The pyramid of Ity was probably the tomb of Pharaoh who reigned during the

8th dynasty The Eighth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty VIII) is a poorly known and short-lived line of pharaohs reigning in rapid succession in the early 22nd century BC, likely with their seat of power in Memphis. The Eighth Dynasty held sway at a time re ...

. It has never been discovered and is known only from a cliff-face inscription at

Wadi Hammamat Wadi Hammamat ( en, Valley of Many Baths, ''India way; gateway to India'') is a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern Desert, about halfway between Al-Qusayr and Qena. It was a major mining region and trade route east from the Nile Valley in ancien ...

in the

Eastern Desert The Eastern Desert (Archaically known as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara desert that is located east of the Nile river. It spans of North-Eastern Africa and is bordered by the Nile river to the west and the Red Sea and ...

, where there were several quarries in Pharaonic times. The name of the pyramid, ''Baw-Iti'' ("the power of Ity"), may be a direct reference to the name of the

pyramid of Neferefre The pyramid of Neferefre, also known as the pyramid of Raneferef, (in Egyptian language, ancient Egyptian ''Nṯrỉ bꜣw Nfr-f-Rꜥ'' ("Divine is Neferefre's power")) is a 25th century BC unfinished Egyptian pyramid, pyramid complex built for th ...

, ''Netjeri-baw-Ra-nefer-ef'' ("the power of Neferefre is divine"), from the

5th Dynasty The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and VI under the group title the Old Kingdom. The Fifth Dynasty pharaohs reigned for approximately 150 years, from the early 25th century BC until ...

The inscription in Wadi Hammamat

The partially damaged inscription records that two ship captains, Ipi and Nikauptah, had been sent on an expedition to the site in order to acquire building material for a pyramid in the first year of Ipi's reign. The inscription's statement of the number of troops on the expedition is damaged and may have been inscribed wrongly, so that it is uncertain what it said: Wolfgang Schenkel reads 200 rowers, 400(?) pioneers (?) and 200 ''rtn'', while Christoffer Theis reads 200 soldiers and 200 emissaries with 200 men (interpreting this last figure as a correction), using line drawings made by

Lepsius Lepsius is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Johannes Lepsius (1858–1926), German humanitarian *Karl Richard Lepsius, Prussian Egyptologist *Reinhold Lepsius (1857–1922), German painter *Sabine Lepsius Sabine Lepsi ...

and Sethe.Theis: ''Die Pyramiden der Ersten Zwischenzeit.'' p. 330. In addition to Ipi and Nikauptah, the names of two troop leaders, Thiemsaf and Irinakhti, are recorded. Detailed information on the type and amount of stone they sought is not recorded.

Identifications

The English Egyptologist

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...

tentatively identified Ity with the Sixth dynasty Pharaoh

Userkare Userkare (also Woserkare, meaning "Powerful is the soul of Ra") was the second pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty, reigning briefly, 1 to 5 years, in the late 24th to early 23rd century BC. Userkare's relation to his predecessor Teti and successor Pe ...

, whose tomb has not yet been identified, but is probably in the area of Saqqara South known today as Tabbet al-Guesh, north-west of the

mortuary complex of Pepi I The pyramid of Pepi I (in ancient Egyptian Men-nefer-Pepi meaning Pepi's splendour is enduring) is the pyramid complex built for the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty in the 24th or 23rd century BC. The complex gave its name to the ...

. Petrie's identification relied solely on his estimation of the inscription to the Sixth Dynasty and the fact that Userkare was the only king of this period whose full titulary was not known. This identification is nowadays deemed conjectural In the 1930s,

Cecil Mallaby Firth Cecil Mallaby Firth (5 July 1878 – 1931) was a British Egyptologist. Firth was baptised at Ashburton in Devon on 14 August 1878, the son of Henry Mallaby Firth, gent., and Frances (Fanny) Caunter. He became a lawyer, and after briefly wor ...

suggested that the pyramid of Ity might be the

Headless Pyramid The Headless Pyramid, otherwise identified as Lepsius XXIX, is the remain of a Egyptian pyramid, pyramid complex built in Saqqara. The identity of the pyramid owner is unclear, though it is suspected to belong to either pharaoh Menkauhor of the F ...

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...

. Firth supported this suggestion by reference to some pieces of pink granite and the broken lid of a sarcophagus found there, but could offer no other evidence. The Headless Pyramid has subsequently been identified as the tomb of King

Menkauhor Kaiu Menkauhor Kaiu (also known as Ikauhor and in Greek as Mencherês, Μεγχερῆς) was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Old Kingdom period. He was the seventh ruler of the Fifth Dynasty at the end of the 25th century BC or early in the 24 ...

of the 5th dynasty and Firth's theory is thus obsolete.Theis: ''Die Pyramiden der Ersten Zwischenzeit.'' p. 333.

References

Bibliography

* * C. R. Lepsius: ''Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien.'' Part II: ''Denkmäler des alten Reichs.'' Volume 4. Nicolai, Berlin 1850, Tab. 115f.,
Online version
. * * Wolfgang Schenkel: ''Memphis – Herakleopolis – Theben. Die epigraphischen Zeugnisse der 7.–11. Dynastie Ägyptens.'' (= ''Ägyptologische Abhandlungen (ÄA).'' Vol. 12, ). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 26. *

Kurt Sethe Kurt Heinrich Sethe (30 September 1869 – 6 July 1934) was a noted German Egyptologist and philologist from Berlin. He was a student of Adolf Erman. Sethe collected numerous texts from Egypt during his visits there and edited the '' Urkunden ...

: ''Urkunden des Alten Reichs'' (= ''Urkunden des ägyptischen Altertums.'' Part 1). 1. Vol, 2. No. 2., heavily revised edition. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1933, p. 148,
PDF; 10,6 MB
. * Christoffer Theis: "Die Pyramiden der Ersten Zwischenzeit. Nach philologischen und archäologischen Quellen." ''Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur.'' Vol. 39, 2010, , pp. 321–339. {{coord missing, Egypt Pyramids of the Eighth Dynasty of Egypt

The inscription in Wadi Hammamat

Identifications

See also

References

Bibliography