Tomb of Mereruka

 Mereruka, in large size, . Standing in front of him, at a much small scale, is his wife with a lotus blossom to her nose.

[Note: The term "lotus" which we use, for reasons of tradition and convenience,is botanically incorrect. It represents a water lily, and more precisely here its blue variety, Nymphaea caerulea. 
In front of them, each in a single register, are the lower two of several mortuary priests bringing offerings from his estates. Behind them, again each in a single register, are : his eldest beloved son Memi at the bottom and with Mereruka's brother Ihy above him. It would have been interesting to know who stood above these two

Tomb of Mereruka

 a tall figure of the owner and one of almost equal size of his wife Their heads are missing, but they can be seen holding hands, a loving feature which reveals their closeness and is repeated more than once in the tomb, with subtle variations. The couple face north, heading with due ceremony towards the depths of the main chambers. They are preceded, on six sub-registers, by various servants and porters of a palanquin

Tomb of Mereruka

 marshes filled with wild life. Each side is set on a stretch of horizontal water teaming with a variety fish, large hippopotami and dangerous crocodiles, all drawn with no regard to scale, but with an anatomical precision leaving no doubt to the identity of the fish species. Of particular interest is the broad stretch of water (shown vertically) on the north wall .

The lower registers of each wall still exists, but the imagery of Mereruka is more fully preserved on the south wall, showing his head and extended left arm ).

 On both walls Mereruka is shown accompanied by his wife in a light papyrus skiff and in both cases they face towards the entrance to the inner chambers.
On the north wall Mereruka is fishing with a harpoon. The characters of the accompanying sub-registers participate by hunting the hippopotamus, while other men carry fish in baskets (see opposite, and.

This wall contains the longest surviving list of Seshseshet's titles. However, even though the upper portions of the seven columns is lost , these can still be translated with reasonable accuracy). "King's daughter of (his) body (…) by her father, his beloved, priestess of Hathor, Lady of the Sycamore (…), (she) who does what (…) desires, honoured one by the Great God, Lord of the West (…) Osiris, Lord of Busiris, honoured one by Anubis, he who is upon his hill (…) who is in front of the Divine Booth (…) Western necropolis (…), Watetkhethor, her beautiful name is Seshseshet.".
On the south wall he is in the act of launching his throwing stick at a flock of waterfowl, which take flight from the thicket of reeds. This time in the lower register, immediately below the reeds, hippos are attacked by crocodiles . Towards the left, 

cattle are herded through the water, above which other men wrestle to control other cattle ; the text above them, on the left, states: "Oh herdsman! May you be watchful against that aquatic animal, which is in the water, and which comes as an invisible one. Pay great attention to him."; and on the right: "Row, hurry, comrade." and "Herdsmen, on the water.". Above the scenes with cattle, men water and tend plants, in what can only be a cultivated area (perhaps a garden). Further up still is the transport of fowl in cages ().

It is uncertain whether these are leisure activities or whether they have some other significance.

Tomb of Mereruka

 tall figure of Mereruka striding towards the interior of the tomb, accompanied by the much smaller figures of his wife Watetkhethor (behind him) and his eldest son Meryteti (in front). On either side of the central group are groups of three attendants placed above each other. Nine still exist in front but only six behind

Tomb of Mereruka

 

Mereruka seated in front of an easel, with a brush in his right hand and a paint palette over his shoulder. He is painting the three seasons of the Egyptian year . They are shown in the form of three seated characters, each holding a cartouche enclosing four hieroglyphic crescent moons (the sign for "month") ; thus they symbolically represent the four months of each season. Starting at the end furthest from Mereruka, they are the seasons of : inundation (Akhet), accompanied by the hieroglyphic sign for "good" (nefer) ; germination (Peret), along with the sign for "offering" (hetep) ; finally, summer (Shemu), and the sign for "life" (ankh).

The indication is of Mereruka looking out from his tomb, painting whilst viewing the annual cycle of Egyptian life.
Forward of Mereruka, and in a smaller separate panel facing him, stands "His son, lector-priest and scribe of the God's Book, Khenu", his instruments in his hand.

