of the fifth Dynasty who ruled Egypt for 7 years. This pyramid was built as the ancient Egyptians think in resurrection. Userkaf was buried in this pyramid according to the ancient Egyptian concept of life after death.

The localized description for the the pyramid is el-haram el-makherbish "ruined pyramid". The pyramid is not on the tourist track and requires a 30 minute track up the soft sand from the step pyramid to

Ruins of the Dead Temple arround the Pyramid of Userkaf

make. The pyramid has been stripped of its outer casing and looks as a deal of rubble. Part of the black basalt give court floor is still visible. A satellite pyramid, 21 metre square, and third pyramid just south of the enclosure wall, was apparently for a queen whose name is Neferhetepes. The open courtyard seems to be in a trench assorted meter lower than the close desert. Egyptologist are still debating the reasons why Userkaf, the foqualitynder of the fifth Dynasty , would build his pyramid on this certain location, away from the fifth Dynasty necropolis of Abusir or his herald Shepseskaf in south Saqqara . Userkaf precious to be close the Djoser's step pyramid and this positioning is in all probability for political and dynastic causes.

Monastery of St. Jeremias

The Principal Church of the Monastery of St. Jeremias

The ruined monastery of the Coptic St. Jeremias (Jeremiah) dwells south of the causeway of the pyramid of King Unas on the inch of the desert plateau of Saqqara, due east of the New Kingdom necropolis. This monastery was set up in the late fifth century AD, perhaps by Jeremias himself, and it functioned up to the middle of the 9th century. It was first turned up between years 1906 and 1909 aside the British archaeologist J.E. Quibell, who found many remains of stone carving and painted plaster decoration, most of which is nowadays on display in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Numerous building blocks of the monastery had been got from the ancient tombs of Saqqara, admitting limestone rests from Old Kingdom mastabas and from the nearby New Kingdom tombs. Limestone was only applied for the 4 churches of the complex; the mobile phones of the monks and other utilitary structures were established in mudbrick.

Mastaba of Ti

Iside the Mastaba of Ti

Ti was an serious official in the fifth Dynasty. He did under both King Neferirkare and King Niuserre. He had legion different titles, but the most worthy of these were likely overseer of all works of the king. He seems to have been in charge of building the pyramids of both Neferirkare and Niuserre and galore other sun temples. The embarrassment of titles and large size of his L shaped mastaba speak to his importance in 5th Dynasty government. His mastaba measured 42 meter x 34 m at its widest points. It is also fair proper in that it has two serdab chambers. The tomb was situated in the north mastaba astudiest Saqqara.

The basic structure is as follows: a portico that takes onto a columnar hall. One serdab is on the north side of this hall, while a corridor leads south into the chapel of the mastaba. This corridor is divided into 2 breaks; a storeroom is set just west of the second part of the corridor. Two pillars are in the chapel, while the serdab is situated on the north side.

The eases in this tomb are absolutely getting, and (in my opinion) among the finest in the Old Kingdom. Pictures of animal husbandry, boat making, tracing, butchering, and the procession of the nomes, offering scenes, brewing, and harvest scenes (amongst numerous others) feature in this tomb.

Single series of relief work that I found particularly interesting was the advance of the nomes offering sceneI wasn't aware that this kind of scene was found in interior tombs not just an offering scene, but an actual procession of the domains of Egypt. The contingent work on the baskets of the offer bearers is amazing, with close striations/ridges perhaps connoting wicker or reed work. Virtually all basket is individualized could this ponder produce that was known specially well from particular localizations. This scene is discovered on the north wall of the chapel.

The hippo-hunt scene in particular interesting. It is found just above the exhibit of the domains on the central part of the north wall, and is arguably the focal point of this wall of the chapel. In addition to being a motif that features in other Old and New Kingdom tombs (did it only develop in the fifth dynasty?), I'm fascinated by a lot of the details in this scene as well: just below the boat on the right, a crocodile and hippo attack one another. Ti points the hunt, but does not participate directly in the housing of the hippo. This scene would seem to have a kind of hot appreciate.

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

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.

Tomb of Irukaptah

Irukaptah was the Chief of Butchers during the reign of different pharaohs and was swallowed in the royal complex of Saqqara as a signal of his rank and faithful overhaul. Irukaptahs fine burial site held reliefs and paintings showing the butchering of animals. He also approved KA statues for his burial site.

The grave of Irukaptah is located in the west group, 9.5 meter under the level of the Unas causeway and 10.5 metre from its south side. It can be given by the modern staircase which runs aboard the causeway (see tb-610). The tomb was dug at the base of a small cliff in ranked limestone which overhangs it by 17 meter and the tomb also takes on a courtyard. It is one of the largest of the group (13.45 metre from north to south) and it disagrees from all others by its exceptional interior statues, carved directly into the rock. On the other hand, the radicals of the decoration are limited and banal for the era on the situation of Saqqara, similar ones can be discovered, for instance, in the identified mastaba of Ti.

