The bustling streets of modern Cairo bear witness to Egypt’s rich tapestry of history, and in the shadow of this vibrant city lies the ancient necropolis of Abusir that whispers tales of a bygone era. Nestled amidst the sand and winds of time, this burial ground has preserved the legacy of ancient Egyptian Pharaohs and nobles, offering a rare glimpse into lives and beliefs during the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

The Abusir Necropolis, meaning the “House of Osiris,” is a nod to the ancient Egyptian gods of the afterlife who guided souls to the realm of the dead. It houses remnants of the Old Kingdom that are intricately woven into the desert fabric.

One of the defining features of Abusir is its collection of pyramids standing as silent sentinels to the past. These magnificent structures were the final resting places of Pharaohs and members of the royal family during the Fifth Dynasty. Kings such as Sahure, Neferirkare, and Nyuserre selected Abusir as the sacred ground in which they wanted to rest eternally.

The Pyramids of Abusir are awe-inspiring in their design and execution, showcasing the evolution of pyramid construction techniques in ancient Egypt. Their distinctive characteristics, like the smooth-sided Pyramid of Neferirkare and the Pyramid of Sahure, highlight the architectural innovation of ancient Egypt.

The architecture of the Sahure Pyramid in particular has stirred the attention of scholars and archaeologists as its interior is unknown.

The Sahure Pyramid Complex is not just a solitary edifice, but is also a symbolic representation of the era’s values. The complex also houses smaller subsidiary pyramids dedicated to Sahure’s queen, underscoring the reverence accorded to royal women during the period.

To reveal more of the secrets of this pyramid, in 1837 British Egyptologist John Perring was the first scholar to clean the entrance of the Pyramid and the descending access passage. “Although the pyramid was in a very bad state of preservation and the passage at the entrance was full of falling stones that continued to fall down from an opening in the ceiling, Perring made a great effort trying to clean and enter it,” said Egyptologist Mohamed Ismail Khaled, head of the Egyptian-German mission from the University of Würzburg, now working at the Sahure Pyramid.

He added that Perring was the first to make a plan of the passage inside the Pyramid, bringing palm tree trunks from the Mit Rahina village to shore up the loose blocks inside it. Ten days later, Perring succeeded in reaching the burial chamber, which was full of broken stones. It was too difficult and dangerous to continue cleaning and removing the fallen stones in order to reach the original walls of the chamber.

After removing the stones from the chamber, the remnants of a basalt sarcophagus were uncovered in the debris. “However, this is not clear evidence that the room could have been a burial chamber,” said Khaled, explaining that Perring did not venture further to the west to assure himself that this was the pyramid’s burial chamber. He did not reach the original main limestone wall of the room because in his plan the line of the western wall of the room is not a straight one.

Khaled said that on the eastern wall of the chamber, Perring found a low passage full of debris and rubbish that prevented him from entering, but he believed that this low passage could lead to magazines or storerooms. He also found four ancient graffiti, on the retaining walls in the core of the pyramid, above the entrance area, in the corridor, and at the entrance of the chamber that contain the cartouche of Sahure.

In 1907, German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt also investigated the interior of the pyramid, arriving at the entrance of the burial chamber, climbing up on the fallen blocks, and reaching the first beams of the ceiling.

“Borchardt’s plans and publication on the Sahure Pyramid Complex were a milestone, but he illogically skipped mentioning the low passage that Perring had found on the eastern wall of the burial chamber,” Khaled said. Borchardt had relied in his plan on the interior design of the Pyramids of Neferirkara and Niuserra, and he did not take into consideration the fact that the Pyramid of Sahure was the first to be built in Abusir and that the design may have differed.  

In the early 1960s, Italian scholars Maragioglio and Rinaldi entered the Pyramid and crawled over the debris and falling blocks until reaching the burial chamber where they found that the upper part of the northeastern corner of the supposed burial chamber was still visible. They excluded the existence of a lower passage and supported Borchardt’s plans and drawing.  

Debates on the actual interior design of the Sahure Pyramid continued among scholars. Some believed that it had a large burial chamber as a simple rectangular room, while others supported the idea that it has two chambers laid out as an antechamber and a burial chamber towards its west.

NEW PROJECTS

In 2006, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) began a project to stabilise the interior of the pyramid’s entrance, using wooden beams to support some of the falling blocks in the northsouth corridor.

They were able to reach the entrance of the vestibule that leads to the presumed burial chamber, but all activities were stopped due to the risk of falling large blocks.