The Pyramid of Amenemhet III at Dahshur

 

Amenemhet III attempted to build his first pyramid at Dahshur, but it turned out to be a disaster. Even with the nearby Bent Pyramid as a reminder, Amenemhet III's architects built the his pyramid on unstable subsoil. The Bent Pyramid is built upon compacted gravel, while Amenemhet III's is built on hard clay. The builder's compounded this mistake by building the pyramid in one of the lowest locations of any pyramid in Egypt. It lies only 33 feet above sea level. Further problems arose from the shear number of corridors and chambers within the substructure, and the reliance that the builders placed on their ceilings which had no real stress relieving devices above the king's burial chamber. Early on ground water from the nearby Nile Valley seeped into the pyramid's substructure causing structural damage, causing menacing cracks to appear in the corridor and chamber walls soon after the pyramid was completed. Even before the limestone was applied to the queen chambers, the weight of the pyramid was pushing down on the ceiling with such force that the walls sank in places up to three cn (two inches) into the pavements. Today the pyramid named "Amenemhet is Mighty" is a sad dark ruin on the Dahshur field, aptly sometimes called the Black Pyramid. Even though it took 15 years to build, rather than being buried in this pyramid, Amenemhet III chose to build a second pyramid at Hawara, closer to his beloved Fayoum.         The pyramid was first written about by Perring, who apparently lacked the time to explore the ruins at all. His campsite had been attacked by Bedouins, and it would seem that Perring lost his interest in Dahshur. The Lepsius expedition seems to have noticed it in 1843, but that was all, until around the early 1900s. It was de Morgan, assisted by George Legrain and Jequier who finally carried out extensive excavations. Yet at that time, excavations methods remained crude, and many questions about the pyramid remained to be answered. In fact, their investigation was never completed. Finally, between 1976 and 1983, a team from the German Archaeological Institute of Cairo lead by Arnold, carried out a modern, extensive examination.   The valley temple for this complex is badly damaged but it is one of the first 12 Dynasty valley temples to have been located and partially cleared. It was very simple, with two broad open courts built on ascending terraces. Interestingly, the side walls of the first court were thickened to form a pylon like gateway. Within these ruins was found a limestone model of the subterranean corridors and chambers of a 13th Dynasty pyramid that has not yet been discovered. However, some Egyptologists believe that this model, though varying somewhat, was actually of Amenemhet III's pyramid at Hawara.         Originally a broad, open causeway built between two brick walls first led to the valley temple and then continued, connected the valley temple to Amenemhet III's mortuary temple and pyramid complex. North of the causeway was a mudbrick settlement for the priests.   The mortuary temple connected to the pyramid was relatively small and simple, consisting of an entrance, an open courtyard with eighteen granite columns in the shape of eight stemmed papyrus plants. However, it was badly damaged and the layout is really a guess. Behind the courtyard we believe was a long, offering hall. Two plastered, whitewashed mudbrick enclosure walls surrounded the pyramid, with the inner wall dividing the outer open courtyard of the mortuary temple from the inner sanctuary. This inner wall was also decorated with niches, while the outer wall did not. It is uncertain whether there was a north chapel.   One must wonder about the architects of this pyramid, and their level of expertise. The pyramid core was built of mudbrick, just as earlier 12th Dynasty pyramids. However, it liked the stone wings and framework of the earlier pyramids. The builders attempted to strengthen the structure by building the core in step form. The outer mantle was made of five meter this blocks of fine white limestone held together with a system of wooden dovetail joining pegs. Near the top of the pyramid, the wall's angle of inclination decreased. The pyramid was capped off with a beautiful dark gray granite pyramidion, discovered in the rubble in 1990, that was originally 1.3 meters tall. All four sides of the pyramidion bore inscriptions and religious symbols. The underside was beveled to fit into the casing block below. It now resides in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo.         one side of the Pyramidion     However, there are questions about the pyramidion. One inscription containing the name of Amun was destroyed, presumably on purpose during the reign of Akhenaton, The pyramidion must have already fallen off by that time, or it was never placed on the pyramid apex. It may have even been a symbolic pyramid on the complex grounds.   For the first time, we see a single pyramid built to accept the remains of both a king and several of his queens. Therefore, the substructure is rather complex, and differs entirely from earlier 12th Dynasty pyramids. In fact, even given the number of expected burials, it was more complex than the underground layout of earlier pyramids. The subterranean area is divided into two parts, one of which was for the king and the other for two of his consorts. The two sections are connected by a corridor. Near the southeast corner on the east side of the pyramid, at the lowest foundation layer, is located the entrance to the king's tomb.         Most of the king's section of the pyramid lies under the eastern quadrant of the pyramid. From the entrance, a stairway, for the first time since the 3rd Dynasty, led down to an a chamber with a niche high in the wall for the king's canopic chest. This to a short stairway that in turn leads to an entrance corridor and an entire system of passageways, shafts, barriers and chambers at various levels, all of it covered in fine white limestone. In fact, there are more underground chambers and passages than any other pyramid since the 3rd Dynasty.   