The pyramid of Sahure () is a
pyramid complex built in the late 26th to 25th century BC for the
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
pharaoh
Sahure
Sahure (also Sahura, meaning "He who is close to Re") was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2465 – c. 2325 BC). He reigned for about 13 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. ...
of the
Fifth 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 ...
. It introduced a period of pyramid building by Sahure's successors in
Abusir
Abusir ( ar, ابو صير ; Egyptian ''pr wsjr'' cop, ⲃⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲓ ' "the House or Temple of Osiris"; grc, Βούσιρις) is the name given to an Egyptian archaeological locality – specifically, an extensive necropolis o ...
, on a location earlier used by
Userkaf
Userkaf (known in Ancient Greek as , ) was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for seven to eight years in the early 25th century BC, during the Old Kingdom period. He probably belonged to a branch of the ...
for his
sun temple. The site was first thoroughly excavated by
Ludwig Borchardt
Ludwig may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Ludwig (surname), including a list of people
* Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and ...
between March 1907 and 1908, who wrote the standard work () between 1910 and 1913.
The pyramid complex's layout was adopted by succeeding kings of the Fifth and
Sixth Dynasties, marking a milestone in pyramid complex construction. Compared to the preceding
Fourth Dynasty
The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...
, the immensity of the constructions was dramatically reduced but, in tandem, the
decorative programme proliferated and temples were augmented by enlarged storeroom complexes. The complex is estimated to have had of finely carved
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
adorning its walls, of which has been preserved. Some of these reliefs are considered unparalleled in
Egyptian art
Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculpture ...
, such as the by (4.2 × 1.6
royal cubits) hunting scene from the
mortuary temple Mortuary temples (or funerary temples) were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh under whom they were constructed, as well as ...
. For comparison, Sahure's temple contained 370 running metres (1,214 running feet) of such relief decoration, while the temple of Khufu's
Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World ...
contained 100 running metres (328 running feet). The complex is also remarkable for the array of valuable materials – such as
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
,
alabaster
Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...
and
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
– used extensively in its construction.
The main pyramid was built from roughly hewn
limestone block
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when t ...
s bound with
mud mortar and encased with fine white
Tura limestone. It had a base of about to long converging at either 50°11′40″ or 50°30′ towards the apex between and high. The architects made an error in demarcating the pyramid base, extending it too far east. The pyramid's internal chambers were devastated by stone thieves, rendering an accurate reconstruction impossible. Stone fragments believed to belong to the king's basalt
sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
are the only remains of the burial that have been found. The mortuary temple adjacent to the pyramid's east face comprises an entrance hall, an open courtyard, a five-niche statue chapel, an offering hall, and storerooms. These elements had appeared in mortuary temples since the reign of
Khafre. South of the temple is the enclosure with the cult pyramid, employing the same construction method used in the main pyramid but on a reduced scale, with a base length of converging at 56° to a peak high. The complex's two temples are linked by a long intricately decorated and well-illuminated causeway. The valley temple is situated on Abusir lake and is unusual for having two entrances: the main on its east side, and a secondary one on its south. It remains unclear why a second entry point was built, though it may have been connected to a pyramid town to its south.
Sahure's mortuary temple became the object of a cult of
Sekhmet
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis (), also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, cop, Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, Sakhmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness.
Sekhmet is a solar de ...
around the
Eighteenth Dynasty. The cult was active through to the
Ptolemaic Kingdom, though its influence began to wane following the reign of
Ramesses II
Ramesses II ( egy, wikt:rꜥ-ms-sw, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is oft ...
. This period heralded the first
wave of destruction on the Abusir monuments, whilst Sahure's escaped the dismantlement, possibly as a result of the cult's presence. The monuments stirred interest again in the
Twenty-Fifth to
Twenty-Sixth Dynasties, which is shown by the copying of reliefs from the mortuary temples of Sahure, Nyuserre and
Pepi II
Pepi II Neferkare (2284 BC – after 2247 BC, probably either 2216 or 2184 BC) was a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom who reigned from 2278 BC. His second name, Neferkare (''Nefer-ka-Re''), means "Beautiful is ...
by the pharaoh
Taharqa
Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo ( Egyptian: 𓇿𓉔𓃭𓈎 ''tꜣ-h-rw-k'', Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-u2'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of ...
for the temple of
Kawa in
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
. A second wave of destruction of the Abusir monuments took place in the
Twenty-Seventh Dynasty
The Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVII, alternatively 27th Dynasty or Dynasty 27), also known as the First Egyptian Satrapy (), was effectively a province ( Satrapy) of the Achaemenid Persian Empire between 525 BC and 404 BC. ...
, but Sahure's temple was spared again, the cult still being present. With the onset of the
Roman period
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
, the Abusir monuments, including Sahure's, were subjected to a third wave of destruction. At the
beginning of the Christian era, Sahure's temple became the site of a
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
shrine, as evidenced by the recovery of pottery and graffiti dating to between the 4th and 7th century AD. Thereafter, until the late 19th century, the monuments were periodically quarried for limestone.
Location and excavation
![Borchardt (Blatt 2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Borchardt_%28Blatt_2%29.png)
Sahure chose a site near
Abusir
Abusir ( ar, ابو صير ; Egyptian ''pr wsjr'' cop, ⲃⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲓ ' "the House or Temple of Osiris"; grc, Βούσιρις) is the name given to an Egyptian archaeological locality – specifically, an extensive necropolis o ...
for his funerary monument, thus constructing the first pyramid in the region. Earlier,
Userkaf
Userkaf (known in Ancient Greek as , ) was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for seven to eight years in the early 25th century BC, during the Old Kingdom period. He probably belonged to a branch of the ...
, founder of the
Fifth 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 ...
, chose Abusir for his
sun temple. It is unclear why Userkaf sought such a remote site. It may have been significant for the nearby
cult of Ra, or, in the opinion of the Egyptologist
Werner Kaiser, the southernmost point from which the gilded
pyramidion
A pyramidion (plural: pyramidia) is the uppermost piece or capstone of an Egyptian pyramid or obelisk. Speakers of the Ancient Egyptian language referred to pyramidia as ''benbenet'' and associated the pyramid as a whole with the sacred ...
of the pillar-like structure in the temple of Ra in
Heliopolis could be seen. It is clear, however, that his decision influenced the history of Abusir, including Sahure's decision to build his monument there. Three of the Abusir pyramids–Sahure,
Neferirkare
Neferirkare (sometimes referred to as Neferirkare II because of Neferirkare Kakai) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighth Dynasty during the early First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC). According to the egyptologists Kim Ryholt, ...
and
Neferefre
Neferefre Isi (; also known as Raneferef, Ranefer and in Greek as , ) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He was most likely the eldest son of pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II. ...
– are linked at the northwest corners by an imaginary line running to Heliopolis (''Iunu''). The diagonal was broken by
Nyuserre, who positioned his complex between those of Neferirkare and Sahure.
Early excavators did not perform thorough investigations of Sahure's monument, perhaps discouraged by its ruined state. In 1838,
John Shae Perring, an engineer working under Colonel
Howard Vyse, cleared the entrances to the Sahure,
Neferirkare
Neferirkare (sometimes referred to as Neferirkare II because of Neferirkare Kakai) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighth Dynasty during the early First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC). According to the egyptologists Kim Ryholt, ...
and
Nyuserre pyramids. Perring was the first to enter the substructure of Sahure's pyramid in modern times. Five years later,
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius ( la, Carolus Richardius Lepsius) (23 December 181010 July 1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist.
He is widely known for his magnum opus ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien'' ...
, sponsored by King
Frederick William IV of Prussia
Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...
, explored the Abusir necropolis and
catalogued Sahure's pyramid as XVIII. The pyramid was also re-entered by
Jacques de Morgan
Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French people, French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt during the 19th ...
, but he too did not explore further. No further investigations were performed for the next fifty years until the Egyptologist
Ludwig Borchardt
Ludwig may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Ludwig (surname), including a list of people
* Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and ...
visited the site.
From 1902 to 1908, Borchardt, working for the
Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (, ''German Oriental Society''), abbreviated DOG, is a German voluntary association based in Berlin dedicated to the study of the Near East.
The DOG was officially founded in January 1898 to foster public interes ...
(German Oriental Society), had the Abusir pyramids resurveyed and their adjoining temples and causeways excavated. From March 1907 to March 1908, Borchardt had Sahure's pyramid thoroughly investigated, and had trial digs conducted at nearby sites, including
Neferefre's unfinished pyramid. He published his findings in the two-volume study ''Das Grabdenkmal des Königs Sahu-re'' (1910–13), which remains the standard work on the complex.
In 1994, the Egyptian
Supreme Council of Antiquities opened the Abusir necropolis to tourism. In preparation, restorative works were conducted at Sahure's pyramid. The archeologist
Zahi Hawass
Zahi Abass Hawass ( ar, زاهي حواس; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist, Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, serving twice. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Wes ...
had a segment of Sahure's causeway cleaned and reconstructed, during which large relief-decorated limestone blocks that had been buried in the sand were uncovered. The reliefs found on these blocks were thematically and artistically unique and shed new light on the decorative programme of the complex.
Mortuary complex
Layout
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
mortuary complexes typically consist of five main components: (1) a valley temple; (2) a causeway; (3) a mortuary temple; (4) a cult pyramid; and (5) the main pyramid. Sahure's east–west oriented complex contains all of these elements. Its tall main pyramid comprised six ascending steps of stone encased in fine white limestone, with a cult pyramid located at the south-east corner, and a mortuary temple, the standard-bearer for future variants, adjacent to its east face. These connected to the valley temple, situated on Abusir lake, by a long limestone causeway. From the outset of the Fifth Dynasty, the main pyramids were dramatically reduced in size and adopted simplified
construction techniques. Meanwhile,
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
decoration advanced in wealth of subject matter and quality of workmanship, and temples were outfitted with expansive storeroom complexes. Except for minor deviations, the complex built by Sahure became the model for the remainder of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties and the arrangement of the apartments of his mortuary temple became the standard for subsequent temples of the type in the Old Kingdom. Thereby it marked a milestone in the development of pyramid complex construction.
The complex is well-decorated, containing thematically diverse relief-work identified by the Egyptologist
Miroslav Verner
Miroslav Verner (born October 31, 1941 in Brno) is a Czech egyptologist, who specializes in the history and archaeology of Ancient Egypt of the Old Kingdom and especially of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.
Biography
Verner was the director of th ...
as "the highest level of the genre" found in the Old Kingdom. Across its entirety, it is estimated that of finely carved relief adorned the walls. His mortuary temple alone contained 370 running metres (1,214 running feet) of relief decorations. By contrast, Sneferu's mortuary temple contained 64 running metres (210 running feet) of relief decoration, Khufu's contained 100 running metres (328 running feet), and the temple of Sahure's direct predecessor Userkaf contained 120 running metres (394 running feet). The mortuary temple of Pepi II, the last king of the Old Kingdom, contained 200 running metres (656 running feet) of relief decoration, indicating a decline after Sahure too. No more than of fragmentary relief has been preserved from Sahure's temple, but this is considered well-preserved. Additionally, Sahure reserved of the mortuary temple's floorplan for storerooms, accounting for 21.6% of its total area. By comparison, the temple of Sneferu's
Red Pyramid
The Red Pyramid, also called the North Pyramid, is the largest of the pyramids located at the Dahshur necropolis in Cairo, Egypt. Named for the rusty reddish hue of its red limestone stones, it is also the third largest Egyptian pyramid, after th ...
at
Dahshur
DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...
