The pyramid complex became falsely standardised during the ancient Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, and the patterns set by the first king, Userkaf, held for the remainder of the Old Kingdom.

The pyramids of this era were considerably smaller than the giants built during the mid-Fourth Dynasty. It has long been thought that this was for economic reasons. However, the walls of the pyramid temples were covered with carved and painted decoration, adding considerable expense to the projects, which has made some scholars believe that the increase in volume of the wall reliefs balanced the decrease in pyramid size.

Unas the last Fifth Dynasty king, was the first to inscribe special spells inside the burial chamber of his pyramid to help guide him to the afterlife.

 

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SERKAF’S PYRAMID: Userkaf’s Pyramid at Saqqara is smaller than Menkaure’s at Giza. The substructure was explored in 1839; no one has entered the Pyramid since, and access is now blocked by rubble from a 1992 earthquake.

According to 19th-century records, the burial suite lies underground in a deep shaft. A descending corridor leads south from the pavement of the pyramid’s north court to a horizontal corridor partly lined with granite, then comes a I-shaped magazine, an anteroom, another corridor, and a burial chamber. A basalt sarcophagus occupies the west end of this chamber.

A small offering chapel graced with a false door of quartzite (a stone closely associated with the sun cult for most of Egyptian history), stands in the centre of the east side of the pyramid. However, the mortuary temple is, unusually, on the south. This may have been due to ideological concepts, perhaps so that it would receive the sun’s rays directly all year. Or it may have been a practical choice, made to take advantage of better ground.

Despite its unusual position, the mortuary temple has the standard elements seen in Old Kingdom complexes, although they are arranged differently here, where a doorway from the southeastern corner of the complex (where the causeway once joined the enclosure wall) leads to a vestibule.

Heading north, this joins a long entrance hall, and then an open colonnaded court, its pillars ornamented by inscriptions with the king’s names and titles. A narrow passageway leads from the southwest corner of this court to the inner pyramid enclosure. South of the colonnaded court is a columned hall, then three or five statue niches, a sanctuary, and magazines. This section joins with the vestibule through its southern wall.

The floor of the temple is of black basalt, and the walls were lined with limestone and granite. Reliefs on the walls of the temple included marsh scenes and images of ritual sacrifice.

To the west of the mortuary temple is a satellite pyramid with a T-shaped substructure. Outside the enclosure wall surrounding the pyramid is a large queen’s pyramid with its own mortuary temple. This is badly damaged, however, and it can no longer be reconstructed with any authority. The walls of the temple were decorated, but the name of the queen has not been found there.

In addition to his pyramid complex, Userkaf also built a temple dedicated to the god Re at the site of Abu Ghurob, several km to the north. Rather than a pyramid, the central element of this complex was a large squat obelisk. This important symbol, a pillar with inward-sloping sides topped by a pyramidion, was linked with the sun. It represented the benben, a sacred stone connected with the primeval mound that had powers of rejuvenation.

Textual sources tell us that each of the first six kings of the Fifth Dynasty built a sun temple. The names of each of these are known, and each had its own priesthood. However, only two sun temples have been found. The function of these sun temples has been debated for over a century.

One theory suggests that these were mortuary complexes for the deceased sun; another thinks they were for the king as the sun god; and yet another offers the possibility that they were the places where the sun god and the king joined together.

These temples were certainly closely connected to the cult of the king, as textual sources tell us that offerings were brought from the sun temple to the pyramid twice a day.

ABUSIR: The next kings chose the site of Abusir, at the north edge of which Userkaf had built his sun temple, as the location of their pyramids.

These are known as the “forgotten pyramids” because a majority of the public is not aware of their existence. The earliest remains at this site date from the Early Dynastic Period, and it continued to be used for elite tombs during the early Old Kingdom. In the Fifth Dynasty, it became the principal royal necropolis.

The three major pyramids here were laid out on a diagonal. Egyptologist Miroslav Verner, who currently heads excavations at this once-neglected site, thinks that this line points towards Heliopolis, centre of the sun cult.

 

SAHURE: Although Sahure’s Pyramid clearly continues in the direct line of pyramid development, it also displays some major changes.

The king used a variety of stones in creative ways and put a great deal of emphasis on pictorial adornment. The pyramid’s first modern excavator, Ludwig Borchardt, estimated that the complex was once graced with over 10,000 metres of relief decoration.

Originally cased with fine white limestone, the pyramid itself has been ravaged by time, and now looks like a pile of rubble. It is not perfectly square, as the royal architects made a significant error in their original measurements. Some of the blocks recently discovered near the causeway by my team bear images of the ceremonies surrounding the completion of the pyramid, which included dancers and wrestlers and the dragging of a pyramidion of stone cased with electrum to put atop of it.

The substructure follows the pattern laid out by Userkaf: a short descending passage from the north to a vestibule, then a long corridor lined in places with red granite which ascends slightly to the antechamber. The burial chamber, roofed with limestone gables, lies west of the antechamber.

The pyramid complex of Sahure is one of the best preserved from the Old Kingdom, both in terms of architecture and decoration, and it is thus worth describing in detail as a model for its successors. Returning to an orthodox layout, Sahure’s mortuary temple is to the east of the pyramid, on a terrace of rough limestone paving. The temple contains the main elements seen in the complex of Userkaf but laid out along an east-west axis.

In the outer, public part of the temple there is a long entrance hall leading to a rectangular colonnaded court. The monolithic columns of pink granite here have capitals imitating palm branches, symbols of fertility and eternal resurrection. These columns bore the names and titles of the king, as did the granite architrave above them that supported a limestone ceiling decorated with stars.

Fragments of scenes from the walls of this court show that it was richly adorned and included images showing the king victorious over foreign enemies. In the northwest corner, above the pavement of basalt slabs, was a calcite altar.

The corridor around this courtyard was decorated with scenes of Sahure hunting and fishing, symbols of the king’s role in maintaining order over the chaotic forces represented by wild animals. A transverse hall divides the outer from the inner part of the temple. The walls here bore scenes of sea battles and ships coming home from trading voyages to Syria-Palestine.

From the middle of this corridor, a calcite stairway leads to a chapel with five statue niches. The walls were lined with granite and limestone decorated with reliefs. The ceiling was carved with stars. From this chapel, a series of corridors leads to the offering hall against the east wall of the pyramid.

This was decorated with deities carrying offerings towards a huge false door of granite, through which the king was thought magically to leave and re-enter his eternal home, fronted by a stone altar. The false door was unfinished and uninscribed; decoration may have been added on metal sheathing that was later removed.

Around the offering hall was a series of rooms where rituals were performed. To the north were 10 rooms for the storage of the temple treasures; to the south were 16 magazines for the storage of food offerings. Each block of storerooms was two stories high.

Corridors leading from the transverse corridor between the inner and outer temples gave access to the pyramid courtyard. In the southeast corner of this courtyard is the satellite pyramid, which was empty when first explored in modern times.

Running east from the entrance to the mortuary temple was the causeway, of which only the lowest courses of limestone blocks remain in situ. In addition to the scenes described above, blocks from the causeway were decorated with images of the king as a sphinx, crushing his enemies underfoot, and of divinities.

The valley temple, now almost completely destroyed, lies at the edge of the Abusir Lake. It was approached by one ramp from the south, leading to a portico with four granite palm columns, and a second ramp from the east, where the portico has eight columns. The floor here, like the floor of the mortuary temple, was of basalt.

The interior of the temple consisted of one small I-shaped room with two columns. All the walls were covered with painted reliefs, and the ceiling was decorated with stars.

 

NEFERIKARE: The next king, Neferikare, seems to have planned a step pyramid in six tiers, perhaps then transformed into a true pyramid. However, due to his short reign, it was never finished.

Regardless, it was the largest structure built at the site, and was set on the highest ground, so today it is the most prominent monument at Abusir. The badly damaged substructure is of the now-standard form; no trace of a sarcophagus, or any other burial equipment, was found inside.

The mortuary temple, which stands to the east of the pyramid, slightly south of the central axis, was begun in stone then finished hastily in mud brick with columns of wood. The main elements seen in Sahure’s temple appear here as well.

Neferirkare had no cult pyramid, probably because his pyramid complex had to be completed quickly when he died after only 10 years on the throne. Instead, a priestly settlement was founded in this area, and lasted into the Sixth Dynasty. The houses here would normally have been near the valley temple, where priests of the royal mortuary cult usually lived. However, Neferirkare’s valley temple was usurped by his son, Niuserre, leaving the cult practitioners with nowhere else to go.

In 1893, a group of villagers were collecting ancient mud brick at Abusir to use for fertiliser. Among the ruins, they found fragmentary papyrus documents inscribed in a cursive form of hieroglyphs, which they sold on the antiquities market. More of these were found during excavations in the mortuary temple.

These Abusir Papyri, which are now scattered around the globe, provide a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the royal cult.

 

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EFEREFRE: Until the late 1970s, a low mound of rubble southwest of the Pyramid of Neferirkare was a mystery to Egyptologists. Known as the Unfinished Pyramid, it was thought that it was never completed or used as a cult focus.

Recent excavations have proven that it belongs to Neferefre, successor to Neferirkare. We know very little about the reign of this king. He ruled only a few years, and he died young. The pyramid itself was left unfinished at his death, with only one step of the core completed, and the temple was finished in mud brick and his cult begun by his successor Niuserre.