This entrance corridor runs for about twenty meters before turning to the north. However, prior to arriving at this first turn, a corridor leads off to the south from the entrance corridor that eventually arrives at the queen's section of the pyramid. At the end of the original entrance corridor a right turn is made leading to a short corridor. A second corridor to the queen's chambers leads west off this short passage. The short passage then led to another right 90 degree passage heading back in the direction of the pyramid's entrance. Following the corridor we find another left 90 degree turn leading past a set of annexes before a final left 90 degree turn finally takes us to a small antechamber and then the burial chamber. The burial chamber is somewhat offset from the vertical axis of the pyramid, but was probably suppose to be directly under it. Apparently the builders lacked the knowledge that others before them had demonstrated. The burial chamber is also sheathed in fine white limestone, and oriented east-west. Though Amenemhet III was not buried in this pyramid, there was a pink granite sarcophagus within the burial chamber near the west wall. The sarcophagus had a vaulted top and niches that imitated the perimeter wall of Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Near the north end of the east side of the sarcophagus was a set of eyes for the occupant to lookout in the direction of the sunrise and resurrection.   There were two means of getting from the king's section of the pyramid to the queens section, the direct route from the short, second corridor and the more complex corridor leading south off of the entrance corridor. While the first connecting corridor leads almost directly to the queen's burial chamber, the second passage, sometimes called the "South Tomb", contains a labyrinth of passageways and six chapels, including a ka chapel. Apparently this part of the substructure also imitates a section of Djoser's complex. Lehner believes this section of the tomb acted as a counterpart to the king's burial suite, acting somewhat like an internalized cult pyramid.   The queen's section mostly lies under the southern quadrant of the pyramid. There was a second outside entrance to the queens chambers lying opposite that of the king's entrance, only on the west side of the pyramid. Here, there was also a descending stairway leading to a chamber with a niche above the doorway for the canopic chest of Queen Aat. A corridor out of this chamber that first passes a short corridor on the left leading to the burial chamber of Queen Aat, who was about 35 when she died. It then continues past a second northern corridor that leads to the burial chamber of the second queen, who may have been Neferuptah. This queen was probably around 25. The bones of both queens were found within their chambers. On the west wall of each burial chamber were sarcophaguses that were very similar to that of the king's. However, the sarcophagus of the second queen lacked the niches found on Amenemhet III's sarcophagus.   Though thieves had long ago broken into this pyramid, a few items of funerary equipment were found in the queen's chambers. Within Aat's chambers there were two mace heads discovered along with seven alabaster cases in the form of ducks, an alabaster unguent jar and scattered pieces of jewelry. Thought the canopic chest was broken, all the pieces were found and it contained one canopic jar. In the second queen's chambers were found an obsidian vassals decorated with gold bands, three alabaster duck shaped vessels, granite and alabaster mace heads and jewelry. There wee also parts of this queen's stone shrine, originally encased in gold and containing a ka statue.   Along with the bones of the two queens, four additional burials were discovered within the pyramid. Because the name of Amenemhet IV appears on the valley temple, some believe that two of these burials may have been that king and the last regent of the 12 Dynasty, Queen Sobekneferu. If so, the pyramid was most likely reopened after having been previously sealed. Amenemhet IV and Queen Sobekneferu may have begun pyramids at Mazghuna, but these were far from completed and it would appear that no burials took place.         The pyramid was presumable sealed in year 20 of Amenemhet II's reign. This took the form of not only filling the entrance stairways with limestone blocks, but also the king's chamber and antechambers, the queens' burial chambers and the entrance corridors to the ka chapels. Other chambers and corridors were filled with mudbrick. This may have been a precaution against the pyramid's collapse, but chambers in Amenemhet III's pyramid at Hawara were similarly filled.   Outside the pyramid, between the first and second enclosure walls on the north is a row of ten shaft tombs for the remainder of the royal family. We know that the second tomb from the east belongs to the king's daughter, Princess Nubheteptikhered. The first tomb on the east was usurped by King Auibre Hor, an insignificant ruler of the 13th Dynasty. The wooden statue of his Ka found within this tomb is one of the most valuable objects in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. King Hor's mummy was found within a wooden coffin discovered in the tomb, along with some items of funerary equipment. This included a wooden canopic chest that bore the name of Nimaatre, a name for Amenemhet III. However, the view these days among Egyptologists seems to be that the name refers to a Khendjer, a successor of Hor's. Khendjer later took the name Userkare. There seems to be considerable confusion around this particular burial among archaeologists.   Today you can see the pyramid from the section of Dahshur where visitors are allowed, but it cannot be approached because it remains in a military zone.   Height: 75m Base: 105m Slope: 54o 30'

