Pyramid of Sahure

Template:Short description Template:Top icon Template:Infobox Egyptian pyramid The pyramid of Sahure (Template:Langx) is a pyramid complex built in the late 26th to 25th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn It introduced a period of pyramid building by Sahure's successors in Abusir, on a location earlier used by Userkaf for his sun temple. The site was first thoroughly excavated by Ludwig Borchardt between March 1907 and 1908, who wrote the standard work (Template:Langx) between 1910 and 1913.

The pyramid complex's layout was adopted by succeeding kings of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, marking a milestone in pyramid complex construction. Compared to the preceding Fourth Dynasty, the immensity of the constructions was dramatically reduced but, in tandem, the decorative programme proliferated and temples were augmented by enlarged storeroom complexes. The complex is estimated to have had of finely carved relief adorning its walls, of which has been preserved. Some of these reliefs are considered unparalleled in Egyptian art, such as the by (4.2 × 1.6 royal cubits) hunting scene from the mortuary temple.Template:Efn For comparison, Sahure's temple contained 370 running metres (1,214 running feet) of such relief decoration, while the temple of Khufu's Great Pyramid contained 100 running metres (328 running feet). The complex is also remarkable for the array of valuable materials – such as granite, alabaster and basalt – used extensively in its construction.

The main pyramid was built from roughly hewn limestone blocks bound with mud mortar and encased with fine white Tura limestone. It had a base of about to long converging at either 50°11′40″ or 50°30′ towards the apex between and high. The architects made an error in demarcating the pyramid base, extending it too far east. The pyramid's internal chambers were devastated by stone thieves, rendering an accurate reconstruction impossible. Stone fragments believed to belong to the king's basalt sarcophagus are the only remains of the burial that have been found. The mortuary temple adjacent to the pyramid's east face comprises an entrance hall, an open courtyard, a five-niche statue chapel, an offering hall, and storerooms. These elements had appeared in mortuary temples since the reign of Khafre. South of the temple is the enclosure with the cult pyramid, employing the same construction method used in the main pyramid but on a reduced scale, with a base length of converging at 56° to a peak high. The complex's two temples are linked by a long intricately decorated and well-illuminated causeway. The valley temple is situated on Abusir lake and is unusual for having two entrances: the main on its east side, and a secondary one on its south. It remains unclear why a second entry point was built, though it may have been connected to a pyramid town to its south.

Sahure's mortuary temple became the object of a cult of Sekhmet around the Eighteenth Dynasty. The cult was active through to the Ptolemaic Kingdom, though its influence began to wane following the reign of Ramesses II. This period heralded the first wave of destruction on the Abusir monuments, whilst Sahure's escaped the dismantlement, possibly as a result of the cult's presence. The monuments stirred interest again in the Twenty-Fifth to Twenty-Sixth Dynasties, which is shown by the copying of reliefs from the mortuary temples of Sahure, Nyuserre and Pepi II by the pharaoh Taharqa for the temple of Kawa in Nubia. A second wave of destruction of the Abusir monuments took place in the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty, but Sahure's temple was spared again, the cult still being present. With the onset of the Roman period, the Abusir monuments, including Sahure's, were subjected to a third wave of destruction. At the beginning of the Christian era, Sahure's temple became the site of a Coptic shrine, as evidenced by the recovery of pottery and graffiti dating to between the 4th and 7th century AD. Thereafter, until the late 19th century, the monuments were periodically quarried for limestone.

Location and excavation

Map of the Abusir necropolis

A lithograph from 1907 of the Abusir necropolis showing the locations of Sahure's (northernmost), Nyuserre's, Neferirkare's, and Neferefre's (unfinished) pyramids

Sahure chose a site near Abusir for his funerary monument,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn thus constructing the first pyramid in the region.Template:Sfn Earlier, Userkaf, founder of the Fifth Dynasty, chose Abusir for his sun temple.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It is unclear why Userkaf sought such a remote site.Template:Sfn It may have been significant for the nearby cult of Ra, or, in the opinion of the Egyptologist Werner Kaiser, the southernmost point from which the gilded pyramidion of the pillar-like structure in the temple of Ra in Heliopolis could be seen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It is clear, however, that his decision influenced the history of Abusir,Template:Sfn including Sahure's decision to build his monument there.Template:Sfn Three of the Abusir pyramids – Sahure, Neferirkare and Neferefre – are linked at the northwest corners by an imaginary line running to Heliopolis (Iunu).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The diagonal was broken by Nyuserre, who positioned his complex between those of Neferirkare and Sahure.Template:Sfn

