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Abu Sir
MIROSLAV BARTA

One of the large cemeteries of the Old

Kingdom kings, located approximately 30 km
south of Cairo, on the western bank of the Nile.
To the south Abu Sir adjoins the area known as
SAQQARA and forms a natural northerly extension of this rich and unique cemetery. Together
in antiquity they formed a single site. The
development of the Abu Sir necropolis was
linked with the existence of the ancient capital
of unified Egypt, called White Walls (later
Mennefer or Memphis) (Barta and Krejc
2000; Verner 2002).
The archaeological history of Abu Sir begins
during the Early Dynastic Period, when a cemetery developed in its southeastern portion. It
primarily featured simple shaft and pit tombs
of lesser officials of Memphis (Bonnet 1928).
The building activities in Abu Sir South
continued throughout the 3rd to early 4th
Dynasty, when several large mastaba tombs
were built here.
With the rise of the 4th Dynasty all building
works were transferred to Giza, but activity
at Abu Sir was revived at the beginning of
the 5th Dynasty. The first of the new tomb
builders was an official known as Kaaper,
a priest, scribe, and soldier of the rank of
general, and the overseer of all the kings works.
The beginning of the 5th Dynasty witnessed
also the foundation of the royal necropolis
of Abu Sir by King Sahure. His pyramid complex is the best preserved on the site, and the
most illustrative example of royal mortuary
complexes from the 5th and 6th Dynasties
(Borchardt 1910), which became a canon of
architectural design in terms of its concept
and structure.
The entrance to the complex was formed
by the valley temple, which was accessible from
the east and south. An ascending causeway
connected the valley temple with the pyramid
temple. The causeway was originally roofed, and
its walls were decorated with mythological and

court scenes, dominated by images of the Egyptian king. The preserved reliefs include numerous representations of the ruler, the bringing of
foreign captives, hungry Bedouins, dancing
scenes, sea boat journeys, scenes connected
with the construction of the pyramid complex,
and many others (El-Awady 2009).
The pyramid temple itself was entered via
a monumental granite gate, which led to the
so-called House of the Great. Its name derives
from the fact that the high officials of the
country assembled here in order to pay their
last respects to the deceased ruler. This room
opened into the corridor running around
the columned court and to the court itself.
The court was paved with basalt blocks, and
its roof was supported by sixteen red granite
columns with palmiform capitals.
The western part of the temple consisted
of a room with five niches, which originally
contained five statues of the king. To the north
and south lay magazines, where the cultic equipment and offerings for the daily cult of the king
were stored. In the westernmost part of the
temple, at the very foot of the pyramid, was
the chapel. The eastwest oriented room had
an alabaster floor, dado of red granite, and
walls of limestone blocks covered with relief
decoration. The western wall contained the
so-called false door, through which the spirit
of the king returned from the other world in
order to participate in the offering rituals
performed in the chapel. The false door was of
red granite covered with copper or gold foil.
The entrance to the pyramids substructure
was situated at the foot of its northern side.
A descending corridor opened into a vestibule,
which was located directly under the apex of
the pyramid. Further west lay the eastwest
oriented burial chamber, with a triple gabled
ceiling built of large limestone blocks. The
burial chamber may have originally contained
a basalt sarcophagus.
The next pyramid builder at Abu Sir was the
possible brother of Sahure, Neferirkare
(Borchardt 1909). His pyramid was in the first
building stage conceived as a six-stepped one

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1517.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15011

