Saqqara

Saqqara Latest News

Archaeologists in Egypt recently discovered an ancient tomb belonging to the “keeper of the secrets of royal decrees,” they announced following an excavation at Saqqara. 

About Saqqara

• It is part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis.
• It lies 24 km southwest of Cairo and west of the modern Arab village of Ṣaqqārah.  
• The site extends along the edge of the desert plateau for about 8 km, bordering Abū Ṣīr to the north and Dahshūr to the south. 
• In 1979 the ancient ruins of the Memphis area, including Ṣaqqārah, Abū Ṣīr, Dahshūr, Abū Ruwaysh, and the Pyramids of Giza, were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. 
• Saqqara contains numerous pyramids, tombs, mastabas, temples, and other funerary monuments.
• A mastaba is an ancient Egyptian rectangular tomb structure with a flat roof and sloping sides.
• Saqqara is where the transition from the use of the mastaba as a burial site to the pyramid design that is more popularly known today took place. 
• Kings and noblemen from the very first two dynasties (c.3040–2686 BC) were buried here, and this is also the location of the Step Pyramid of Djoser (c.2686–2667 BC).  
  • It is the oldest surviving pyramid in the world.    
  • Designed by the architect Imhotep, its distinctive six-tiered form marked a crucial stage in the development of pyramid construction and paved the way for the great pyramids that followed. 
• The pyramids of some of the most important kings of the Old Kingdom Fifth (c.2494–2345 BC) and Sixth (c.2345–2181 BC) Dynasties are located in Saqqara. 
• One of these, the pyramid of Unas (also known as Wenis; (c.2375–2345 BC), features the oldest pyramid burial chamber decorated with texts.  
• Among the most important of Saqqara’s monuments is the Serapeum, a series of underground galleries in which the Apis Bulls were buried from the Eighteenth Dynasty (c.1550–1295 BC) to the Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BC). 
  • The Apis Bull was considered an incarnation of Ptah himself, one of the most important gods of Memphis.

News: LS

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