In 2019, with the financial support of the Archaeological Endowment Fund (AEF) of the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE), work inside the pyramid resumed and concentrated on cleaning the interior corridors and burial chamber as well as consolidating and restoring the substructure to prevent the further collapse of blocks.

Khaled said that the work team had reached the original chamber and found that it turned out to be an antechamber and not a burial chamber as Perring had suggested. Many blocks had to be removed from the west corner of the chamber, in which the burial chamber of the king lays further to the west.

Many walls were created instead of the original ones to support the antechamber while the south side was reconstructed according to masonry marks. On the south side of the antechamber, the situation of the ceiling was particularly interesting. The eastern wall of the antechamber was badly damaged, and only the northeastern corner and a small part of the eastern wall were still detectible. Traces of Perring’s passage were found.

During the cleaning of the passage from the fallen blocks, the team found partition walls leading to a new area that was part of a north-south passageway. At the beginning, the team thought that this passageway had six deep magazines or storerooms, but with further clearing and conservation at the southern corner of the passage, the team found one more magazine bringing the total number to seven.

Work continued at the northern corner and an eighth magazine was uncovered.

After removing the fallen blocks and rubble from the antechamber located at the end of the Perring passage, the team found a new area which, at first, they considered to be a large magazine like the one found in Userkaf’s Pyramid. But surprisingly, the remains of an original wall also appeared.

“This wall completely changed our thoughts about the layout of the area,” Khaled said, adding that the discovery of the wall was confusing because it was almost facing the entrance of the passage, an unusual feature of the interior architecture of Old Kingdom pyramids. “Since everything after the passage entrance is destroyed, we could not understand the layout of the magazines,” he said.

After clearing the rubble, the northern edge began to appear, leading the team to predict that the discovered wall would likely represent the same layout of the magazine area as in Shepseskaf’s mastaba or burial mound. When the work resumed at the north, another huge partition wall and an original ceiling were uncovered, confirming the possibility of finding more magazines like those found in Menkaure’s Pyramid and the Khentkaues I substructure at the Giza Plateau, as well as Shepseskaf’s mastaba at Saqqara.

“However, at the time of our discovery, the layout of this area was not easy to figure out because the orientation, size, and number of the magazines were different,” Khaled said.

Most of the walls of the magazines as well as the ceilings of three of them are severely damaged, but some of the original walls were still extant but in a bad state of preservation. The original floor of the area was also destroyed except for some remains in some of the magazines. The ceiling of the magazines is flat rather than gabled and consists of two layers of limestone slabs.

“This groundbreaking project marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the Pyramid of Sahure and its historical importance. The discovery and restoration of the magazines are expected to revolutionise our understanding of the Pyramid’s history and architecture, challenging existing paradigms in the field,” Khaled said.

KING SAHURE

King Sahure, whose name means “he who is close to Re”, was known for his ambitious building projects and his emphasis on international trade and diplomacy during a reign also marked by peace and prosperity.

Sahure’s Egypt traded with foreign lands, developed a navy, and opened up mines.

The construction of his pyramid complex was a reflection of his status and power. The pyramid is much smaller than those of his ancestors on the Giza Plateau, which may be interpreted as a decline in pyramid building. The pyramid has also not survived well, probably due to the use of poor-quality stone, although its mortuary temple and causeway are in a better condition notably because of the quality of the stones used in their construction.

Sahure’s Pyramid was originally constructed in six steps of rough limestone and mortar with a casing of fine limestone. It would have originally measured around 48 m high with sides of 78.5 m. Like other pyramids of the Fifth Dynasty, the subterranean tunnels and chambers were constructed at the same time as the upper steps of the pyramid, requiring a construction gap which was later filled in with rubble.

Sahure’s mortuary temple was constructed mostly from granite and basalt. Its outer part consisted of an entrance hall leading into an open porticoed court, and its walls are decorated with colourful reliefs depicting king Sahure’s victories over enemies or taking part in various activities such as hunting and fishing.

The inner parts of the mortuary temple had a double row of magazines on either side, linked by a transverse corridor which gave access to all parts of the temple. A decorated five-niched chapel would have contained cult statues of the king, and from here a corridor led to the inner sanctuary or offering chapel, the cult focus of the temple.

The offering chapel, which had a false door and was paved with alabaster, originally contained an altar, an offering bowl, and a black granite statue of the king. To the north of the offering hall there are five small chambers that would have been used for ritual purposes.

---

* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 September, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly