The Great Pyramids at Giza are surrounded by cemeteries for the royal family, courtiers, officials, and priests of the cults of the ancient Egyptian kings.
These necropolises, mostly consisting of rows of mastabas of various sizes, were founded in the Fourth Dynasty and then used until the end of the Old Kingdom and in some cases beyond.
The reign of king Khufu saw, rather than an increase in complexity of tomb architecture and decoration, a simplification from what had been common in his father’s early years. Most tomb chapels of this period consist of simple niches at the south end of the east wall decorated only with a slab stela. A mud-brick chapel was often erected around the stela. Later in Khufu’s reign, the slab stelae were covered over and a new stone-lined chapel with reliefs and a false door built in front of it.
The most impressive slab stelae are masterpieces of ancient art. The focus is on the tomb owner seated before a table of offerings. Above him or her, and along the top and side of the stela, the deceased’s name and titles were inscribed. The rest of the slab is taken up with hieroglyphs detailing the offerings necessary for the funerary cult: primarily food, drink, eye paint, and cloth.
One of the three largest mastabas at Giza was assigned to Khufu’s royal architect and vizier Hemiunu. The son of Nefermaat, he is generally credited with designing the Great Pyramid. Hemiunu’s mastaba was considerably more complex than was standard at the time. The superstructure is built of stone rubble cased with finer stone blocks. Inside are two chapels connected by a corridor. A life-size statue of the great man was found in the northern chapel, and bits of relief show that the walls were once decorated with various scenes, such as of offering bearers and agricultural activities.
An interesting anomaly from Khufu’s reign is that few of his courtiers had ka (soul) statues buried with them. Instead, a number of tombs have been found that contained heads carved from pure white limestone named reserve heads, the function of which has been debated by scholars.
Some think they were wig stands or models for statues. Many have damaged ears and noses and vertical lines gouged on the top of their skulls, leading to the suggestion that they were ritually damaged to prevent them from disturbing the living. It is also possible that they served the same purpose as a full-size statue and provided a receptacle for the ka of the deceased. Some scholars have thought that full-size private statuary was banned by Khufu and that only these heads were permitted during his reign.
In 1925, a shaft was accidentally discovered at the foot of the Great Pyramid. The burial chamber at the bottom contained the sarcophagus and canopic chest of Hetepheres, king Sneferu’s queen and Khufu’s mother. There were also many vessels of calcite and gold, wooden chairs, a gilded canopy frame, and silver bracelets inlaid with turquoise and carnelian. It looked as if the tomb was intact, although the furniture was piled inside rather haphazardly.
However, although there were packets of viscera in a solution of natron within the canopic chest, the sarcophagus was empty. The excavator, George Reisner, came up with the following possible scenario: the queen had originally been buried near her husband at Dahshour. During her son’s reign, robbers violated her burial and stole the body (which was probably covered with jewels). Rather than telling the king, the necropolis police, possibly under the direction of the vizier, smuggled the remaining equipment to Giza and re-buried it near the Great Pyramid.
Another suggestion, made by Mark Lehner, is that Hetepheres was originally buried in the northernmost of the queen’s Pyramids and was later moved into this nearby shaft. I believe that this second theory could be correct and further suggest that the reburial took place during the First Intermediate Period under priests loyal to the then-ancient kings.
Just east of the Great Pyramid is a large double mastaba belonging to Khufukhaf I, prince and vizier, and his wife. This represents a later style of tomb, with significantly larger and more extensively decorated chapels. At the south end of the eastern façade, an exterior chapel has been built against the stone superstructure. There are two rooms — a main chamber and an annex to the north. A doorway in the west wall of the main room leads to a hall within the superstructure, which has an offering niche in the west wall. North of this chapel, cut into the eastern façade, is a niche.
The second chapel, consisting of an outer and inner room, lies at the north end of the façade. Two shafts, with burial chambers at the bottom, were cut into the northern part of the superstructure. Part of Khufukhaf I’s red granite sarcophagus was found in his burial chamber.