The substructure followed the basic pattern of descending corridor, antechamber, and burial chamber. This has been badly damaged by quarrying that took place in later times, but among other things, pieces of a pink granite sarcophagus, parts of the four calcite jars in which the viscera were stored, and parts of the royal mummy have been found. When analysed, these showed that the king had died between the ages of 20 and 23.

To the east was a small chapel of fine white limestone, the centre of which was an offering hall. Under the paving stones, the excavators made a fascinating find: the foundation deposit laid down when the temple was begun. The objects here included a bull’s head and model vessels of baked clay. Two mud sealings discovered in this area bear the Horus name of a little-known king named Shepseskare.

After the king’s death, the mortuary temple was extended in mud brick along the entire east side of the pyramid. The plan of this temple is unique. The central part contains five chambers, but these were probably storerooms rather than statue niches. Two wooden boats were found sealed in another chamber in this area, perhaps used for the king’s funeral and then ritually buried.

One of the most exciting discoveries was made in the northern section of the temple, which had 20 storerooms arranged in two storeys. These contained a large number of papyri from the temple’s archives. The information in these texts complements the papyri from Neferirkare’s temple, providing a new window into the function of the cult. Also found in these magazines were objects used in temple rituals, such as stone vessels and flint knives.

In the southern part of the temple is one of Egypt’s earliest hypostyle halls, perhaps a model of the king’s throne room for use in the afterlife. The ceiling, decorated with stars, was supported by four rows of five wooden columns. The remains of many statues were found in this hall, including images of the king and small wooden statues of Egypt’s enemies, perhaps originally attached to a throne or statue base. We know from the archive that the cult statue was made of wood; this was not preserved.

Outside the enclosure wall was a butcher’s yard, referred to both in the texts and on vessels that held animal fat as the “Sanctuary of the Knife”. The entrance is unusually wide, so that animals could be brought in for slaughter. Flint knives from the magazines were used in the rituals carried out here. Later, this area was used for storage. Further modifications to the temple were made during the reign of Niuserre, giving it more of a standard plan.

An unfinished pyramid lies between the sun temple of Userkaf and the complex of Sahure. This was probably begun for Shepseskare, who, other than the newly discovered sealings, is attested only on a king list from Saqqara. He is listed here directly before Neferefre, but it seems clear that he ruled afterward.

 

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IUSERRE: Niuserre had to complete the complexes of both his father Neferirkare and his brother Neferefre, and then was forced to squeeze his own complex into the only remaining space, between the pyramids of Neferirkare and Sahure.

The pyramid core was built in steps, and originally sheathed in fine limestone. The entrance is at ground level and follows the typical pattern of descending corridor (although this is somewhat irregular), antechamber, and burial chamber, all completely empty when excavated.

Niuserre’s mortuary temple was against the east face of the pyramid but shifted south to avoid some elite mastabas. The standard plan at this point was I-shaped, but this shifting gave Niuserre’s temple more of an I-shape.

Innovations seen for the first time here are massive structures at the corners of the eastern façade, evidently precursors of the pylon later seen as indispensable to a temple entrance. The narrow hall at the east is flanked by storerooms, and leads to a colonnaded courtyard, its columns in the form of papyrus plants and the ceiling of the ambulatory covered with stars. A calcite altar stood in the northwest corner.

One unique find from this temple, made in the transverse corridor that separated the inner and outer parts of it, was a large red granite statue of a lion, which evidently guarded the entrance to the inner sanctum. The chamber with five niches here was badly damaged and can only be reconstructed hypothetically.

Between this and the offering hall is a small square chamber with a single pillar and an elevated floor. This became a standard element of pyramid temples for the rest of the Old Kingdom and is also seen in the Middle Kingdom. The offering hall had a vaulted ceiling covered with stars, a false door, and an altar.

The scenes here show ritual sacrifices connected with the cult. Other relief fragments found scattered around the temple show typical pyramid temple scenes: foundation ceremonies, offering bearers, animal sacrifice, and the triumph of the king over his enemies. From the outer temple come images of courtiers, and from the inner, the king with various gods.

Another unusual feature of the complex is a small square platform next to the northeastern pylon. In the 1970s, Czech archaeologists found a large pyramidion of red granite, originally sheathed in copper, nearby. This came from an obelisk about 15 metres tall that once stood on this platform.

At the southeast corner of the enclosure is the king’s cult pyramid inside its own enclosure wall. From the mortuary temple, the causeway, usurped from Neferirkare’s complex and decorated with scenes of the king as a sphinx or lion trampling on his enemies, leads to the valley temple. This is entered by a portico and has a pavement of black basalt.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly