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

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.