, and temple of Khufu's
Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World ...
had no storerooms, while the temple of
Khafre's pyramid
The pyramid of Khafre or of Chephren ( ar, هرم خفرع, translit=haram ḵafraʿ, ) is the second-tallest and second-largest of the 3 Ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza and the tomb of the Fourth-Dynasty pharaoh Khafre (Chefren), who ruled . ...
reserved less than of space for storerooms, accounting for 15.8% of its total area. This change represents a shift in priority towards the daily activities of the mortuary cult.
Main pyramid
Sahure's pyramid is situated upon a hill elevated above the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
valley. Although the
subsoil
Subsoil is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. Like topsoil, it is composed of a variable mixture of small particles such as sand, silt and clay, but with a much lower percentage of organic matter and humus, and it ...
of the area has never been investigated, evidence from the nearby
mastaba
A mastaba (, or ), also mastabah, mastabat or pr- djt (meaning "house of stability", " house of eternity" or "eternal house" in Ancient Egyptian), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inwar ...
of
Ptahshepses
Ptahshepses was the vizier and son-in-law of the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. As such he was one of the most distinguished members of the royal court.
Ptahshepses' mastaba complex in Abusir is considered by many to be the most exten ...
suggests that the pyramid was not embedded into bedrock, but on a platform constructed from at least two layers of limestone. The pyramid had a core comprising six ascending steps, five of which remain. The steps were probably built from horizontally laid courses of limestone. The core consisted of low-grade roughly cut limestone bound with
mud mortar, and was encased by fine white limestone.
The pyramid was constructed in a drastically different manner to those of the preceding dynasty. Its outer faces were framed using massive, roughly dressed grey limestone blocks well joined with mortar. The inner chambers were similarly framed, but using considerably smaller blocks. The core of the pyramid, between the two frames, was then packed with a rubble
fill of limestone chips, pottery shards, and sand, with clay mortaring. This method, while less time- and resource-consuming, was careless and unstable, and meant that only the outer casing was constructed using high-quality limestone.
Pyramid of Sahure 2.jpg, alt=Photograph of a pyramid complex, The pyramid from the end of the causeway
Metropolitan Museum Collection. Model of King Sahure's Pyramid at Abusir.jpg, alt=3D model of a pyramid complex, Model of the complex from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
Pyramid of Sahure (1).jpg, alt=Photograph of a pyramid, Crumbling remains of the pyramid
Owing to the poor condition of the monument, information about its dimensions and appearance contains a degree of imprecision. The pyramid had a base length of about to converging at either 50° 11′ 40′′ or 50°30′ towards the apex between and high. The architects made a notable error in demarcating the base, causing the southeast corner to extend too far east. Consequently, it is not square. A ditch was left in the pyramid's north face during construction, which allowed workers to build the inner corridor and chambers while the core was being erected around it, before filling it in with rubble.
The pyramid is surrounded by a limestone paved courtyard, except where the mortuary temple sits, and is accessed from the temple's north and south wings. Enclosing the courtyard is a tall, rounded enclosure wall at its thickest.
Substructure
![Sahure Pyramid](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Sahure_Pyramid.png)
The substructure access is located slightly above ground on the pyramid's north face. A short descending corridor – lined with granite – leads into a vestibule, beyond which the route is guarded by a pink granite
portcullis
A portcullis (from Old French ''porte coleice'', "sliding gate") is a heavy vertically-closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications, consisting of a latticed grille made of wood, metal, or a combination of the two, which slides down gr ...
, with granite-lined walls on either side. The corridor is long sloped at 24° 48′, with a passage wide and high. The corridor following – lined with limestone – begins with a slight ascent becoming horizontal – lined with granite – just before its terminus. The ascending portion is long with a slope of 5°, while the horizontal section is long.
Precise reconstruction of the substructure plan has been rendered impossible by the extensive damage that stone thieves wrought on the chambers. Until 2019, sources differed as to whether the funerary apartment – estimated to be east-west by north-south – consisted of a single or twin chambers. Clearance of the substructure in 2019 confirmed that the funerary apartment consisted of two rooms, with the burial chamber still to be investigated.
The
antechamber
A vestibule (also anteroom, antechamber, or foyer) is a small room leading into a larger space such as a lobby, entrance hall or passage, for the purpose of waiting, withholding the larger space view, reducing heat loss, providing storage space ...
lies on the vertical axis of the pyramid, occupying of space, with the
burial chamber
A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interred than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could ...
to its west. The chambers had a ceiling constructed from three
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d layers of limestone blocks, which dispersed the weight from the superstructure onto either side of the passageway preventing collapse. Perring estimated the largest blocks to be long, wide and thick. Despite their size and weight, all but two have been broken. Inside the apartment's ruins, Perring found stone fragments – the only discovered remains of the burial – which he believed belonged to the king's basalt sarcophagus.
Valley temple
Sahure's now-ruined valley temple was situated on the shore of Abusir lake, on the edge of the desert. It had a rectangular ground plan long by wide and oriented on the north–south axis. Its base is now around below ground level, which has risen over the millennia due to the accumulation of silt deposits during the annual Nile flood. The temple's walls slope inwards as they rise, their corners are formed into a convex
torus mould up to a
cavetto
A cavetto is a concave moulding with a regular curved profile that is part of a circle, widely used in architecture as well as furniture, picture frames, metalwork and other decorative arts. In describing vessels and similar shapes in pottery, ...
cornice with its own horizontal torus mould.
The temple had two entrances. Its main entrance, in the east, consisted of a landing ramp leading to a column-adorned portico. Its floor was paved with polished basalt, its walls had a red granite
dado above which was limestone decorated with bas-relief, and it had a limestone ceiling that had been painted blue and decorated with relief-carved golden stars – representing the entrance into the ''
Duat
The Duat ( egy, dwꜣt, Egyptological pronunciation "do-aht", cop, ⲧⲏ, also appearing as ''Tuat'', ''Tuaut'' or ''Akert'', ''Amenthes'', ''Amenti'', or ''Neter-khertet'') is the realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian mythology. It has been ...
''. The columns were formed into
date palms, with leaves tied vertically to form capitals, and each column bore the king's titulary and name carved into the stone and painted green. An alternative entrance was built on the south side, accessed by a canal leading to a ramp up to another columned portico, this time containing four red granite columns. The columns, in contrast, were cylindrical in form and lacked any crown. This portico was also less deep and was paved with limestone. It remains unclear why this entrance was built. The wall may belong to Sahure's pyramid town, named "The soul of Sahure comes forth in glory".
The entrances were connected by passages to a T-shaped hall equipped with two columns. Borchardt describes the room as "two-tiered" (''doppelt gestaffelt''). It has a transverse space with a narrowed recess in its rear wall containing the two columns (the ''top steps'' of the two tiers), then an even narrower recess in the first's rear wall (the ''bottom steps'' of the two tiers). The room was originally adorned with polychromatic relief, and contained a scene depicting the king, as a
sphinx
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
or
griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...
, trampling captive Near Eastern and
Libyan
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
enemies led to him by
the gods. The room connects to two more rooms: a room with a staircase up to the roof terrace at the south end, and causeway at its rearmost recess.
A relief depiction of troops from Sahure's valley temple can be contrasted with similar imagery in Userkaf's complex. In Sahure's scene, the soldiers are carved with near identical postures, a stark contrast to Userkaf's confused arrangement of overlapping figures. The latter has greater dynamism inducing more interest, whilst the former is more readily understood. The monotony of Sahure's scene was balanced by craftsmen introducing detail in the musculature and facial features of the figures.
Causeway
A long, slightly inclined limestone causeway connected the valley temple to the mortuary temple. The causeway was roofed, with narrow slits left in the ceiling slabs allowing light to enter, illuminating its walls covered in polychromatic bas-relief. These included scenes with seemingly
apotropaic
Apotropaic magic (from Greek "to ward off") or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of superst ...
functions, such as a scene of the king represented as a sphinx crushing Egypt's enemies under his paw. Other scenes presented include offering bearers, animal slaughter, and the transport of the gilded pyramidion to the construction site. Only the base of the causeway, made of large limestone blocks, has been preserved.
![Borchardt-Sahure (Abb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Borchardt-Sahure_%28Abb._36_on_p._39%29.png)
The scene depicting emaciated nomads, reduced through starvation, to skin and bone – had important historical implications. The scene was thought only to exist in
Unas' causeway, and was thus believed to be unique eyewitness testimony to the declining living standards of Saharan nomads brought about by the end of the
Sahara wet phase in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The discovery of an identical scene in Sahure's causeway casts doubt onto this hypothesis. Instead, Miroslav Verner suggests that the nomads might have been brought into the pyramid town to demonstrate the hardships faced by builders bringing higher-quality stone from remote mountain areas.
A second discovered scene has implications for Fifth Dynasty genealogy. In this scene, Sahure is surrounded by his family in the palace garden ''Wtỉs-nfrw-Sꜣhw-rꜥ'' (Extolled is Sahure's beauty). The image confirms the identity of Sahure's consort,
Meretnebty Meretnebty was a Queen of Egypt as a wife of Pharaoh Sahure. She lived during the 5th Dynasty and was named after Two Ladies, a pair of Egyptian goddesses who protected the pharaoh.
Biography
Meretnebty's parents are not known. She is depicted w ...
, and his twin sons, Ranefer and Netjerirenre. Ranefer, who is depicted closer to Sahure and bears the titles "king's son" and "chief lector-priest", may have been Sahure's eldest son, ascending to the throne as Neferirkare Kakai. Netjerirenre may be the ephemeral ruler
Shepseskare
Shepseskare or Shepseskara ( Egyptian for "Noble is the Soul of Ra") was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the fourth or fifth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (2494–2345 BC) during the Old Kingdom period. Shepseskare lived in the mid-25th century BC ...
, who took the throne after Neferefre's early death.
Another important relief discovered depicts a procession of ships, led by the king, being moored at an unidentified location. The relief originated on the causeway south wall, and although the location depicted cannot be identified, a corresponding relief on the same wall depicts the king, his mother and wife, awaiting the arrival of ships carrying myriad goods from the land of
Punt – particular emphasis was placed on the ''
Commiphora myrrha
The genus of the myrrhs, ''Commiphora'', is the most species-rich genus of flowering plants in the frankincense and myrrh family, Burseraceae. The genus contains approximately 190 species of shrubs and trees, which are distributed throughout the ...
'' trees (''nht n ꜥntw''). Sahure's is the earliest recorded voyage taken by the Egyptians to Punt acquiring
myrrh
Myrrh (; from Semitic, but see '' § Etymology'') is a gum-resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus ''Commiphora''. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense and medicine. Myrrh mi ...
