The Saqqara pyramid plateau served as a burial site for the Ancient Egyptians for over three thousand years. The most famous of the animals buried at Saqqara were the Apis bulls. For over a thousand years these bulls were buried in a massive gallery of tunnels and niches carved into the rock floor. Strabo c50BC was the first to describe a road of sphinxes, some half submerged in the sand dedicated to the temple of the god Serapis. Mariette on a visit to Saqqara noticed a sphinx emerging from the sand, his team excavated a row of sphinxes leading to the remains of two temple entrance pylons. They found that one of the chambers in the temple led to a subterranean vault containing the sacred tombs of the Apis bulls.

We know that there was only ever one Apis bull at a time and that each bull was associated with the king when alive and with the god Osiris after death. In the Ptolemaic Period the cult of the Apis was combined with that of a variety of Greek gods; it was then known as the cult of Serapis. The bulls were buried at the Serapeum from the 18th Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period, amid great mourning and ceremony.  At first the bulls were buried in individual tombs with offering chapels erected above them.  From the the reign of Ramesses 2, a large subterranean gallery was cut and from this time until the reign of Psamtik 1 each bull would be buried in a large niche leading off from one long corridor; as each bull died the corridor would be extended and a new niche would be carved out. The bull was laid to rest in a wooden coffin. These are the so called Lesser Vaults. From Psamtik 1 to Cleopatra 7, a new grander corridor was cut from the rock, known as the Greater Vaults. These larger niches contain large granite or basalt sarcophagi, each weighing around 80 to 85 tons.

In the 30^thDynasty the long road of sphinxes was added in front of the temple. These led all the way to the city of Memphis the capital of Ancient Egypt  The later greek Ptolemies then added statues of Greek gods and women along the road, as well as an area for statues of famous Greek writers and philosophers, known today as the Philosophers’ Circle. Many Ancient Egyptian stelae (now in museums) were dedicated by people who had come to visit the Serapeum which has been closed to visitors for many years. It had become unsafe following the earthquake of 1992 causing cracks to appear in the ceiling and walls, leaving the entire monument in danger of collapse. The tunnels are now being reinforced with steel archways. These act as a cage in the weakened chambers to ensure that the ceilings do not collapse. The massive stone sarcophagi are protected in wooden casings as the work continues.  The floors are also being protected and the archways that lead into the burial chambers are being fixed.  When the work is complete, the Ancient Egyptian Serapeum will agian be opened to the public so that all visitors to Saqqara can visit this unique and mysterious monument. 

I spent two excellent weeks visiting Egypt in the second half of May. There have been quite a few interesting developments since 2008 when I last visited. Here are some of the highlights:-

1. Cairo. The Egyptian Museum entrance/exit project is well advanced it should reduce the congestion at the current entrance where visitors currently enter and exit through the same doors. During the construction a number of items were discovered in the grounds buried deliberately in the early 1900’s as the museum was running out of space to exhibit the growing number of items being discovered by the many international teams working throughout the country at that time.
2.  Giza. The information center at the main north entrance is moving forward, but  slowly.The intention is to prevent busses from entering the plateau and instead to have electric trains transport the visitors around the site similar to the concept used successfully at the  Valley of the Kings. The viewing and photo opportunity site on the western hill overlooking all three pyramids works very well and gives visitors a fine overview of the whole Giza pyramid plateau.
3.  The  Karnak visitor center is now in full use with some palm planting still needed to finish it off. Demolition of the ‘modern’ dwellings which masked the northern portion of  the west enclosure wall is progressing. This is opening up the approach to the site still further.
4. Karnak. The project to connect the Karnak and Luxor temple sites continues. It is a major undertaking but will one day allow visitors to walk along the two mile sphinx lined processional way.
5. Luxor. The restoration of the remains of Diocletian’s Roman sanctuary has now been nicely completed and although anachronistic, does add a unique visual element to the Roman period history of the temple. 
6. Luxor. The restoration of the 13th Century Mosque of Abu Hagag embedded in the Pharaonic temple eastern wall has been completed following the fire in 2007. The mosque is open to the public allowing once again the enthusiast to see both sides of the peristyle temple wall.
7. The excavation/conservation of Kom El Hetan, the mortuary temple of Amenhotep 3 on the west bank, is a major project delivering outstandingresults with more to follow. One fine example is a newly discovered  magnificent life sized seated black granite statue of Amenhotep 3 himself, found in the rubble covering the site. When the project has been completed it is intended that the items discovered will form part of a new open air museum at the site. The Colossi of Memnon remain under extensive scaffolding.
8. Valley of the Kings. Excavation work had naturally stopped for the summer but the area at the center of the valley in the vicinity of the tomb of KV62, that of Tutankhamen, shows the intense  digging that has taken place across a wide area of the valley floor. So far no new tombs have been discovered, the objective is to locate the only undiscovered king’s tomb, that of  Ramesses 8 who reigned for only two years.

I return to Egypt in mid November and will post an update on these and other developments.

Until then, best regards from Adrian Kerr.

Excavations along the famous ancient military road in the north Sinai have unearthed a new temple in a 3,000-year-old Ancient Egyptian fortified city. It is the largest mud brick temple found in the north Sinai with an area of 200 feet by 240 feet fortified with mud brick walls ten feet. The fort is just east of the city of Qantara, two miles east of the Suez Canal. In ancient times it was known as Tjaru (Greek Sile) and was the most important of the strategically placed forts along the ancient military road known as the ‘Way of Horus’. It connected Tjaru in Egypt  to  Rafah, southwest of Gaza.
This newly discovered temple contains four hallways, three stone purification bowls and colorful inscriptions commemorating Ramses 1 and 2. The grandeur and size of the temple was used to impress visiting foreign delegations as they arrived in Egypt from Canaan.
Since 1986 excavations along the Way of Horus have uncovered four New Kingdom forts in northern Sinai. Last year, a collection of reliefs belonging to King Ramses 2 and his father King Seti 1 were unearthed at the Tjaru fort along with rows of warehouses used by the ancient Egyptian army during the New Kingdom era to store grain and weapons.
This is one of the famous defensive string of forts built to protect Egypt from the Asiatics. Reference is made to them on the walls of the Karnak temple in Luxor which illustrated the features of a total of eleven or twelve military forts that protected Egypt’s eastern borders. Only four of these have been discovered to date

Visitors to Egypt will soon be able to explore the burial chamber of Snefru’s c2500BC Bent Pyramid at Dashur, fifty miles south of Giza. It is one of Ancient Egypt’s oldest giant stone pyramids. The increased access to pyramids south of Cairo is part of a new sustainable development program that is hoped to attract more travelers and avoid the urban sprawl of the Giza pyramids in the west Cairo area. The internal chambers are scheduled to open in June. The uniquely shaped Old Kingdom Bent pyramid is 330 feet high and owes its change in angle to fears of collapse as the pyramid grew taller. The north entrance is through a 200 feet long four feet high narrow passage which leads to the three beautiful chambers each with a magnificent corbelled roof; two are located below ground level. The burial chamber itself is located above ground in the body of the pyramid. During construction it developed cracks and the original cedar beams used to support the walls and roof can still be seen. Because of the damage, a second entrance
passage was created high on the West side which leads directly to the burial chamber. It is ironic that this Bent imperfect pyramid has the best preserved white Tura limestone casing of all the pyramids.
The nearby Red pyramid of Snefru was later completed satisfactorily and he was buried there. It has been open for some time and also contains three magnificent corbelled chambers. It is a little known treasure to visit, less than five percent of travelers to Egypt journey to Dashur.
In 2010 it is also hoped to open the underground chambers and passages of the nearby Middle Kingdom pyramid of Amenemhet 3 c1820BC. The pyramid superstructure is ruined today; it resembles a black 180 feet high stump as the white limestone casing was robbed in antiquity and the black mud brick brick core has since partially collapsed.

Coming soon is an article on the black pharaoh Taharqa ,the so called ”Last Pharaoh’.

It was announced this week that travellers to Egypt will soon be able to explore the internal chambers of the 4,500 year old “Bent’ pyramid one of Ancient Egypt’s largest giant stone pyramids. It was built by Snefru who reigned c2520-2470BC and was the first king of the ancient Egyptian 4th Dynasty. He was Ancient Egypt’s greatest pyramid builder in terms of the quantity of stone used to constuct his three pyramids at  Meidum and Dashur. His son Khufu built the Great Pyramid at Giza the only surviving example of the “7 Wonders of the World”. The ‘Bent’ pyramid is located at Dashur, about fifty miles south of Cairo. (See Chapter Three for full details of the ancient Egyptian stone pyramids).

Snefru’s Meidum pyramid. His first pyramid was in stone at a new site, Meidum, twenty five miles south of Saqqara. It was a giant seven step pyramid. Later it was extended to eight steps, the largest so far, it has a base of 472 feet and a height of 302 feet. However, it was built on unstable ground and cracks appeared in the innovative burial chamber. This chamber was the first to be constructed above ground level in the body of the structure itself.