The Buried Pyramid of Sekhemkhet

 

 

Almost everything we know about Sekhemkhet ("Powerful in Body"), we know because of his unfinished (Buried) pyramid at Saqqara, and it seems to give us little facts about his life. The only evidence outside of this tomb is a scene depicted at Wadi Maghara in the Sinai which bears his name. It is a military scene, classical in that it probably shows Sekhemkhet, with his raised mace, about to smite his desert enemies. This relief actually shows a procession of Sekhemkhets. In front of the smiting king, who is wearing the White Crown is a second depiction of the king wearing the Red Crown, and in front of him, another of Sekhemkhet back in the White Crown.

 

 

 

 

 

However, we are not really sure of much about this king. According to the Turin King-list, Djoser's immediate successor was identified by his personal name Djoser-Ti (Djoserty), and ruled for only six years. It now seems that most Egyptologists believe Djoser-Ti and Sekhemkhet were one and the same person, though some might still argue otherwise. His reign would have been from about 2649 until 2643 BC.

 

Judging from an inscription on his pyramid at Saqqara, and from its very design, we can also tentatively guess that the great Imhotep survived Djoser, his predecessor, and was again the mind behind the funerary complex works. Also, because of his short reign, and particularly his truncated pyramid, many believe he came to a sudden and unexpected death, though we have no idea what might have caused it.

 

The Buried Pyramid of Sekhemkhet

 

 

 

 

Another possible building project of Imhotep may have been the pyramid of Sekhemkhet. Also located at Saqqara, it would be rather remarkable for this pyramid to have been designed by anyone else, or to have belonged to someone other then Sekhemkhet. In many ways, it duplicated elements from the Step Pyramid of Djoser.

 

Sekhemkhet's step pyramid was perhaps first noticed by a young Egyptian archaeologist named Zakaria Goneim while he was working at Saqqara excavating the pyramid of Unas, just before World War II. When the war erupted, he set out that period in Luxor, but afterwards returned to Saqqara to further investigate the huge, rectangular structure barely visible beneath a sand dune. It was only about one hundred meters to the southwest of the site Goneim had been working before the war, and he could tell that it was roughly oriented north-south.

 

As he began to uncover the structure, he found that the four corners he had seen beneath the sand dune were actually the walls of an enclosure, and inside were the ruins of a previously unknown pyramid. Soon it was clear that this was a 3rd Dynasty pyramid, because the facade of the perimeter wall, with its facade ornamented with deep niches, was so very similar to the wall that Djoser had built for his complex.

 

 

The pyramid was built upon an uneven rock surface, so the builders were forced to level the terrain, building large terraces, of which some were more than ten meters high. Why the king chose this site for his pyramid is a bit of a mystery, though there are some nearby royal tombs from the 2nd Dynasty that may have lured him there.

 

The perimeter wall was built in to phases. In the first phase, it was a much less radical rectangle. Later it was extended south, and particularly north. With these extensions, it was close to the size of Djoser/s complex. Like Djoser's complex, it has rows of niches alternating in a regular intervals with false doors, though there was probably only one real door in the entire complex, which has never been found. The wall was cased in fine, white Tura limestone. The wall probably stood about ten meters tall, with a walkway and sentry posts just as in the complex of Djoser.

 

 

 

 

It has been difficult to determine whether the core was originally planned as six or seven steps, but apparently, the pyramid itself was never completed, having only reached a height of about 26 feet. It was built using the accretion layer method with the stones laid inwards at a 15 degree slope. These stones were laid at right angles to the incline. Since the pyramid was unfinished, there was never any casing applied. The pyramid probably had a square floor plan, with sides about 119 meters in length. According to Lehner, if the pyramid was built in seven steps, it would have been higher then Djoser's, rising some 70 meters (230 ft) above its base.

 

An entrance to the pyramid was found in front of the north wall, leading into a corridor that eventually communicated with the burial chamber. However, this corridor was bisected by a vertical shaft that extended up into the masonry of the pyramid itself. This was a type of security system also found in other Egyptian tombs, specifically at Beit Khallaf, dating to this period. Within the shaft, Goneim found the bones of various animals, including cattle, rams and gazelles, that were doubtless offerings to the deceased. he also found 62 papyri from the 26th Dynasty written during the reign of Ahmose II. Below these were some seven hundred stone vessels and remarkably a gold treasure cache from the 3rd Dynasty.