,
electrum
Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially, and ...
and wood from there.
Sahure is further depicted extracting myrrh with an
adze
An adze (; alternative spelling: adz) is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing ...
from the tree in one scene, and banqueting with his family, including his sons, and officials near the tree in another. The trees depicted may not be ''Commiphora myrrha'', as the use of an adze to extract resin was typically reserved for the ''
Boswellia
''Boswellia'' is a genus of trees in the order Sapindales, known for its fragrant resin. The biblical incense frankincense is an extract from the resin of the tree '' Boswellia sacra'', and is now produced also from '' B. frereana''.
Frankincens ...
'' tree, and moreover the colour of the resin in Sahure's scene was identified by the Egyptologist Tarek El-Awady as yellowish brown, like ''Boswellia'' frankincense, and not red, like myrrh.
Mortuary temple
The mortuary temple was an expansive, rectangular building positioned along the east–west axis, and situated on a level surface built from two layers of limestone blocks in front of the main pyramid's east face. The outer façade was inclined at 82° up to a cavetto cornice with torus mould. In its layout, Sahure's mortuary temple represented the "conceptual beginning" of all subsequent such temples of the Old Kingdom. It contained five basic elements, exemplified in the temple of
Khafre: an entrance hall, an open courtyard, a five-niche statue chapel, an offering hall, and storerooms. The dominant building material used in its construction, here as elsewhere, was limestone, but substantial valuable materials such as red and black granite, alabaster and basalt were also incorporated.
Entrance hall
The transition between causeway and temple was marked by a large granite gate leading into the mortuary temple's entrance hall. In the Fifth Dynasty, it was of the standard size of long, wide, and tall. The hall has suffered considerably, rendering a precise reconstruction impracticable. It had a limestone floor, its walls had red granite dado above which was, probably, limestone decorated with painted bas-relief scenes, and it was covered by a stone
barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
ceiling which had slits in its
tympanum allowing the enclosure to be dimly lit. Contemporary sources identify this room as the ''pr-wrw'' meaning "House of the Great Ones", and it may be a replica of the hall of the royal palace, where nobles were received and certain rituals performed. At its end, a granite doorway led to a closed corridor surrounding an open courtyard.
Corridor and courtyard
![AbuSirSahureEast](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/AbuSirSahureEast.jpg)
The corridor was paved with basalt, and its walls had a granite dado, above which they were decorated with colourful relief. On its north wall, scenes depict the king fishing and hunting wildfowl, while on the south wall the king is depicted hunting – antelopes, gazelles, deer and other horned animals are shepherded into an enclosure for the king to shoot with his bow and arrow, after which hound dogs seize and kill the animals, elsewhere
hyenas are observed poaching, and
hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introducti ...
s and
jerboa
Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts.
When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on b ...
scatter into their holes – whilst his courtiers observe. A masterful depth of detail has been incorporated into the latter scene, which measured long by high. The sedate posture of the king's courtiers, representing order, is juxtaposed against the mass of wounded and frightened animals depicted in a variety of postures and facing various directions, representing chaos. The imposing figure that is Sahure is unrivalled in any other example, and the gruesome detail of the injured animals is unreplicated. The figure of a hyena, pawing at an arrow in its jaw, reappears frequently in the
Middle and
New Kingdom, an homage to the relief from Sahure's temple.
Ptahhotep
Ptahhotep ( egy, ptḥ ḥtp "Peace of Ptah"), sometimes known as Ptahhotep I or Ptahhotpe, was an ancient Egyptian vizier during the late 25th century BC and early 24th century BC Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.
Life
Ptahhotep was the city administ ...
's tomb in
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. ...
contains an abridged, and slightly less skilfully executed, copy of this hunting scene.
![Berlín Sahure 28](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Berl%C3%ADn_Sahure_28.JPG)
The Egyptologist
Mark Lehner suggests that the corridor represented the untamed wilderness, surrounding a clearing – the open courtyard – of which the king was guarantor. From the reliefs depicting ships on the east-corridor west-wall and west-corridor (transverse corridor) east-wall, the Egyptologist
Dorothea Arnold contends that the courtyard and corridor form an architectural unit analogous to the Egyptian ''
benben
In the creation myth of the Heliopolitan form of ancient Egyptian religion,
Benben was the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu upon which the creator deity Atum settled. The Benben stone (also known as a pyramidion) is the top stone o ...
'' myth. The other reliefs present symbolize the king's role as guarantor of order and prosperity on the sacred island. Among the reliefs of this room an important discovery was made. One of the individuals present has been modified to include a brief inscription identifying them as "Neferirkare King of Upper and Lower Egypt" (''nsw-bỉt Nfr-ỉrỉ-kꜣ-rꜥ''). From this detail,
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 ...
, who was responsible for compiling and preparing the scenes for publication, developed the hypothesis that
Neferirkare Kakai
Neferirkare Kakai (known in Greek as Nefercherês, Νεφερχέρης) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the third king of the Fifth Dynasty. Neferirkare, the eldest son of Sahure with his consort Meretnebty, was known as Ranefer A before he ...
and Sahure were brothers, and that Neferirkare had had the relief corrected after ascending to the throne.
The open courtyard was paved with polished basalt and lined with sixteen red granite columns, supporting the roof of an ambulatory. Aside from an alabaster altar in the north-west corner decorated with scenes of sacrifice, the open courtyard is bare, though it originally had statues of the pharaoh placed between the columns, and may once also have contained statues of kneeling captives. Eleven of the original sixteen granite columns were found in the temple. Each was tall, and carved into the form of date palms, symbolising fertility and immortality, upon which the king's name and titulary was inscribed and painted in green. The
Two Ladies
In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" ( egy, nbtj, sometimes anglicized ''Nebty'') was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unificati ...
appear on these columns as well:
Nekhbet
Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron d ...
, the vulture goddess, in the south half representing
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
, and
Wadjet
Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...
, the cobra goddess, in the north half representing
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...
. Above, a red granite architrave bore the royal titulary, and further supported the limestone ceiling. The ambulatory's blue painted ceiling was decorated with yellow stars, whilst its limestone walls were decorated with polychrome bas-reliefs, fragments of which have been preserved, depicting the king's victory over his enemies – on the north wall Near Eastern peoples, on the south Libyans – and the acquired spoils. In a particular scene, showing the capture of animals, supplementary inscriptions identify the quantities seized: "123,440 head of cattle, 223,400 asses, 232,413 deer, and 243,688 sheep". In another scene, the family of a Libyan chief beg for his life to be spared whilst the king prepares to execute him. Under the northern ambulatory, a relief of exemplary craftsmanship depicting precious oil vases and
Syrian brown bears was found. The figures were given rounded edges so that they simultaneously blend in with the background and stand out clearly. Much of the paint used has been preserved: a dark red-brown colour was used for the vase and a yellow-brown for the bear's fur. Up to a further eleven scenes remain too fragmentary to be reconstructed.
Abousir Sahoure 03.jpg, alt=Photograph of basalt paving, Basalt paving of the courtyard
Sahure-Pyramid - Temple 05.jpg, alt=Photograph of massive stone blocks, Remnant of the massive granite architrave inscribed with Sahure's titulary
Palm Column of Sahure MET 10.175.137-Borchardt Pl6.jpg, alt=Cross-section image of an architectural design, Depiction of Sahure's mortuary temple as it appeared in the Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
Sahure-Pyramid - Temple 04.jpg, alt=Picture of a column's capital, Palmiform capital of a column
Transverse corridor and storage galleries
Beyond the courtyard is a transverse (north-south) corridor which separates the public outer from the private inner temple, which only priests were allowed to access. The corridor further served as an intersection connecting the outer and inner temples, the courtyard surrounding the pyramid, and the cult pyramid. At its northern end was a staircase up to the roof terrace. Its floor was paved with basalt, as the courtyard was, and its walls had a granite dado, above which was limestone decorated with bas-relief. On the north half of the corridor's east wall is a relief, considered by the Egyptologist
Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards
Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, (21 July 1909 – 24 September 1996) — known as I. E. S. Edwards— was an English Egyptologist and curator, considered to be a leading expert on the pyramids.
Biography
Born in London, he was the son of Edwar ...
to be amongst the most interesting in the temple, that depicts the king and his court observing the departure of twelve sea-going vessels, probably on expedition to
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
or
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
. In the south-half, a similar scene depicts the king and his court awaiting the arrival of ships laden with cargo and several Near Eastern peoples, who do not appear to be prisoners, indicating either a commercial or, perhaps, diplomatic mission. In the centre of the west wall of the corridor was an alabaster staircase that led into the five-niche statue chapel.
Flanking the staircase were two deep niches, each containing two granite papyriform columns high. The columns supported an
architrave
In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns.
The term can ...
, a fragment of which has been found in the oil press of St. Jeremiah monastery in Saqqara. The niche's walls were decorated with reliefs depicting processions of offering bearers, and they had recessed side doors leading to two-story storage galleries. The northern gallery consisted of ten rooms arranged in two rows, each outfitted with its own staircase – cut directly into the limestone walls – leading to the second story. These held cult objects used for the temple rituals. The southern gallery consisted of sixteen or seventeen rooms, also arranged in two rows and outfitted with staircases, that probably held sacrificial offerings. Reliefs in the corridors leading to the galleries even included ritual instructions, such as "presentation of gold" or "sealing a box containing incense" found in the north and south corridors respectively.
Royal fleet, returning ship with captured West Asiatics. Detail of a wall panel from the mortuary temple of Sahure at Abusir, Egypt. 25th century BCE. Neues Museum.jpg, alt=Photograph of relief decoration, Transverse corridor relief depicting a naval expedition
Sahoure10.JPG, alt=Photograph of storage rooms, The southern storage gallery where offerings were stored
Mortuary Temple of Sahure (V).jpg, alt=Photograph of stone steps, Carved stone steps of a two-story storage room
Statue chapel
The transverse corridor staircase leads into the five-niche statue chapel, a room with considerable religious importance. Accessed through a double-door, it had a floor paved with white alabaster, red granite sheathing in the niches and dado, fine white limestone sheathed walls elsewhere which was lavishly decorated in relief, and a limestone ceiling decorated with stars evoking the night sky of the ''Duat''. A small staircase stood before each niche, which was once occupied by a statue, none of which have been preserved. It was originally assumed that each statue represented one of the king's five names, but the
Abusir Papyri
The Abusir Papyri are the largest papyrus findings to date from the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt. The first papyri were discovered in 1893 at Abu Gorab near Abusir in northern Egypt. Their origins are dated to around the 24th century BC during ...
, discovered in the nearby pyramid of Neferirkare, indicate otherwise. The papyri identify that the central statue represented the king as
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
, while the two outermost ones represented him as the king of Upper Egypt, and the king of Lower Egypt. The remaining two are not identified. Exiting the chapel to the south is a path leading through two rooms – including a rectangular vestibule that appears to be a predecessor of the ''antichambre carrée'', first found in Nyuserre's mortuary temple – passing around a great stone massif and into the westernmost room of the temple, the offering hall.
Offering hall and auxiliary rooms
The offering hall of the temple held the most significance for the royal mortuary cult. The sanctuary was in length and wide. It was entered through a black granite door that opened up to a white alabaster paved floor, and walls with dado of black granite above which was fine white limestone decorated with polychromatic bas-relief depicting divinities bringing offerings to the king, and covered along its length by a vaulted ceiling with painted stars. A low alabaster altar stood at the west wall, at the foot of a granite false door, possibly covered in copper or gold, through which the spirit of the king would enter the room to receive his meal, before returning to his tomb. Unusually, the false door has been crudely fashioned, and bears none of the names, titles, or sacrificial formulas that are expected to be found. This led Borchardt to speculate that the door may have originally been sheathed with metal that was eventually stolen by thieves. The room also originally contained a black granite statue and an offering basin, located in a recessed niche in its south-west corner, with an outflow of copper piping. In the north wall, a granite doorway gives access to five auxiliary rooms, which served the offering hall.
Drainage system
Sahure's temple had an elaborate drainage system including more than of copper piping. Rainfall captured on the roof was funnelled out through stone lion-head spouts fit onto the tops of the outer walls. The choice of the lion-head may relate to the ancient Egyptian belief that
Set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
and other inimical deities could manifest themselves in rain. The lion, a symbolic protector of sacred ground, consumed the harmful spirits and ejected harmless water. Where no roof existed, gaps around the base of the outer walls collected the water, conducting it out using channels cut into the paving. Water and other liquids used in rituals and ceremonies, which had become impure and thus dangerous to touch, were removed using the drainage system. Five stone and copper-plated basins, each with a lead plug to fit the vent, were placed around the inner temple. The first was found in the offering hall, two more were in the auxiliary rooms beyond it, a fourth in the corridor leading up to the offering hall, and the fifth in the northern magazine gallery. These were connected via an intricate network of copper pipes laid beneath the temple, which led down the length of the causeway before terminating at an outlet on its southern side.
Borchardt-Sahure (Abb 112 & 113 on p. 82 - abridged).png, alt=Photographs of limestone channels, Limestone channels through which water and other liquids were drained
Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 102 on p. 76).png, alt=Photograph of a lead plug, Lead plug of a copper basin from the mortuary temple
Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 104 on p. 78).png, alt=Photograph of limestone channels from the offering hall, Carved limestone channels departing the offering hall
Cult pyramid
By the main pyramid's south-east corner, confined to a separate enclosure, lies a cult pyramid. The enclosure is accessed from either the southern end of the transverse corridor, or through a portico – the side entrance to Sahure's mortuary temple – flanked by two granite columns bearing Sahure's royal titulary. The portico floor was paved with basalt, as were the dado of its walls, above which the walls were built of limestone and decorated with polychromatic relief. The reliefs portrayed rows of deities,
nome and estate personifications, and fertility figures – all clutching ''
was-sceptre
The ''was'' (Egyptian '' wꜣs'' "power, dominion") sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art, and hieroglyphs associated with the ancient Egyptian religion. It appears as a stylized animal head at the top of a long, straight staf ...
s'' and ''
ankh
Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene.
This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...
'' signs – marching into the temple. An accompanying inscription bears their message to the king: "We give you all life, stability, and dominion, all joy, all offerings, all perfect things that are in Upper Egypt, since you have appeared as king of Upper and Lower Egypt alive forever". Beyond the portico, a room with two exits gives access to the transverse corridor in the north or to an oblong room preceding the cult pyramid in the south.
The cult pyramid had a core ascending in two or three steps, composed primarily of limestone block debris framed by yellow limestone blocks, and then encased with white limestone blocks – the same method of construction as used in the main pyramid. It had a base length of converging at 56° towards the apex high. From the north face, a bent corridor – initially descending, then switching to an ascent – leads into the miniature pyramid's sole chamber: an east–west oriented burial room slightly below ground level. The chamber was found void of any content, and its walls had been severely damaged by stone thieves.
The purpose of the cult pyramid remains unclear. Its burial chamber was not used for burials, but instead appears to have been a purely symbolic structure. It may have hosted the pharaoh's
''ka'' (spirit), or a miniature statue of the king. It may have been used for ritual performances centring on the burial and resurrection of the ''ka'' spirit during the ''
Sed
sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs,
and is available today for most operating systems.
sed w ...
'' festival.
Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 22 on p. 28).png, alt=Photograph of a ruined cult pyramid, Remains of the cult pyramid, with the lowest course of white limestone still intact
Sahure-Pyramid - Temple 03.jpg, alt=Photograph of archaeological remains, Remains of the mortuary temple; the side entrance columns to the right of image
Abousir Sahoure 07.jpg, alt=Photograph of a broken granite column, Granite column of the side entrance reading 'Sahure, given all life, health and joy for eternity'
Procession of deities at the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Sahure. From the Pyramid Complex of Sahure, Abusir. Neues Museum.jpg, Deities, nome and estate personages, and fertility figures marching into the temple, alt=Photograph of personages in a relief
Necropolis
There is a largely unexplored necropolis found through the side-entrance on the transverse corridor's southern end. It is thought to be the burial ground of Sahure's consort, Meretnebty, and son, Netjerirenre.
