{"id":19298,"date":"2026-09-09T11:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=19298"},"modified":"2026-09-09T16:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T10:55:00","slug":"saqqara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/saqqara\/","title":{"rendered":"Saqqara"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Saqqara Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Archaeologists in Egypt recently discovered an ancient tomb belonging to the &#8220;keeper of the secrets of royal decrees,&#8221; they announced following an excavation at Saqqara.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Saqqara<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">part of the <\/span><b>necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It lies 24 km <\/span><b>southwest of Cairo<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and west of the modern Arab village of \u1e62aqq\u0101rah.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The site extends along the <\/span><b>edge of the desert plateau<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for about 8 km, bordering Ab\u016b \u1e62\u012br to the north and Dahsh\u016br to the south.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In 1979<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the<\/span><b> ancient ruins of the Memphis area, including \u1e62aqq\u0101rah,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ab\u016b \u1e62\u012br, Dahsh\u016br, Ab\u016b Ruwaysh, and the Pyramids of Giza, were collectively designated a <\/span><b>UNESCO World Heritage site.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saqqara contains numerous <\/span><b>pyramids, tombs, mastabas, temples,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other funerary monuments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>mastaba <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is an<\/span><b> ancient Egyptian rectangular tomb structure <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with a<\/span><b> flat roof <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>sloping sides.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Saqqara <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is where the <\/span><b>transition from the use of the mastaba <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as a burial site <\/span><b>to the pyramid design<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that is more popularly known today took place.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Kings and noblemen from the very first two dynasties (c.3040\u20132686 BC) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">were <\/span><b>buried<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> here, and this is also the location of the<\/span><b> Step Pyramid of Djoser (c.2686\u20132667 BC).\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>oldest surviving pyramid in the world.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Designed by the<\/span><b> architect Imhotep<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, its<\/span><b> distinctive six-tiered form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> marked a crucial stage in the development of pyramid construction and paved the <\/span><b>way for the great pyramids that followed.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pyramids of some of the most important kings of the Old Kingdom Fifth (c.2494\u20132345 BC) and Sixth (c.2345\u20132181 BC) Dynasties are located in Saqqara.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of these, the <\/span><b>pyramid of Unas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (also known as Wenis; (c.2375\u20132345 BC), features the <\/span><b>oldest pyramid burial chamber decorated with texts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the most important of Saqqara\u2019s monuments is the <\/span><b>Serapeum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a <\/span><b>series of underground galleries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in which the <\/span><b>Apis Bulls were buried<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the Eighteenth Dynasty (c.1550\u20131295 BC) to the Ptolemaic Period (332\u201330 BC).\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Apis Bull was considered an <\/span><b>incarnation of Ptah himself,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> one of the most important gods of Memphis.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/archaeology\/ancient-egyptians\/ancient-egyptian-tomb-holding-the-kings-keeper-of-secrets-unearthed-at-saqqara\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>LS<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saqqara is part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. Read more about Saqqara, Location, History, Dynasties, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":123617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,10137,22,23],"class_list":["post-19298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-saqqara","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19298"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123685,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19298\/revisions\/123685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}