The chamber’s cracked roof beams were supported by cedar logs which can be seen still in place today. The king felt this defective chamber was unsuitable for his final resting place and chose not to be buried there. He curiously later returned to the site and converted this step pyramid into a fully cased true pyramid. Unfortunately the casing was not properly keyed into the original outer surface of the steps and later either collapsed or became unstable and easily robbed, the east face shows a missing section of the original step structure which fell out when the outer casing dropped away leaving the unusual shaped 213 feet high three tiered structure seen today.

In the shadow of Snefru’s Meidum pyramid is the giant brick mastaba tomb of Snefru’s son prince Rahotep, high priest of Heliopolis and general, and his wife Nofret. Inside this partially ruined structure, Mariette found in 1871, a remarkable life-size pair of strikingly realistic painted limestone statues in almost perfect condition now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. He is shown with a slight frown and a moustache, rather unusual in Egyptian art, she has a wig but her hair is shown peeking below it on her forehead. The skin tones are typical of the Egyptian differentiation between males withreddish brown skin, versus females with paler cream skin.

Snefru’s Bent Pyramid. Undaunted, Snefru moved north to a new site at Dashur only four miles south of Saqqara and in sight of Djoser’s original step pyramid. This time he started to build the first true pyramid. Here he commenced a structure that would have been an even taller pyramid than his first at Meidum, but once again the choice of the site was flawed. The foundations shifted after about one third of the structure had been completed and again the burial chamber inside the structure itself developed cracks. The architect tried to support the pyramid from the outside fearing a collapse of the very acute 60 degree structure. The lower section was widened and strengthened and the angle was reduced from 60 degrees to 54.

However the cracking continued and cedar beams were again needed to prevent the cracks expanding. To rapidly complete this second flawed pyramid, the angle was reduced for a third time to only 43 degrees, as a result it rose to a final height of only c345 feet even though its base was 617 feet. This last change in angle of ascent is clearly visible and gives rise to its name the Bent Pyramid. The last layers of stone were the first to be laid horizontally in pyramid construction. This was the world’s first true pyramid, uniquely it had a second entrance located over half way up on the west face. This small entrance was to access a new second burial chamber higher in the pyramid, as the lower chamber had cracked. Unfortunately this second burial chamber also developed cracks and the walls had to be supported by six cedar beams. Although this second pyramid was finished and completely cased, it too was abandoned. Snefru also considered this Bent Pyramid to be unacceptable for his burial. Ironically today this pyramid although odd in appearance, is in fact the best preserved. It has retained almost all of its beautiful white Tura limestone and the magnificent craftsmanship of the precision jointing of the casing blocks can be seen to this day.

Snefru’s Red Pyramid. Still undaunted, Snefru quickly moved on to his third and final pyramid one mile further north. This time he took a very conservative approach. He was careful to select a site that had a deep deposit of gravel which would take the enormous weight of the structure. He also knew from the Bent Pyramid that a 43 degree angle would work, so he started at this angle and relatively quickly completed it without any further issues. It is known today as the Red Pyramid, as the the inner limestone used for its construction, quarried nearby, had a reddish tinge to it, the outer white Tura limestone casing was completely stripped away in medieval times.

The Red Pyramid had a giant base of 722 feet and matched the bent pyramid height of c345 feet. It was to become the third tallest pyramid ever to be built; only the Great Pyramid of his son Khufu and that of Khafre were higher. When compared to the other true pyramids its height is deceptive from a distance, the angle of only 43 degrees gives it an odd squat appearance. The Red Pyramid contains three internal chambers each with a magnificent corbelled ceiling soaring to heights of forty and fifty feet. These stepped ceilings spread the immense weight above the rooms sideways through the bulk of the mass. In this final effort the foundations were sound and all three chambers remained perfect. After a reign of fifty years the kings body was laid to rest in the burial chamber high up in the body of the pyramid, hoping (unwisely), that it would be safe from tomb robbers. The Red Pyramid is open to the public and is one of the finest to visit. The three corbelled chambers are an engineering marvel and are visually stunning.

Although he built more than any other king we know very little about the reign of Snefru and there are only a few representations of him that have survived. His rare limestone stele (Egyptian museum, Cairo) was found in the ruins of his mortuary temple at the base of the Bent Pyramid.

I am often asked at my talks about the details of recently announced ‘new’ Ancient Egyptian discoveries. Some indeed are marvelous artifacts recovered from new excavations and are indeed valuable additions to our generally thin knowledge of the chronology and details of some of the king’s reigns. Some headlines however are somewhat sensationalist in nature, for example implying a new pyramid has been discovered when in fact it was first encountered in the late 19th century but only recently have the resources been allocated for the site to be thoroughly excavated.

I will be uploading an article on this subject shortly which will discuss some of the genuine discoveries made recently.

best regards

Adrian