Travel Guide Saqqarah

Saqqarah is a key site for understanding the pyramids and the funerary art of the pharaohs. This necropolis of the Memphis pharaohs was in use between 2700 BC and 1200 BC. Of Egypt's 100 pyramids, 16, more or less well preserved, are located here. This is also where the first pyramid texts appear.Excavations and discoveries are still ongoing. In 2018, seven new tombs were discovered in the area on the edge of the Userkaf pyramid complex. The mission discovered three New Kingdom tombs used at the end of the period as a cat necropolis, as well as four other Old Kingdom tombs, the most important of which belonged to Khufu-Imhat, the overseer of the royal palace buildings. Dozens of cat mummies were also discovered, along with 100 wooden cat statues and a bronze statue dedicated to the cat goddess Bastet. A collection of gilded wooden statues representing the physical traits of a lion, a cow and a falcon was also unearthed. Sarcophagi and 1,000 earthenware amulets dedicated to various divinities were also found. Three alabaster canopic vases and writing implements, such as ink pots with pens, were found, as well as several papyri bearing chapters from the Book of the Dead. The names of two ladies, Subek Sekt and Mafy, were also found engraved on a false door for the very first time.A collection of papyrus baskets and ropes was also discovered, along with 30 clay pots, a headrest, and alabaster and bronze jars inside a wooden sarcophagus. A large number of reliefs and decorated stone blocks were also found. The new finds will be processed and displayed in the GEM, which is still closed to the public.What you can see : superb pyramids and mastabas are to be discovered on this marvellous site. A mastaba is a funerary edifice used as a burial place for kings and high dignitaries of the first two Egyptian dynasties. This rectangular construction with mud-brick walls is the funerary structure that preceded the pyramids.Practical: the ticket costs LE 200 and gives access to several sites; some mastabas and pyramid interiors are optional. Saqqarah is 28 km from Cairo, south of the Giza plateau.