The pyramid of Pharaoh Merenre was constructed for

Merenre Nemtyemsaf I Merenre Nemtyemsaf I (meaning "Beloved of Ra, Nemty is his protection") was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the fourth king of the sixth dynasty. He ruled Egypt for six to 11 years in the 23rd century BC, succeeding his father Pepi I Meryre on ...

during the

Sixth Dynasty of Egypt The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt. Pharaohs Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho ...

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memph ...

to the south-west of the

pyramid of Pepi I The pyramid of Pepi I (in ancient Egyptian Men-nefer-Pepi meaning Pepi's splendour is enduring) is the pyramid complex built for the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty in the 24th or 23rd century BC. The complex gave its name to the ...

and a similar distance to the pyramid of Djedkare.Kinnaer, Jacques
"The Pyramid of Merenre I".
Accessed September 20, 2008. Its ancient name was "Merenre's beauty shines" or perhaps "The Perfection of Merenre Appears".
Accessed September 20, 2008. Today it consists mostly of ruins;Winston, Alan

Accessed September 20, 2008. it is hard to get to and is not open to the public.
Accessed September 20, 2008. The pyramid was built in height, in base length with an inclination of 53°07'48". The causeway is long and the complex was surrounded by a wall of mud brick. Only traces of the mortuary temple have been found and the evidence indicates that construction was halted abruptly at one point and never resumed, probably upon the pharaoh's death. The entrance to the burial chambers is on the north face which descends to a vestibule where another shaft leads to the antechamber. To the right of the antechamber is the burial chamber; to the left is another small room, a '' serdab''. In the burial chamber a sarcophagus decorated with polychrome reliefs stood against the wall; when found, it was in good condition although it had been plundered. The ceiling of the burial chamber had an astrological theme and was covered with stars.

Excavations

The pyramid was first examined in the 1830s by John Perring. Later in the 1880s the subterranean chambers were explored by

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

, who was in search of

Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranean ...

; his expedition discovered a mummy inside the pyramid. It was thought to be from some later burial, although some modern scholars now believe that it was the mummy of Merenre after all. If so, that would make it the oldest-known royal mummy. Since the late 20th century a French team led by

Jean Leclant Jean Leclant (8 August 1920 – 16 September 2011) was a renowned Egyptologist who was an Honorary Professor at the College of France, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Letters of the Institut de France, and Honorary S ...

has been researching the site.

References

{{Egyptian pyramids Pyramids of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt Saqqara

Excavations

See also

References