The chapels were decorated with many scenes involving the presentation of offerings to Khufukhaf I and his wife. They, and other important family members such as the prince’s mother, are represented on a much larger scale, showing their relative importance. Khufukhaf I is shown alternately as a young man in the prime of life and as a portly older gentleman, wearing a variety of garments that reflect his various duties and responsibilities. The carving is executed in a static but naturalistic style with great attention to detail.
From the mid- to late Fourth Dynasty also is the tomb of Meresankh IlI, one of Khafre’s queens and a daughter of Khufu’s eldest son Kawab. Meresankh Ill’s tomb is a cross between the traditional mastaba form and the new rock-cut type: her main chapel is cut into the bedrock under the north end of the mastaba superstructure.
The chapel, with lies at the north end of the tomb, consists of three chambers with rock-cut pilasters left between them. The walls are covered with carved and painted scenes and texts covering an expanded repertoire, including the queen and her mother performing a ceremony for the god Hathor in the marshes, men building boats and catching birds, a large figure of the queen’s father, the manufacture of furniture, banqueting scenes, and processions of offering bearers. Around the chapel are a series of niches that contain engaged statues of the tomb owner and her family.
There is also a southern chapel, which is just a deep niche in the eastern façade with a false door in the west wall. This has been mostly destroyed, and little decoration remains. The westernmost of the three chambers in the main chapel is adorned on the west wall with a false door flanked by niching and pairs of engaged statues, on the south wall by an image of the deceased at a table of offerings, and on the north wall by a banquet scene.
The centre of the floor is dominated by a shaft leading to the burial chamber. Inside was found a black granite sarcophagus that had been robbed but that still contained part of the queen’s skeleton. Based on scientific study, she was probably over 50 when she died.
One of the most beautiful and best-preserved tombs in the Western Cemetery belongs to a man named Kapunisut Kai, whose titles include priest of the cults of Khufu, Djedefre, and Sneferu, scribe of the Jackal, and overseer of ka-priests (priests responsible for the funerary cult).
I discovered this tomb during clearance work in the area. It is actually Kai’s second tomb, probably dedicated mainly to his wives, and nearby is a third tomb for his daughters. Kai’s second tomb, which dates most likely to the reign of Djedefre, is a small jewel-like mastaba.
The superstructure consists of a single-chambered chapel, and the substructure comprises one burial shaft. The walls are beautifully carved and painted with images of Kai with his wives and several of his children, along with rows of offering bearers. A funerary menu, listing the food and drink desired for the afterlife, graces the east wall, and two false doors dominate the west wall. Behind one of these doors was a serdab containing a beautiful statue of painted limestone representing Kai with one son and one daughter.
A unique inscription was carved here to the right of the entrance, which reads “it is the tomb makers, the draftsmen, the craftsmen, and the sculptors who made my tomb. I paid them with beer and bread. I made them take an oath that they were satisfied.”
Elsewhere in the tomb is the name of the artisan in charge of the decoration. In the rock behind this statue was a burial shaft, in which we found a wooden sarcophagus inscribed with Kai’s name and titles, a beautiful headrest made of wood, and, oddly, the skeleton of a pig.
FIFTH AND SIXTH DYNASTIES: There are a number of elite Old Kingdom tombs at Abusir, but by far the most impressive of them is the tomb of Ptahshepses, vizier and son-in-law of Niuserre.
This man was originally a royal manicurist and hairdresser, and he rose to the highest position in the land, responsible, among other things, for all royal building projects.
Set in a prominent position on the edge of the plateau, his stone mastaba, which is so big that before it was excavated it was thought to be a pyramid, is surrounded by a mud-brick wall. It is the largest and most complex non-royal tomb known from the Old Kingdom.
The interior chapel is like a small temple. Two columned porticos lead to an offering hall with three statue niches, once containing slightly over life-size statues of Ptahshepses (as an official, a priest, and a private individual) in the west wall. To the south is a large pillared court, with sets of magazines to the southeast and southwest.
In the southwest corner of the mastaba are a number of other subsidiary rooms and a unique chamber. This last chamber is shaped like a boat and is large enough to hold two full-sized vessels. To the northwest is a group of chambers that represent the original tomb chapel, later expanded into the layout seen today. The gabled burial chamber (modelled on the royal type) is reached through a sloping passage from this suite of rooms.
The decoration includes many images of the deceased and his family, along with various scenes of rituals and daily life —metalworkers, sculptors, and other artisans, the bringing of statues of Ptahshepses to shrines, the vizier in his palanquin, some interesting scenes involving freight boats, and of course many offering bearers. Fragments of statues made of various materials were found here.
Many of the high officials of the fifth and sixth dynasties built their tombs at Saqqara. A number of these are particularly well-preserved, and it is certain that many more still lie hidden beneath the desert sands. One of the most beautiful tombs at Saqqara belongs to two brothers (perhaps even twins) who served as manicurists to the king and as priests of the sun temple of Niuserre during the Fifth Dynasty.
Their mastaba lies near the causeway of Unas. The pillared forecourt, entered from the north, is decorated with large images of the tomb owners hunting and fishing in the marshes on either side of the doorway into the chapel. These images served to keep the forces of chaos outside. The vestibule contains many scenes, including of agricultural activities, barbers and people giving manicures and pedicures, peasants hunting and fishing in the marshes, and the funerary pilgrimage. There is one fascinating vignette that shows a peasant woman nursing her child. Beyond this room is a magazine.
A doorway in the west wall of the latter chamber leads to an open courtyard. Beyond is another façade, dominated by large-scale figures of the two brothers, one on either jamb. Through this is a second group of rooms, the first chamber of which is covered with more scenes, including of the manufacture of funerary equipment and furniture. From here, one reaches the inner offering hall, adorned with images of the brothers seated at tables piled with offerings and two false doors in the west wall with a serdab behind.
There are many burial shafts cut into the rock below the various rooms of the chapel. The principal burial chamber, below the offering room, held the sarcophagi of the two brothers.
Dating to the late Fifth Dynasty is the large mastaba of the high official Ti, who served as overseer of the Pyramids of Neferirkare and Niuserre and of the sun temples of a number of the Fifth-Dynasty kings. This lies farther out in the desert near the Serapeum. The entrance portico leads to a large court surrounded by colonnades, in the centre of which a rock-cut passage leads down to the burial chamber. The walls of the court are decorated with scenes of the tomb owner and his wife, Neterhete-pes, scenes of animal husbandry, and the butchering of sacrificial cattle.
A serdab is located in the northeast corner of the massive wall around the court, with eye-slits facing both the portico and the court. The chapel along the east façade of the mastaba is long and narrow and is entered through a doorway in the southwest corner of the court. The first corridor is decorated with the images of the deceased, processions of offering bearers, and a false door for Ti’s wife. The scenes in the second corridor include the bringing of statues, butchers, and detailed vignettes of boat manufacturing. A decorated magazine to the west of this corridor has images of pottery-making, baking, and brewing.
The extensive decoration of the inner hall covers a great deal of the standard repertoire for Old Kingdom tombs of this era: all the seasons of the agricultural year; animal husbandry (including a lovely scene showing cattle fording a canal); the manufacture of a variety of items; a scene of desert animals; and scenes of marsh activities and offering bearers. Two false doors are carved into the west wall, and a second serdab lies to the south with three sets of eye-slits opening into the offering hall.
A beautiful statue of Ti was found in this serdab. It was moved to the Cairo Museum, and a copy was placed in the original location.
The mastaba of the Sixth-Dynasty vizier Mereruka, who served King Teti, boasts the largest and most complex chapel at Saqqara, with over 20 rooms altogether, including suites for his wives and sons. Entered through a narrow door at the south end of the eastern façade, it consists of a series of rooms and corridors, leading eventually to a huge pillared hall dominated by a statue shrine.
An engaged statue of Mereruka is shown emerging from the centre of this shrine approaching the large offering table that lies in front. Near this chamber is a smaller pillared room containing a unique scene of the tomb owner and his wife seated together on a bed while she plays a harp.
The walls of the various chambers of the tomb are covered with the entire repertoire of Old Kingdom scenes: agriculture, animal husbandry, dances and games most likely performed at the funeral, and of course rows and rows of offering bearers. The burial chamber is entered through a shaft just before the large offering hall. It is decorated in flat painting with prayers, lists of the offerings desired by the tomb owner, and images of a variety of food, drink, and other items for the afterlife.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 30 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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