SAQQARA - THE FIRST PYRAMID Saqqara is situated 40 km from Cairo on the west bank of the Nile in northern Egypt. The modern designation is thought to be derived from the name of the god Sokar, ancient god of the necropolis. The cemetery was in use from the 1st Dynasty (3100 BC) to the Christian Period (AD 540). The site is enormous: 6 km long and 1.5 km wide. In the Early Dynastic Period (3100-2670 BC) an extensive cemetery of mudbrick mastaba ‘bench’ tombs developed along the northern edge of the plateau. These consisted of a deep pit roofed with timber and a superstructure for the storage of equipment. The archaeologist Walter Emery, who cleared 13 of these tombs, thought that this was the cemetery of the 1st and 2nd Dynasty kings, but they are now known to belong to high officials from this period. In the 3rd Dynasty, the architect Imhotep devised the step-pyramid for King Djoser. This was the first time that dressed stone architecture had been used on a grand scale. Originally a stone mastaba was built for the king, the burial apartments surrounded by a network of storage facilities. Around the mastaba was a network of dummy administrative and religious buildings to the east including a sed-festival court for the eternal celebration of the king’s jubilee. The mastaba was subsequently altered by the addition of smaller mastabas to create a 4-stepped pyramid and then the entire structure was enlarged to form a 6-stepped pyramid which rises to a height of 140m. The complex was cleared and restored by C.M. Firth and Jean-Philippe Lauer. Djoser’s successor Sekhemkhet planned a larger step pyramid structure to the west but this was never completed. A number of kings of the 5th (Userkaf and Unas) and 6th Dynasty (Tety) constructed pyramid tombs at the site. These were small rubble filled structures cased with white limestone from Tura. The burial chamber in each example was located under the apex of the pyramid near ground level. Mortuary complexes were located on the east side together with causeways giving access to the Nile Valley. From the reign of Unas onwards, the burial chambers were decorated with the ‘Pyramid Texts’, a corpus of religious incantations which were designed to assist the king to become an immortal. During the Old Kingdom, members of the Memphite elite were buried in stone mastaba tombs. The mastaba tombs of this period are built of stone and take the form of houses with vestibules, courtyards, pillared halls and private apartments. Decoration includes offering scenes, funerary rituals, and marsh scenes. The most important are the tombs of Ti, Mereruka, Kagemni and Ankhmakhor, all Viziers from the reign of King Tety. During the New Kingdom (1550-1180 BC), members of the elite were buried either in stone tombs at the southern end of the site, or in rock-cut tombs along the escarpment. Archaeologist Alain Zivie has cleared rock-tombs of the 18th Dynasty in the escarpment near the Tety Pyramid, including the tomb of the Vizier Aperel and the tomb of Maia, the nurse of Tutankhamun. The general Horemhab built a tomb in the area south of the Unas Causeway during the reign of Tutankhamen which was cleared by Geoffrey Martin. The superstructure took the form of a small temple while the burial took place in rock-cut chambers below. The Serapeum, sacred to the god Serapis, was developed at the northern end of the site for the burial of the sacred Apis bull of Ptah. Ka-em-waset the son of Ramesses II and High Priest of Ptah was buried there as well. In the Late Period (747-332 BC), large numbers of sacred animals were buried in underground galleries nearby. B.C. Archaeology Travel is leading a tour of Egypt which includes a visit to Saqqara ANCIENT EGYPT: THE AMARNA PERIOD A tour of ancient Egypt (Amarna Period) led by Dr Michael Birrell Includes: Beni Hasan, Giza, Amarna, Abydos, Luxor, 5 night luxury Nile Dahabiya cruise, Esna, Edfu, Philae 6th - 27th March 2015 $7800.00 including airfares from Australia Itinerary: bcarchaeology/amarna.html
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 20:31:50 +0000
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