Later history
Funerary cult
The funerary cults at Abusir remained active through the reign of Pepi II at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, but their continuation beyond this time is a matter of dispute. Daily services, including offerings made before the false door of the offering hall and at the statues of the chapel, were held in the mortuary temple. Reliefs on the temple's side entrance walls depict processions of individuals with offerings entering into the temple, accompanied by detailed instructions for the butchers and porters. Sahure's funerary domains were also depicted on the reliefs of the causeway. Portrayed are processions of offering bearers bringing foodstuffs and leading animals into the temple. More than 200 funerary domains of Lower Egypt are shown on these blocks accounting for the most extensive record of such funerary domains yet discovered.
Priests who served Sahure's funerary cult include Tepemankh II, who also served numerous other kings from
Sneferu
Sneferu ( snfr-wj "He has perfected me", from ''Ḥr-nb-mꜣꜥt-snfr-wj'' "Horus, Lord of Maat, has perfected me", also read Snefru or Snofru), well known under his Hellenized name Soris ( grc-koi, Σῶρις by Manetho), was the founding phar ...
to
Userkaf
Userkaf (known in Ancient Greek as , ) was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for seven to eight years in the early 25th century BC, during the Old Kingdom period. He probably belonged to a branch of the ...
; Nikare, priest of the cult of Sahure and of the sun temple of Nyuserre; Senuankh and Nenkheftka, priests of the cults of Userkaf and Sahure; Kaemnefret, priest in Sahure's pyramid and in Neferirkare's pyramid and sun temple; Kuyemsnewy and Kamesenu, priests of the cults of Sahure, Neferirkare and Nyuserre.
Cult of Sekhmet
![Borchardt-Sahure (Abb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Borchardt-Sahure_%28Abb._176_on_p._129%29.png)
From at least the reign of
Thutmose III
Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 28 ...
of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, the south corridor of Sahure's mortuary temple became home to a cult of
Sekhmet
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis (), also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, cop, Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, Sakhmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness.
Sekhmet is a solar de ...
. The cult's early history is unknown. Borchardt suggested that it originated in the Middle Kingdom, but there is no evidence to support this conjecture. The earliest attested royal connection to the cult is
Thutmose IV
Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; egy, ḏḥwti.msi(.w) "Thoth is born") was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century ...
of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Further attestations include
Ay and
Horemheb
Horemheb, also spelled Horemhab or Haremhab ( egy, ḥr-m-ḥb, meaning " Horus is in Jubilation") was the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550–1295 BC). He ruled for at least 14 years between 1319 BC and 1292 BC. ...
,
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
through a
faience
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...
object with his name, and
Seti I
Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c.1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II.
The ...
and
Ramesses II
Ramesses II ( egy, wikt:rꜥ-ms-sw, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is oft ...
through restoration inscriptions bearing their names. The renewed attention had a negative consequence as it brought on the first
wave of dismantlement of the Abusir monuments, particularly for the acquisition of valuable Tura limestone. Sahure's mortuary temple may have been spared at this time due to the presence of the cult. Its influence probably waned after the end of Ramesses II's reign, becoming a site of local worship only.
The Abusir necropolis and Sahure's cult garnered attention again in the
Twenty-Fifth to
Twenty–Sixth Dynasties.
Taharqa
Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo ( Egyptian: 𓇿𓉔𓃭𓈎 ''tꜣ-h-rw-k'', Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-u2'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of ...
had various reliefs replicated – such as images of the king in the form of a sphinx crushing his enemies – from the mortuary temples of Sahure, Nyuserre, and Pepi II for the restoration of the temple of
Kawa in
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
. The cult of Sekhmet is also mentioned in a graffito found in the temple from
Ahmose II's reign. In the late Twenty-Sixth to the early
Twenty-Seventh Dynasty
The Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVII, alternatively 27th Dynasty or Dynasty 27), also known as the First Egyptian Satrapy (), was effectively a province ( Satrapy) of the Achaemenid Persian Empire between 525 BC and 404 BC. ...
, another period of dismantlement appears to have been visited on the monuments. Sahure's was again spared, protected by the cult into the
Ptolemaic Kingdom, though it had very reduced influence at this time.
A third wave of dismantlement of the Abusir monuments is attested in the
Roman period
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
by the abundant remains of mill-stones, lime production facilities, and worker shelters. At the
beginning of the Christian era,
Copts
Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...
founded a shrine in the temple, as shown by pottery and
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
graffiti dating to between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. Periodic farming of the monuments for limestone continued at least until the end of the 19th century.
See also
*
List of Egyptian pyramids
This list presents the vital statistics of the pyramids listed in chronological order, when available.
See also
* Egyptian pyramids
* Great Sphinx of Giza
* Lepsius list of pyramids
* List of Egyptian pyramidia
* List of the oldest building ...
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
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Zahi Hawass
Zahi Abass Hawass ( ar, زاهي حواس; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist, Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, serving twice. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Wes ...
,
Miroslav Verner
Miroslav Verner (born October 31, 1941 in Brno) is a Czech egyptologist, who specializes in the history and archaeology of Ancient Egypt of the Old Kingdom and especially of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.
Biography
Verner was the director of th ...
: ''Newly Discovered Blocks from the Causeway of Sahure (Archaeological Report).'' In: ''Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo.'' (MDIAK) vol. 52, von Zabern, Wiesbaden 1996, pp. 177–186.
* Tarek el-Awady: ''King Sahure with the Precious Trees from Punt in a Unique Scene'', in: Proceeding of “Art and Architecture of the Old Kingdom”, Prague 2007 pp. 37–44.
* Tarek el-Awady: ''The Royal Navigation Fleet of Sahure'', in: Study in Honor of Tohfa Handousa, ASAE (2007).
{{Egyptian pyramids
Pyramids of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
Buildings and structures completed in the 25th century BC
3rd-millennium BC establishments in Egypt
19th-century archaeological discoveries
Limestone buildings
Abusir