2
with a base of 72 m. Later, the core was extended
to eight steps, the walls were cased smooth, and
a true pyramid was created. Its side measured
104 m, and its height reached 52 m, which made
it the greatest pyramid in the Abu Sir and
Saqqara necropolis. The substructure of the pyramid of Neferirkare was, just like the other
elements of his complex, very similar to those
of Sahure.
The pyramid temple of Neferirkare was built
in several construction stages, and it was
finished only after the kings death. Neferirkares
wife was Queen Khentkaus II, whose burial
place is located to the south of the pyramid of
her husband. Her pyramid was probably built
in three steps, and a small pyramid temple
adjoined its eastern side. As a unique feature,
it included a cult pyramid (Verner, PosenerKrieger, and Janosi 1995).
Neferirkares reign was probably followed
by the short reign of the relatively unknown
King Shepseskare. His pyramid complex, the
construction of which had hardly started, is
commonly placed to the area between the
pyramid of Sahure and the sun temple of
Userkaf at Abu Ghurab.
After Shepsekare, Neferirkares older son
Raneferef ascended to the throne, although he
too reigned only for a very short time, perhaps
for approximately two years. Due to the early
death of the king, the overall conception of
the pyramid had to be changed, and instead
of a true pyramid, a mastaba-like structure
was built, called iat (hill) by the Egyptians.
During the life of the king, his architect managed to finish only the basic components of
the pyramids substructure the descending
corridor followed by a horizontal corridor
leading to the vestibule, which opened to the
eastwest oriented burial chamber. Raneferefs
sarcophagus was made of red granite, and
during the excavation of his burial chamber
remains of the mummy of the king were discovered, as well as fragments of his funerary
equipment. Most of the mortuary temple was
built using mud brick; the construction of the
valley temple and causeway was never started
(Verner et al. 2006).

The true heyday of the necropolis may be

dated to the time of King Niuserre, the younger
son of Neferirkare and brother of Raneferef.
This king was the last one to build his funerary
complex in Abu Sir (Borchardt 1907). He also
arranged the completion of the complexes
of his mother Khentkaus II, his father
Neferirkare, and his brother Raneferef. Tombs
of contemporary high officials, including
some members of the royal family, were built
around Niuserres pyramid complex.
The time of Niuserres reign also witnessed
an unprecedented rise of the power of men
of non-royal origin. One such man was
Ptahshepses. The building stages of his
mastaba, which is located to the northeast of
the pyramid of Niuserre, map the gradual rise
of this high official, who started his career as a
simple royal hairdresser and was ultimately
appointed to the office of vizier, probably as a
consequence of his marriage with a daughter of
the king (Krejc 2008). Tombs of the same
period are built to the southeast of the pyramid
of Neferirkare, the mastaba of Nebtyemneferes,
mastaba of Nakhtsare (son of Raneferef), and
pyramid complex Lepsius no. 24 (so-called
twin-pyramid), and tomb complex Lepsius
no. 25 (Krejc, Verner, Callender, et al. 2008).
After the death of Niuserre, Djedkare moved
his cemetery to South Saqqara. However, several
tombs for the members of his family and the
court (Verner, Callender, and Strouhal 2006)
were still built at Abu Sir. The tradition of
building sun temples in Abu Ghurab, so significant for the politics, economy, and religion of
the 5th Dynasty kings, also ceases at this time.
The center of the development of the Abu Sir
necropolis moved back to Abu Sir South at the
same period, during the reign of Djedkare
(Barta 1999). The tomb complex of the Vizier
Qar and his family represents the earliest building activities from the 6th Dynasty. These tombs
were richly decorated, and their burial chambers
offer a large variety of costly burial equipment.
They illustrate the period that preceded the
demise of the Old Kingdom (Barta et al. 2009).
Abu Sir is also well-known as the find-spot
for several papyrus archives that describe