Early excavators did not perform thorough investigations of Sahure's monument, perhaps discouraged by its ruined state.Template:Sfn In 1838, John Shae Perring, an engineer working under Colonel Howard Vyse,Template:Sfn cleared the entrances to the Sahure, Neferirkare and Nyuserre pyramids.Template:Sfn Perring was the first to enter the substructure of Sahure's pyramid in modern times.Template:Sfn Five years later, Karl Richard Lepsius, sponsored by King Frederick William IV of Prussia,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn explored the Abusir necropolis and catalogued Sahure's pyramid as XVIII.Template:Sfn The pyramid was also re-entered by Jacques de Morgan, but he too did not explore further. No further investigations were performed for the next fifty years until the Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt visited the site.Template:Sfn

From 1902 to 1908, Borchardt, working for the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (German Oriental Society), had the Abusir pyramids resurveyed and their adjoining temples and causeways excavated.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn From March 1907 to March 1908, Borchardt had Sahure's pyramid thoroughly investigated, and had trial digs conducted at nearby sites, including Neferefre's unfinished pyramid.Template:Sfn He published his findings in the two-volume study Das Grabdenkmal des Königs Sahu-re (1910–13), which remains the standard work on the complex.Template:Sfn

In 1994, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities opened the Abusir necropolis to tourism. In preparation, restorative works were conducted at Sahure's pyramid.Template:Sfn The archeologist Zahi Hawass had a segment of Sahure's causeway cleaned and reconstructed, during which large relief-decorated limestone blocks that had been buried in the sand were uncovered.Template:Sfn The reliefs found on these blocks were thematically and artistically uniqueTemplate:Sfn and shed new light on the decorative programme of the complex.Template:Sfn

Mortuary complex

Layout

3D model of the mortuary complex

Layout of the mortuary complex, excluding the valley temple. In order: A) main pyramid; B) cult pyramid; C) enclosure wall; D) mortuary temple; and E) causewayTemplate:Sfn

Old Kingdom mortuary complexes typically consist of five main components: (1) a valley temple; (2) a causeway; (3) a mortuary temple; (4) a cult pyramid; and (5) the main pyramid.Template:Sfn Sahure's east–west oriented complex contains all of these elements.Template:Sfn Its tall main pyramid comprised six ascending steps of stone encased in fine white limestone,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn with a cult pyramid located at the south-east corner,Template:Sfn and a mortuary temple, the standard-bearer for future variants,Template:Sfn adjacent to its east face.Template:Sfn These connected to the valley temple, situated on Abusir lake,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn by a long limestone causeway.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn From the outset of the Fifth Dynasty, the main pyramids were dramatically reduced in size and adopted simplified construction techniques.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Meanwhile, relief decoration advanced in wealth of subject matter and quality of workmanship,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and temples were outfitted with expansive storeroom complexes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Except for minor deviations, the complex built by Sahure became the model for the remainder of the Fifth and Sixth DynastiesTemplate:Sfn and the arrangement of the apartments of his mortuary temple became the standard for subsequent temples of the type in the Old Kingdom.Template:Sfn Thereby it marked a milestone in the development of pyramid complex construction.Template:Sfn

The complex is well-decorated, containing thematically diverse relief-work identified by the Egyptologist Miroslav Verner as "the highest level of the genre" found in the Old Kingdom.Template:Sfn Across its entirety, it is estimated that of finely carved relief adorned the walls.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His mortuary temple alone contained 370 running metres (1,214 running feet) of relief decorations. By contrast, Sneferu's mortuary temple contained 64 running metres (210 running feet) of relief decoration, Khufu's contained 100 running metres (328 running feet), and the temple of Sahure's direct predecessor Userkaf contained 120 running metres (394 running feet). The mortuary temple of Pepi II, the last king of the Old Kingdom, contained 200 running metres (656 running feet) of relief decoration, indicating a decline after Sahure too.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn No more than of fragmentary relief has been preserved from Sahure's temple,Template:Sfn but this is considered well-preserved.Template:Sfn Additionally, Sahure reserved of the mortuary temple's floorplan for storerooms, accounting for 21.6% of its total area. By comparison, the temple of Sneferu's Red Pyramid at Dahshur, and temple of Khufu's Great Pyramid had no storerooms, while the temple of Khafre's pyramid reserved less than of space for storerooms, accounting for 15.8% of its total area. This change represents a shift in priority towards the daily activities of the mortuary cult.Template:Sfn

Main pyramid

Sahure's pyramid is situated upon a hill elevated above the Nile valley. Although the subsoil of the area has never been investigated, evidence from the nearby mastaba of Ptahshepses suggests that the pyramid was not embedded into bedrock, but on a platform constructed from at least two layers of limestone.Template:Sfn The pyramid had a core comprising six ascending steps,Template:Sfn five of which remain.Template:Sfn The steps were probably built from horizontally laid courses of limestone.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The core consisted of low-grade roughly cut limestoneTemplate:Sfn bound with mud mortar,Template:Sfn and was encased by fine white limestone.Template:Sfn

The pyramid was constructed in a drastically different manner to those of the preceding dynasty. Its outer faces were framed using massive, roughly dressed grey limestone blocks well joined with mortar.Template:Sfn The inner chambers were similarly framed, but using considerably smaller blocks.Template:Sfn The core of the pyramid, between the two frames, was then packed with a rubble fill of limestone chips, pottery shards, and sand, with clay mortaring.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn This method, while less time- and resource-consuming, was careless and unstable, and meant that only the outer casing was constructed using high-quality limestone.Template:Sfn

• Photograph of a pyramid complex
  The pyramid from the end of the causeway
• 3D model of a pyramid complex
  Model of the complex from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Photograph of a pyramid
  Crumbling remains of the pyramid

Owing to the poor condition of the monument, information about its dimensions and appearance contains a degree of imprecision.Template:Sfn The pyramid had a base length of about to converging at either 50° 11′ 40′′ or 50°30′ towards the apex between and high.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The architects made a notable error in demarcating the base, causing the southeast corner to extend too far east. Consequently, it is not square.Template:Sfn A ditch was left in the pyramid's north face during construction, which allowed workers to build the inner corridor and chambers while the core was being erected around it, before filling it in with rubble.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The pyramid is surrounded by a limestone paved courtyard, except where the mortuary temple sits, and is accessed from the temple's north and south wings.Template:Sfn Enclosing the courtyard is a tall, rounded enclosure wall at its thickest.Template:Sfn

Substructure

Cross-sectional depiction of a pyramid interior

North-South cross-section of the pyramid. Beige: fine Tura limestone; red: red granite; light grey: low-grade limestone; medium grey: limestone foundation; dark grey: bedrock.Template:Sfn

The substructure access is located slightly above ground on the pyramid's north face.Template:Sfn A short descending corridor – lined with graniteTemplate:Sfn – leads into a vestibule, beyond which the route is guarded by a pink granite portcullis,Template:Sfn with granite-lined walls on either side.Template:Sfn The corridor is long sloped at 24° 48′, with a passage wide and high.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The corridor following – lined with limestoneTemplate:Sfn – begins with a slight ascent becoming horizontal – lined with graniteTemplate:Sfn – just before its terminus.Template:Sfn The ascending portion is long with a slope of 5°, while the horizontal section is long.Template:Sfn

Precise reconstruction of the substructure plan has been rendered impossible by the extensive damage that stone thieves wrought on the chambers.Template:Sfn Until 2019, sources differed as to whether the funerary apartment – estimated to be east-west by north-southTemplate:Sfn – consisted of a singleTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn or twin chambers.Template:Sfn Clearance of the substructure in 2019 confirmed that the funerary apartment consisted of two rooms, with the burial chamber still to be investigated.Template:Sfn

The antechamber lies on the vertical axis of the pyramid, occupying of space, with the burial chamber to its west.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The chambers had a ceiling constructed from three gabled layers of limestone blocks,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which dispersed the weight from the superstructure onto either side of the passageway preventing collapse.Template:Sfn Perring estimated the largest blocks to be long, wide and thick. Despite their size and weight, all but two have been broken.Template:Sfn Inside the apartment's ruins, Perring found stone fragments – the only discovered remains of the burialTemplate:Sfn – which he believed belonged to the king's basalt sarcophagus.Template:Sfn

Valley temple

Sahure's now-ruined valley temple was situated on the shore of Abusir lake, on the edge of the desert.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn It had a rectangular ground plan long by wide and oriented on the north–south axis.Template:Sfn Its base is now around below ground level,Template:Sfn which has risen over the millennia due to the accumulation of silt deposits during the annual Nile flood.Template:Sfn The temple's walls slope inwards as they rise, their corners are formed into a convex torus mould up to a cavetto cornice with its own horizontal torus mould.Template:Sfn

The temple had two entrances.Template:Sfn Its main entrance, in the east, consisted of a landing ramp leading to a column-adorned portico.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Its floor was paved with polished basalt, its walls had a red granite dado above which was limestone decorated with bas-relief, and it had a limestone ceiling that had been painted blue and decorated with relief-carved golden stars – representing the entrance into the Duat.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The columns were formed into date palms, with leaves tied vertically to form capitals, and each column bore the king's titulary and name carved into the stone and painted green.Template:Sfn An alternative entrance was built on the south side, accessed by a canal leading to a ramp up to another columned portico, this time containing four red granite columns.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The columns, in contrast, were cylindrical in form and lacked any crown. This portico was also less deep and was paved with limestone.Template:Sfn It remains unclear why this entrance was built.Template:Sfn The wall may belong to Sahure's pyramid town, named "The soul of Sahure comes forth in glory".Template:Sfn

The entrances were connected by passages to a T-shaped hall equipped with two columns.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Borchardt describes the room as "two-tiered" (doppelt gestaffelt). It has a transverse space with a narrowed recess in its rear wall containing the two columns (the top steps of the two tiers), then an even narrower recess in the first's rear wall (the bottom steps of the two tiers).Template:Sfn The room was originally adorned with polychromatic relief,Template:Sfn and contained a scene depicting the king, as a sphinx or griffin, trampling captive Near Eastern and Libyan enemies led to him by the gods.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The room connects to two more rooms: a room with a staircase up to the roof terrace at the south end, and causeway at its rearmost recess.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A relief depiction of troops from Sahure's valley temple can be contrasted with similar imagery in Userkaf's complex. In Sahure's scene, the soldiers are carved with near identical postures, a stark contrast to Userkaf's confused arrangement of overlapping figures. The latter has greater dynamism inducing more interest, whilst the former is more readily understood. The monotony of Sahure's scene was balanced by craftsmen introducing detail in the musculature and facial features of the figures.Template:Sfn

Causeway

A long, slightly inclinedTemplate:Sfn limestone causewayTemplate:Sfn connected the valley temple to the mortuary temple.Template:Sfn The causeway was roofed, with narrow slits left in the ceiling slabs allowing light to enter, illuminating its walls covered in polychromatic bas-relief.Template:Sfn These included scenes with seemingly apotropaic functions, such as a scene of the king represented as a sphinx crushing Egypt's enemies under his paw.Template:Sfn Other scenes presented include offering bearers, animal slaughter,Template:Sfn and the transport of the gilded pyramidion to the construction site.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Only the base of the causeway, made of large limestone blocks, has been preserved.Template:Sfn

Drawing of a building cross-section

Cross-section of the causeway

The scene depicting emaciated nomads, reduced through starvation, to skin and bone – had important historical implications.Template:Sfn The scene was thought only to exist in Unas' causeway, and was thus believed to be unique eyewitness testimony to the declining living standards of Saharan nomads brought about by the end of the Sahara wet phase in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The discovery of an identical scene in Sahure's causeway casts doubt onto this hypothesis.Template:Sfn Instead, Miroslav Verner suggests that the nomads might have been brought into the pyramid town to demonstrate the hardships faced by builders bringing higher-quality stone from remote mountain areas.Template:Sfn

A second discovered scene has implications for Fifth Dynasty genealogy.Template:Efn In this scene, Sahure is surrounded by his family in the palace garden Extolled is Sahure's beauty (Wtỉs-nfrw-Sꜣhw-rꜥ). The image confirms the identity of Sahure's consort, Meretnebty, and his twin sons, Ranefer and Netjerirenre. Ranefer, who is depicted closer to Sahure and bears the titles "king's son" and "chief lector-priest", may have been Sahure's eldest son, ascending to the throne as Neferirkare Kakai. Netjerirenre may be the ephemeral ruler Shepseskare, who took the throne after Neferefre's early death.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Another important relief discovered depicts a procession of ships, led by the king, being moored at an unidentified location. The relief originated on the causeway south wall, and although the location depicted cannot be identified, a corresponding relief on the same wall depicts the king, his mother and wife, awaiting the arrival of ships carrying myriad goods from the land of Punt – particular emphasis was placed on the Commiphora myrrha trees (nht n ꜥntw).Template:Sfn Sahure's is the earliest recorded voyage taken by the Egyptians to PuntTemplate:Sfn acquiring myrrh, electrum and wood from there.Template:Sfn

Sahure is further depicted extracting myrrh with an adze from the tree in one scene, and banqueting with his family, including his sons, and officials near the tree in another.Template:Sfn The trees depicted may not be Commiphora myrrha, as the use of an adze to extract resin was typically reserved for the Boswellia tree, and moreover the colour of the resin in Sahure's scene was identified by the Egyptologist Tarek El-Awady as yellowish brown, like Boswellia frankincense, and not red, like myrrh.Template:Sfn

Mortuary temple

File:Pharaoh Sahure, painted wall fragment from the Pharaoh's mortuary temple at the Pyramid Complex of Sahure, Abusir. Neues Museum.jpg

Sahure depicted on a painted wall fragment from his mortuary temple

Floorplan of the mortuary temple

Layout of Sahure's mortuary temple. In order: 1) entrance hall; 2) corridor; 3) courtyard; 4) storage galleries; 5) offering hall; 6) main pyramid; 7) cult pyramid enclosure; 8) side entrance; 9) statue chapel; 10) transverse corridorTemplate:Sfn

The mortuary temple was an expansive, rectangular building positioned along the east–west axis,Template:Sfn and situated on a level surface built from two layers of limestone blocks in front of the main pyramid's east face.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The outer façade was inclined at 82° up to a cavetto cornice with torus mould.Template:Sfn In its layout, Sahure's mortuary temple represented the "conceptual beginning" of all subsequent such temples of the Old Kingdom.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It contained five basic elements, exemplified in the temple of Khafre: an entrance hall, an open courtyard, a five-niche statue chapel, an offering hall, and storerooms.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The dominant building material used in its construction, here as elsewhere, was limestone, but substantial valuable materials such as red and black granite, alabaster and basalt were also incorporated.Template:Sfn

Entrance hall

The transition between causeway and temple was marked by a large granite gate leading into the mortuary temple's entrance hall.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the Fifth Dynasty, it was of the standard size of long, wide, and tall.Template:Sfn The hall has suffered considerably, rendering a precise reconstruction impracticable.Template:Sfn It had a limestone floor, its walls had red granite dado above which was, probably, limestone decorated with painted bas-relief scenes,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and it was covered by a stone barrel vault ceiling which had slits in its tympanum allowing the enclosure to be dimly lit.Template:Sfn Contemporary sources identify this room as the pr-wrw meaning "House of the Great Ones",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and it may be a replica of the hall of the royal palace, where nobles were received and certain rituals performed.Template:Sfn At its end, a granite doorway led to a closed corridor surrounding an open courtyard.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Corridor and courtyard

Photograph of the ruins of a corridor and temple

South corridor – containing the hunting relief – in relation to the mortuary temple and main pyramid

The corridor was paved with basalt, and its walls had a granite dado, above which they were decorated with colourful relief.Template:Sfn On its north wall, scenes depict the king fishing and hunting wildfowl, while on the south wall the king is depicted hunting – antelopes, gazelles, deer and other horned animals are shepherded into an enclosure for the king to shoot with his bow and arrow, after which hound dogs seize and kill the animals, elsewhere hyenas are observed poaching, and hedgehogs and jerboa scatter into their holesTemplate:Sfn – whilst his courtiers observe.Template:Sfn A masterful depth of detail has been incorporated into the latter scene, which measured long by high.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The sedate posture of the king's courtiers, representing order, is juxtaposed against the mass of wounded and frightened animals depicted in a variety of postures and facing various directions, representing chaos.Template:Sfn The imposing figure that is Sahure is unrivalled in any other example, and the gruesome detail of the injured animals is unreplicated. The figure of a hyena, pawing at an arrow in its jaw, reappears frequently in the Middle and New Kingdom, an homage to the relief from Sahure's temple.Template:Sfn Ptahhotep's tomb in Saqqara contains an abridged, and slightly less skilfully executed, copy of this hunting scene.Template:Sfn

Preserved remains of relief carved into stone

Herded animals being slain by King Sahure or poached by predators

The Egyptologist Mark Lehner suggests that the corridor represented the untamed wilderness, surrounding a clearing – the open courtyard – of which the king was guarantor.Template:Sfn From the reliefs depicting ships on the east-corridor west-wall and west-corridor (transverse corridor) east-wall, the Egyptologist Dorothea Arnold contends that the courtyard and corridor form an architectural unit analogous to the Egyptian benben myth. The other reliefs present symbolize the king's role as guarantor of order and prosperity on the sacred island.Template:Sfn Among the reliefs of this room an important discovery was made. One of the individuals present has been modified to include a brief inscription identifying them as "Neferirkare King of Upper and Lower Egypt" (nsw-bỉt Nfr-ỉrỉ-kꜣ-rꜥ). From this detail, Kurt Sethe, who was responsible for compiling and preparing the scenes for publication, developed the hypothesis that Neferirkare Kakai and Sahure were brothers, and that Neferirkare had had the relief corrected after ascending to the throne.Template:Sfn