Pyramid of Unas, New Light

Pyramid of Unas

Unas causeway to the pyramid of Unas

King Unas ruled at the end of the fifth Dynasty, for a period of up to thirty years. Unas's pyramid at Saqqara, although the smallest of the Old Kingdom pyramids, shines his long reign in the in an elaborate way carved hieroglyphic palm of the inner chambers the earliest identified example of the Pyramid Texts. Before his time, with the elision of Djoser's monuments) all of the known pyramids had been undecorated.

Unas's pyramid seems unremarkable, little more than a big heap of rubble which is shadowed by its older neighbor, the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. The body structure was first investigated by Gaston Maspero in 1881 who had been collating a corpus of texts found in other Dynasty V and VI pyramids and he was the first to enter Unas's subterranean chambers. The pyramid and part of the mortuary temple was hollowed by (Alexandre Barsanti) on behalf of Maspero at the turn of the 20th century, and investigation of the mortuary temple and causeway was later kept by Cecil Firth, Jean-Philippe Lauer and others up to the nowadays.

The Pyramid Texts:

The Pyramid Texts of Unas's Pyramid

The Pyramid Texts, which are first got on the private walls of the pyramid of King Unas (the last king of the fifth Dynasty), and earlier in the pyramids of the sixth Dynasty kings (and some queens), are a ranking source of texts from this period. That texts are in all probability to be dated no earlier than or so one hundred years before the earliest saved copy, and many of the texts are topical with the pyramids in which they are discovered. These texts were intended to aid the deceased king in his transition to and continued well-being in the hereafter. They include magical spells, whose purpose is to protect the deceased from various perils (for example, snakes and scorpions), texts which are corresponding different funerary rituals, and spells fashioned to allow the deceased to defeated any obstacles that he might see in the next life.

Pyramid of Unas reopened in 2016:

The Egyptians reopened the Pyramid of Unas for public visitation subsequently being closed for twenty years. The repository, set within the Saqqara necropolis, about Cairo, is known for being the best to have funeral texts in its inner walls, known as the Pyramid Texts. Before, the inner walls of these pharaonic tombs didnt have several inscriptions, as is the case of the 3 great pyramids of Giza, also based near the Egyptian capital.

The texts line rituals, prayers and anthems and were intended to guide the dead king in his way to the other world. Unas was the close monarch of the fifth Pharaoh Dynasty of Egypt, during the so named Old Kingdom. He ruled for around thirty years during the 24th century B.C.

The site of the Pyramid is set about the most famous repository of Saqqara, the step pyramid of Djoser, considered to be Egypt first. From right, the Unas tomb draws little care, since its in ruins. The true attractivenesses lie inside the mortuary temple, the inscribed inscriptions, the roof that replicates a star-filled sky and other art works painted or engraved in the walls.

Step Pyramid of Djoser

Along the west bank of the Nile on the border of the desert at Saqqara is the Step Pyramid complex of Horus Neterikhet, known as King Djoser, credibly the 2nd pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty. The constructions of the complex are significant because they are the first ones made of quarried stone, in regular courses.

The third century BC historian Manetho confirms the Djoser complexs originality when he themes that Imhotep, whom the Greeks anticipated Asclepios for his

Cobra heads, Step Pyramid at Saqqara

The first modern exploration of the Step Pyramid was made by the Prussian general Baron von Minutoli, who recorded it with the Italian engineer Geronimo Segato through 1821. This scholars discovered 2 chambers, raised with blue faence juries, and the granite overleap, which had already been void in antiquity. In the corner of a hallway they discovered what was left of a mummy with a heavy gilded skull and a couple of sandals, also gilded. These were took by von Minutoli, but then missing at sea.

Pierre Lacau and Cecil M.Firth began excavating the complex in 1924.The first places they searched were two mounds, situated at the northeast corner of the serious pyramid. They were greatly amazed to find 2 faades with fluted columns almost in the Greek Doric style. Firth at first considered he was excavating a Ptolemaic social organisation, but some New Kingdom hieratic composition on the walls of the entering corridors soon proved the building to date to the third Dynasty. It was in these inscriptions that the name (Zoser) was first got; contemporary texts good use the name Neterikhet, sometimes followed by the epithet golden sun.

Mazghuna

Remains of the southern pyramid of Mazghuna

Mazghuna is a locate south of Dahshur associated with the last rules of the 12th Dynasty. The pyramidal works of Akhenaten (1799-1787 B.C.E.) and Queen Sobekneferu (1787-1783 B.C.E.) were discovered at that place. They were brother and sister, and they established to renovate their dynastic claims and halt the disintegration of Egypt and the first of the Second Intermediate Period, to no help. The Hyksos and other established details were already ready in the Delta, and the nome tribes were establishing their own claims to domain and power. The pyramidal tombs of these rules are in ruins.