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various aspects of the daily royal cults
and illustrate many aspects of the ancient
Egyptian royal cult and its redistributive economy. These come from the complexes of
Neferirkare, Khentkaus (II), and Raneferef
(Posener-Krieger 1976; Verner, PosenerKrieger, and Vymazalova 2006).
Only one post-Amarna tomb (Mynarova
2006) has been found from the New Kingdom
period. The site became important again
during the 26th Dynasty, when several unique
shaft tombs located to the southwest of
the pyramid field were built. These consisted
of a monumental central shaft, at the bottom
of which was built a small burial chamber.
Most of them were fully decorated, contained
large sarcophagi, and in the case of the
tomb of Iufaa, the burial chamber was found
intact. The tombs belonged to significant
historical personalities, such as the overseer of
the navy Udjahorresnet (Bares, Smolarikova,
and Strouhal 1999), priest Iufaa (Bares and
Smolarikova 2008), Padihor (Coppens and
Smolarikova 2008), and overseer of the
army Menekchibnekau. Their superstructures
consisted of a large rectangular enclosure
above the shaft (possibly featuring a primeval
mound inside) and contained a small offering
chapel on the east. To the south and/or west
of the principal shafts were situated smaller
service shafts. The tomb of Iufaa featured a
small mud-brick temple to the east of
the chapel. Most of these tombs were
built within a relatively short time span of
530525 BCE.
SEE ALSO:

Abu Gurob; Memphis, Pharaonic.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Bares, L., Smolarikova, K., and Strouhal, E. (1999)
Abusir IV: the shaft tomb of Udjahorresnet at
Abusir. Prague.
Bares, L. and Smolarikova, K. (2008) Abusir
XVII: the shaft tomb of Iufaa, vol. I: archaeology.
Prague.
Barta, M. (1999) Abusir V: the cemeteries at Abusir
South I. Prague.

Barta, M. and Krejc, J. (2000) Abusir and Saqqara

in the year 2000. Prague.
Barta, M. et al. (2009) Abusir XIII: tomb complex
of the Vizier Qar, his sons Qar Junior and
Senedjemib, and Iykai. Prague.
Bonnet, H. (1928) Ein fruhgeschichtliches
Graberfeld bei Abusir. Leipzig.
Borchardt, L. (1907) Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs
Neuserre. Leipzig.
Borchardt, L. (1909) Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs
Neferrkere. Leipzig.
Borchardt, L. (1910) Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs
Sahure. Leipzig.
Coppens, F. and Smolarikova, K. (2009) Abusir XX:
lesser Late Period Tombs at Abusir: the
Tomb of Padihor and the Anonymous Tomb R3.
Prague.
El-Awady, T. (2009) Abusir XVI: decorated
blocks from the causeway of the king Sahure.
Prague.
Krejc, J. (2008) Abusir XI: the architecture of the
mastaba of Ptahsepses. Prague.
Krejc, J., Verner, M., and Callender, V. G. (with
contributions by V. Cerny, E. Strouhal,
H. Vymazalova, and M. Zaloudkova-Kujanova)
(2008) Abusir XII: minor tombs in the royal
necropolis I (the mastabas of Nebtyemneferes and
Nakhtsare, pyramid complex Lepsius no. 24 and
tomb complex Lepsius no. 25). Prague.
Mynarova, J. (2006) Abusir in the New Kingdom:
current research by the Czech Institute of
Egyptology. In R. J. Dann, ed., Current research
in Egyptology: proceedings of the Fifth Annual
Symposium which took place at the University of
Durham, January 2004: 11217. London.
Posener-Krieger, P. (1976) Les archives du temple
funeraire de Neferirkare-Kaka: les papyrus
dAbousir. Cairo.
Verner, M. (2002). Abusir: realm of Osiris.
Cairo.
Verner, M., et al. (2006) Abusir IX: the pyramid
complex of Raneferef, the archaeology. Prague.
Verner, M., Posener-Krieger, P., and Janosi, P. (1995)
Abusir III: the pyramid complex of Khentkaus.
Prague.
Verner, M., Callender, V. G., and Strouhal, E.
(2002) Abusir VI: Djedkares family cemetery.
Prague.
Verner, M., Posener-Krieger, P., and Vymazalova,
H. (2006) Abusir X: the pyramid complex of
Raneferef: the papyrus archive.
Prague.