The open courtyard was paved with polished basalt and lined with sixteen red granite columns, supporting the roof of an ambulatory.Template:Sfn Aside from an alabaster altar in the north-west corner decorated with scenes of sacrifice, the open courtyard is bare,Template:Sfn though it originally had statues of the pharaoh placed between the columns,Template:Sfn and may once also have contained statues of kneeling captives.Template:Sfn Eleven of the original sixteen granite columns were found in the temple.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Each was tall,Template:Sfn and carved into the form of date palms, symbolising fertility and immortality, upon which the king's name and titulary was inscribedTemplate:Sfn and painted in green.Template:Sfn The Two Ladies appear on these columns as well: Nekhbet, the vulture goddess, in the south half representing Upper Egypt, and Wadjet, the cobra goddess, in the north half representing Lower Egypt. Above, a red granite architrave bore the royal titulary, and further supported the limestone ceiling.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The ambulatory's blue painted ceiling was decorated with yellow stars, whilst its limestone walls were decorated with polychrome bas-reliefs, fragments of which have been preserved, depicting the king's victory over his enemies – on the north wall Near Eastern peoples, on the south Libyans – and the acquired spoils.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In a particular scene, showing the capture of animals, supplementary inscriptions identify the quantities seized: "123,440 head of cattle, 223,400 asses, 232,413 deer, and 243,688 sheep".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In another scene, the family of a Libyan chief beg for his life to be spared whilst the king prepares to execute him.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Under the northern ambulatory, a relief of exemplary craftsmanship depicting precious oil vases and Syrian brown bears was found. The figures were given rounded edges so that they simultaneously blend in with the background and stand out clearly. Much of the paint used has been preserved: a dark red-brown colour was used for the vase and a yellow-brown for the bear's fur.Template:Sfn Up to a further eleven scenes remain too fragmentary to be reconstructed.Template:Sfn

• Photograph of basalt paving
  Basalt paving of the courtyard
• Photograph of massive stone blocks
  Remnant of the massive granite architrave inscribed with Sahure's titulary
• Cross-section image of an architectural design
  Depiction of Sahure's mortuary temple as it appeared in the Old Kingdom
• Picture of a column's capital
  Palmiform capital of a column

Transverse corridor and storage galleries

Beyond the courtyard is a transverse (north-south) corridor which separates the public outer from the private inner temple,Template:Sfn which only priests were allowed to access.Template:Sfn The corridor further served as an intersection connecting the outer and inner temples, the courtyard surrounding the pyramid, and the cult pyramid. At its northern end was a staircase up to the roof terrace.Template:Sfn Its floor was paved with basalt, as the courtyard was, and its walls had a granite dado, above which was limestone decorated with bas-relief.Template:Sfn On the north half of the corridor's east wall is a relief, considered by the Egyptologist Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards to be amongst the most interesting in the temple, that depicts the king and his court observing the departure of twelve sea-going vessels, probably on expedition to Syria or Palestine.Template:Sfn In the south-half, a similar scene depicts the king and his court awaiting the arrival of ships laden with cargo and several Near Eastern peoples, who do not appear to be prisoners, indicating either a commercial or, perhaps, diplomatic mission.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the centre of the west wall of the corridor was an alabaster staircase that led into the five-niche statue chapel.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Flanking the staircase were two deep niches, each containing two granite papyriform columns high. The columns supported an architrave, a fragment of which has been found in the oil press of St. Jeremiah monastery in Saqqara.Template:Sfn The niche's walls were decorated with reliefs depicting processions of offering bearers, and they had recessed side doors leading to two-story storage galleries.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The northern gallery consisted of ten rooms arranged in two rows, each outfitted with its own staircase – cut directly into the limestone wallsTemplate:Sfn – leading to the second story.Template:Sfn These held cult objects used for the temple rituals.Template:Sfn The southern gallery consisted of sixteen or seventeen rooms, also arranged in two rows and outfitted with staircases, that probably held sacrificial offerings.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Reliefs in the corridors leading to the galleries even included ritual instructions, such as "presentation of gold" or "sealing a box containing incense" found in the north and south corridors respectively.Template:Sfn

• Photograph of relief decoration
  Transverse corridor relief depicting a naval expedition
• Photograph of storage rooms
  The southern storage gallery where offerings were stored
• Photograph of stone steps
  Carved stone steps of a two-story storage room

Statue chapel

The transverse corridor staircase leads into the five-niche statue chapel,Template:Sfn a room with considerable religious importance.Template:Sfn Accessed through a double-door, it had a floor paved with white alabaster,Template:Sfn red granite sheathing in the niches and dado, fine white limestone sheathed walls elsewhere which was lavishly decorated in relief, and a limestone ceiling decorated with stars evoking the night sky of the Duat.Template:Sfn A small staircase stood before each niche, which was once occupied by a statue, none of which have been preserved.Template:Sfn It was originally assumed that each statue represented one of the king's five names, but the Abusir Papyri, discovered in the nearby pyramid of Neferirkare, indicate otherwise. The papyri identify that the central statue represented the king as Osiris, while the two outermost ones represented him as the king of Upper Egypt, and the king of Lower Egypt.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The remaining two are not identified.Template:Sfn Exiting the chapel to the south is a path leading through two roomsTemplate:Sfn – including a rectangular vestibule that appears to be a predecessor of the antichambre carrée, first found in Nyuserre's mortuary templeTemplate:Sfn – passing around a great stone massif and into the westernmost room of the temple, the offering hall.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Offering hall and auxiliary rooms