Imhotep Museum

Model of the Step Pyramid in Imhotep Museum

Imhotep Museum at Saqqara, founded in 2006, is a place museum intentional to house artifacts from local diggings. It serves to set visitors for their inspect to the necropolis of Saqqara, which includes the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, the Serapeum, the pyramids of Teti and King Unas, and elite tombs from all epochs of ancient Egyptian history. The museum is discovered after Imhotep, the Old Kingdom official credited with design the Step Pyramid; later deified, he became honorable as a wise man and a patron of medicine

Gisr el-Mudir

The Gisr el-Mudir , placed just west of King Sekhemkhets pyramid complex, was located in the early twentieth century, but not inquired until the middle-1990s. It comprises of masonry of roughly hewn limestone blockages in layers, taking it potentially the earliest known stone structure in Egypt. Its builder is unknown, but proposed dates have shifted from Dynasty 3 to the Early Dynastic period, and in particular to Dynasty 2. Others have tentatively imputed the Gisr el-Mudir to Khasekhemwy. Pottery observed during the 1995 season can be antique to the end of Dynasty 2 or starting of the third Dynasty. Accordingly, it has been indicated that these empty precincts are the counterparts of the Abydene enclosures built in muck brick.

King Shepseskaf (2472-2467)

Cartouche of Shepseskaf

King Shepseskaf was the sixth Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He governed ancient Egypt from 2472 BC to 2467 BC. Shepseskaf was in power through a very difficult political period, during which there were galore confrentations with assorted priests. Many Nomes desired independence and rose against Shepseskaf's authority. He completed his predecessors' repositories, but some records indicate that he was not settled from a royal line. His tomb is in South Saqqara. Mykerinos was delivered the goods by his oldest enduring son, Shepseskaf. His wife, Bunefer; bore him a daughter, Khamaat, who tied the Memphite high-priest Ptah-shepses. According to the Turin King-list, Shepseskaf's reign lasted for just four years.This may correspond well with the fact that the highest attested year for this king is the year after the first cattle count. This, however, left him with enough time not only to errect his have funerary memorial but besides to hastily clean his father's mortuary temple.

Shepseskaf's Mastaba

Again matching to the Turin King-list, his reign was came by a two year reign of an unknown king, who may be identified with king Thamphthis shown by Manetho. Shepseskaf chosen not to have a pyramid, but a sarcophagus-like mastaba as a tomb and he run back to the cemetery of Saqqara. This is seen by some Egyptologists as a sign of shifting beliefs, by others as a sign that he wanted to distance himself from the constructing policy of his sires. Others again see it as proof that the establishing policy of Kheops and Khefren had entirely exhausted the resourcefulnesses and wealth of the royal family. Shepseskaf was the sixth king of the 4th Dynasty. He found ancient Egypt from 2472 BC to 2467 BC. Shepseskaf was in power through a very difficult semipolitical period, during which there were many confrentations with several priests. Many Nomes in demand independence and risen against Shepseskaf's authority. He total his predecessors' memorials, but some records show that he was not descended from a royal line. His tomb is in South Saqqara.

Shepseskaf was probably not of royal standard and had to merry in to the first family to get have of the throne. When he came to power there are denotations of some disorder in Egypt. His first years look to have been quite difficult with oppositions with various chemical groups of priests and probably parts of the nobility as well. The most essential was when states rebelled against his authority. If the conflict escalated beyond civil obedience we don't know, but it credibly did not. He restored order in the country and could clean his predecessor Menkaure's repositories at Giza. The only portraying maybe to be of him is a head of white alabastrine (above right), but its identification is very disputable since it was found in the Valley Temple of Menkaure whose characteristics it looks to have. Shepseskaf is alone in Egyptian history by constructing an invention of his own for his serious monument, today called "Mastabat el-Faraún" - Pharaoh's Mastaba. I was called "the Purified Pyramid" though the hieroglyph in the name (in picture left) was of another shape. This monument was made as a sarcophagus-like mastaba with a slenderly vaulted roof, and placed 20 km south of Giza 3 km southeast of the old memorial park of Sakkara. If this new design (never to be recurring) was a sign of switching beliefs is uncertain, but by this he broke the building tradition accepted by the pharaohs in the past. The superstructure was of clean design with the grave chamber placed asymmetrical to the geometrical centre of the construction.

The Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

The Fourth Dynasty dated back to (2630—2524). Manetho Africanus lists two other kings in this list, a king names Ratoisis (ruling 25 years) between Menkaure and Bakare, and another king Thamplitis (ruling 9 years) after Shepseskaf. Manetho Africanus: also does not mention Djedefre.

The dynasty list of Kings:

King Sneferu (2575—2551)