 

 

 

 

These artifacts included 21 bracelets, small mussel shells, and faience corals covered with gold leaf. The items are, so far, the oldest gold ornamentation discovered in Egypt. It was no doubt a part of Sekhemkhet's funerary goods, but how it ended up at the bottom of the shaft rather than stolen with the rest of the tomb's content remains a mystery.

 

About 47 meters before reaching the burial chamber, a U shaped passage leads off to the east, and is lined with a series of narrow, long storage annexes. After the entrance to this auxiliary passage, the main corridor continues. It was between here, and the burial chamber that clay vessel stoppers were discovered bearing Sekhemkhet's name, which is another reason why we attribute the pyramid to him.

 

 

 

 

The main corridor continues to descend down until reaching first a transverse corridor, and then to the burial chamber just to the other side, some 100 feet below the base of the pyramid. The burial chamber is lined up precisely with the pyramid's vertical axis. The walls within this north-south oriented burial chamber were left unfinished. Inside there apparently remains a highly polished alabaster sarcophagus cut from a single stone. This is very rare, for the only other alabaster we know of used in such a way was in the coffins of Queen Hetephere I, of the 4th Dynasty, and Seti I, of the 19th Dynasty. It also had no cover, but rather a sliding partition.

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting story related to this sarcophagus and its unique sliding partition. When found, the partition to the sarcophagus was sealed, and even the remains of what he believed to be dried flowers (later determined to be bark and decomposed wood) lay atop it. Furthermore, Goneim also claims that the entrance to the pyramid was blocked by an in tact wall. Goneim was sure he had discovered an in tact sarcophagus still bearing the remains of its owner. Though he was warned by other Egyptologists, notably Lauer, that the substructure had been robbed, he nevertheless created a media sensation. he invited high state officials, journalists, reporters and film teams to the opening. Then came the shock of an empty sarcophagus.

 

He apparently managed to survive this embarrassment, for after all, he had made a reasonably important discovery by finding the pyramid of Sekhemkhet. Many Egyptology professionals throughout the world had considerable interest in what was probably only the second pyramid built in Egypt.

 

 

 

 

Just outside of the entrance to the burial chamber, the transverse corridor leads off the the right (westerly) and to the left, and then each makes a 90 degree tern back to the south past the burial chamber. These galleries were also unfinished, and may have been intended to lead to a larger mortuary apartment, similar to the one in Djoser's complex.

 

Outside of the pyramid within the complex on the south, just as in the case of Djoser's complex, there is also a symbolic south tomb. The superstructure of the tomb consisted of a mastaba built of limestone blocks. It had an entrance on the west side, also like Djoser's complex. From there, a long corridor descended to the east, and like in the pyramid, was interrupted by a vertical shaft. Further down the main corridor, though this tomb had probably not been meant for a burial, the excavators found the fragments of a small coffin that had held the remains of about a two year old child.

 

The burial chamber in the south tomb was small, but found within it were fragments of thin gold leaf impressed with a pattern imitating reed matting. Also found were animal bones and stone vessels.

 

Unfortunately, Goneim would never finish excavating the pyramid. Having achieved some amount of fame, he went off to the United States on a lecture tour, and even wrote a book about his discovery named The Buried Pyramid. The book was successful, and even translated into different languages, but when he returned to Egypt, everything fell apart. He was accused of smuggling a large, valuable vessel that Quibell and Lauer had found two years earlier near in the Djoser complex out of the country. There was no hard evidence, only accusations and slander, but it devastated Goneim, who one must remember is also Egyptian. He was repeatedly interrogated by the police.

 

 

 

 

It was his friend Lauer who attempted to finally help him. In 1957, he tracked the missing vessel to a corner of the Egyptian Museum's depository. But like an Egyptian tragedy, even as Lauer was hurrying back to Saqqara to redeem his friend, Goneim was jumping into the Nile to commit suicide.

 

In fact, it was Lauer who returned to the site in about 1963 for a hurried search for answers. It was he who discovered the south tomb, along with the south side of the perimeter wall. But unfortunately, no one yet has excavated the mortuary temple or the rest of the grounds. Many questions remain about this pyramid. For example, was Sekhemkhet ever buried, here, and if he was not, what happened to this king. The sealed sarcophagus seems to indicate, though not with certainty, that it never held his remains. By all indications, he came to an abrupt end, if we consider his attempted pyramid as evidence. In fact, most Egyptologist seem to agree that he probably only ruled for about six years. Perhaps he died in some remote expedition, his body never again seen. On the other hand, some future excavation may give us real answers to these questions.

 

Technical

 

Perimeter wall: 262m x 185x

After enlargement: 500m x 185m