The offering hall of the temple held the most significance for the royal mortuary cult.Template:Sfn The sanctuary was in length and wide.Template:Sfn It was entered through a black granite door that opened up to a white alabaster paved floor, and walls with dado of black granite above which was fine white limestone decorated with polychromatic bas-relief depicting divinities bringing offerings to the king, and covered along its length by a vaulted ceiling with painted stars.Template:Sfn A low alabaster altar stood at the west wall,Template:Sfn at the foot of a granite false door, possibly covered in copper or gold, through which the spirit of the king would enter the room to receive his meal, before returning to his tomb.Template:Sfn Unusually, the false door has been crudely fashioned, and bears none of the names, titles, or sacrificial formulas that are expected to be found. This led Borchardt to speculate that the door may have originally been sheathed with metal which was eventually stolen by thieves.Template:Sfn The room also originally contained a black granite statue and an offering basin, located in a recessed niche in its south-west corner, with an outflow of copper piping.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the north wall, a granite doorway gives access to five auxiliary rooms,Template:Sfn which served the offering hall.Template:Sfn

Drainage system

Sahure's temple had an elaborate drainage systemTemplate:Sfn including more than of copper piping.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Rainfall captured on the roof was funnelled out through stone lion-head spouts fit onto the tops of the outer walls. The choice of the lion-head may relate to the ancient Egyptian belief that Set and other inimical deities could manifest themselves in rain. The lion, a symbolic protector of sacred ground, consumed the harmful spirits and ejected harmless water. Where no roof existed, gaps around the base of the outer walls collected the water, conducting it out using channels cut into the paving.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Water and other liquids used in rituals and ceremonies, which had become impure and thus dangerous to touch, were removed using the drainage system.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Five stone and copper-plated basins, each with a lead plug to fit the vent, were placed around the inner temple.Template:Sfn The first was found in the offering hall, two more were in the auxiliary rooms beyond it, a fourth in the corridor leading up to the offering hall, and the fifth in the northern magazine gallery.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn These were connected via an intricate network of copper pipes laid beneath the temple, which led down the length of the causeway before terminating at an outlet on its southern side.Template:Sfn

• Photographs of limestone channels
  Limestone channels through which water and other liquids were drained
• Photograph of a lead plug
  Lead plug of a copper basin from the mortuary temple
• Photograph of limestone channels from the offering hall
  Carved limestone channels departing the offering hall

Cult pyramid

By the main pyramid's south-east corner, confined to a separate enclosure, lies a cult pyramid.Template:Sfn The enclosure is accessed from either the southern end of the transverse corridor,Template:Sfn or through a portico – the side entrance to Sahure's mortuary templeTemplate:Sfn – flanked by two granite columns bearing Sahure's royal titulary.Template:Sfn The portico floor was paved with basalt, as were the dado of its walls, above which the walls were built of limestone and decorated with polychromatic relief. The reliefs portrayed rows of deities, nome and estate personifications, and fertility figures – all clutching was-sceptres and ankh signs – marching into the temple. An accompanying inscription bears their message to the king: "We give you all life, stability, and dominion, all joy, all offerings, all perfect things that are in Upper Egypt, since you have appeared as king of Upper and Lower Egypt alive forever".Template:Sfn Beyond the portico, a room with two exits gives access to the transverse corridor in the north or to an oblong room preceding the cult pyramid in the south.Template:Sfn

The cult pyramid had a core ascending in two or three steps,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn composed primarily of limestone block debris framed by yellow limestone blocks, and then encased with white limestone blocks – the same method of construction as used in the main pyramid.Template:Sfn It had a base length of converging at 56° towards the apex high.Template:Sfn From the north face,Template:Sfn a bent corridor – initially descending, then switching to an ascent – leads into the miniature pyramid's sole chamber: an east–west oriented burial room slightly below ground level. The chamber was found void of any content, and its walls had been severely damaged by stone thieves.Template:Sfn

The purpose of the cult pyramid remains unclear. Its burial chamber was not used for burials, but instead appears to have been a purely symbolic structure.Template:Sfn It may have hosted the pharaoh's ka (spirit),Template:Sfn or a miniature statue of the king.Template:Sfn It may have been used for ritual performances centring on the burial and resurrection of the ka spirit during the Sed festival.Template:Sfn

• Photograph of a ruined cult pyramid
  Remains of the cult pyramid, with the lowest course of white limestone still intact
• Photograph of archaeological remains
  Remains of the mortuary temple; the side entrance columns to the right of image
• Photograph of a broken granite column
  Granite column of the side entrance reading 'Sahure, given all life, health and joy for eternity'
• Photograph of personages in a relief
  Deities, nome and estate personages, and fertility figures marching into the temple

Necropolis

There is a largely unexplored necropolis found through the side-entrance on the transverse corridor's southern end. It is thought to be the burial ground of Sahure's consort, Meretnebty, and son, Netjerirenre.Template:Sfn

Later history

Funerary cult

The funerary cults at Abusir remained active through the reign of Pepi II at the end of the Sixth Dynasty,Template:Sfn but their continuation beyond this time is a matter of dispute.Template:Sfn Daily services, including offerings made before the false door of the offering hall and at the statues of the chapel, were held in the mortuary temple.Template:Sfn Reliefs on the temple's side entrance walls depict processions of individuals with offerings entering into the temple, accompanied by detailed instructions for the butchers and porters.Template:Sfn Sahure's funerary domains were also depicted on the reliefs of the causeway. Portrayed are processions of offering bearers bringing foodstuffs and leading animals into the temple. More than 200 funerary domains of Lower Egypt are shown on these blocks accounting for the most extensive record of such funerary domains yet discovered.Template:Sfn

Priests who served Sahure's funerary cult include Tepemankh II, who also served numerous other kings from Sneferu to Userkaf;Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nikare, priest of the cult of Sahure and of the sun temple of Nyuserre;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Senuankh and Nenkheftka, priests of the cults of Userkaf and Sahure;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Kaemnefret, priest in Sahure's pyramid and in Neferirkare's pyramid and sun temple;Template:Sfn Kuyemsnewy and Kamesenu, priests of the cults of Sahure, Neferirkare and Nyuserre.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Cult of Sekhmet

Photograph of a relief fragment

Relief fragment depicting the goddess Sekhmet

From at least the reign of Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty,Template:Sfn the south corridor of Sahure's mortuary templeTemplate:Sfn became home to a cult of Sekhmet.Template:Sfn The cult's early history is unknown. Borchardt suggested that it originated in the Middle Kingdom, but there is no evidence to support this conjecture. The earliest attested royal connection to the cult is Thutmose IVTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn of the Eighteenth Dynasty.Template:Sfn Further attestations include Ay and Horemheb, Amenhotep III through a faience object with his name, and Seti I and Ramesses II through restoration inscriptions bearing their names.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The renewed attention had a negative consequence as it brought on the first wave of dismantlement of the Abusir monuments, particularly for the acquisition of valuable Tura limestone. Sahure's mortuary temple may have been spared at this time due to the presence of the cult.Template:Sfn Its influence probably waned after the end of Ramesses II's reign, becoming a site of local worship only.Template:Sfn

The Abusir necropolis and Sahure's cult garnered attention again in the Twenty-Fifth to Twenty–Sixth Dynasties.Template:Sfn Taharqa had various reliefs replicated – such as images of the king in the form of a sphinx crushing his enemiesTemplate:Sfn – from the mortuary temples of Sahure, Nyuserre, and Pepi II for the restoration of the temple of Kawa in Nubia.Template:Sfn The cult of Sekhmet is also mentioned in a graffito found in the temple from Ahmose II's reign.Template:Sfn In the late Twenty-Sixth to the early Twenty-Seventh Dynasty, another period of dismantlement appears to have been visited on the monuments. Sahure's was again spared, protected by the cult into the Ptolemaic Kingdom, though it had very reduced influence at this time.Template:Sfn

A third wave of dismantlement of the Abusir monuments is attested in the Roman period by the abundant remains of mill-stones, lime production facilities, and worker shelters.Template:Sfn At the beginning of the Christian era, Copts founded a shrine in the temple,Template:Sfn as shown by pottery and Coptic graffiti dating to between the 4th and 7th centuries AD.Template:Sfn Periodic farming of the monuments for limestone continued at least until the end of the 19th century.Template:Sfn

See also

• List of Egyptian pyramids

Further reading

• Zahi Hawass, Miroslav Verner: Newly Discovered Blocks from the Causeway of Sahure (Archaeological Report). In: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo. (MDIAK) vol. 52, von Zabern, Wiesbaden 1996, pp. 177–186.
• Tarek el-Awady: King Sahure with the Precious Trees from Punt in a Unique Scene, in: Proceeding of “Art and Architecture of the Old Kingdom”, Prague 2007 pp. 37–44.
• Tarek el-Awady: The Royal Navigation Fleet of Sahure, in: Study in Honor of Tohfa Handousa, ASAE (2007).