Gisr el-Mudir (
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
:جسر المدير, "bridge of the chief"), also known as the Great Enclosure, is one of the oldest known stone structures in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, located at
Saqqara
Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...
only a few hundred metres west of the
Step Pyramid and the
Buried Pyramid
The Buried Pyramid (also called the Pyramid of Sekhemkhet) is an unfinished step pyramid constructed for Sekhemkhet. He was the second pharaoh, king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt, Third Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, which reigned over Egypt –2613&n ...
. The function of the space is not yet clear.
Description
The structure consists of a rectangular wall oriented north-south and measuring about 650 by 350 metres. The walls consist of two outer walls made of roughly hewn
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
about 15 metres apart; the space between them is filled with
crushed stone
Crushed stone or angular rock is a form of construction aggregate, typically produced by mining a suitable rock deposit and breaking the removed rock down to the desired size using crushers. It is distinct from naturally occurring gravel, whi ...
,
gravel
Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gr ...
and sand. In the northwestern corner, the walls survive to a height of 4.5 to 5 metres (over 15 courses of stone). The style of construction suggests an original height of around 10 metres. In the south the state of preservation is clearly worse than in the north. Since the west wall of the structure is 30 metres shorter than the east, the south wall probably consisted of two parallel walls forming an entranceway. This pattern recurs in the larger funerary complex of Djoser's step pyramid.
The walls were probably completed and in the enclosed area no remains of a construction have been found, so there cannot have been a
pyramid
A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
or
mastaba
A mastaba ( , or ), also mastabah or mastabat) is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These edifices marked the burial sites ...
at the centre, since these constructions would have had to have been erected before the completion of an enclosure wall. A small building may have existed in the northwest corner of the space, since numerous limestone,
pink granite, and
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
fragments were found there.
[Ian J. Mathieson, Ana Tavares "Preliminary report of the National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Project, 1990–91." ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.'' Band 79, 1993, , S. 17–31.] John Shae Perring demonstrated that a small hill which was once found in the centre of the enclosure was the leftover debris from the excavation of a tomb in the Greek period.
Spoliation of stone for new construction afflicted Gisr el-Mudir much less than other buildings in the area, probably because of the poor quality of the stone used in its construction.
To the north and northeast of Gisr el-Mudir are the remnants of similar structures.
Discovery

Already in the investigation of Saqqara by
John Shae Perring in 1837, the outline of the enclosure was detected. It was also noted by
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist.
He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...
(1842–1846) and
Jacques de Morgan
Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857 – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memphis and Dahshur, providing many dra ...
(1897), but it was not excavated.
The first excavation was carried out in 1947 and 1948 by the then director of the
Supreme Council of Antiquities
The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA; ) was established in 1994, responsible for the conservation, protection, and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt. From 1994 to 2011, the SCA was a department of the Egyptia ...
Abdel Salam Hussein. His nickname "''el-
Mudir''" (= "the chief") was the source of its modern name ''Gisr el-Mudir''. The results of these excavations were not published.
[Francesco Raffaele: ]
Saqqara – Early Dynastic monuments (Dynasties 1-3)
'
Systematic research was first undertaken in the 1990s by archaeologists of the
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...
employing techniques like
magnetometry
A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...
and
ground-penetrating radar
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, asphalt, metals, pipes, cables ...
.
Before these excavations, the structure was thought to be an unfinished pyramid complex from the
Third Dynasty. However, pottery shards in the filling of the walls were found to date to the late Second or beginning of the Third Dynasty which leads some Egyptologists to believe this is evidence the structure may have been constructed at the end of the Second Dynasty.
The builder of the structure has not yet been determined.
Rainer Stadelmann
Rainer Stadelmann (24 October 1933 – 14 January 2019) was a German Egyptology, Egyptologist. He was considered an expert on the archaeology of the Giza Plateau.
Biography
After studying in Neuburg an der Donau in 1953, he studied Egyptology, ...
saw a connection between this enclosure and the two gallery tombs of the Second Dynasty located to the south of the Step Pyramid complex, which have been attributed to
Hotepsekhemwy
Hotepsekhemwy is the Horus name of an early Egyptian king who was the founder of the Second Dynasty of Egypt. The exact length of his reign is not known; the Turin canon suggests an improbable 95 years Alan H. Gardiner: ''The royal canon of T ...
and
Nebra or
Ninetjer
Nynetjer (also known as Ninetjer and Banetjer) is the Horus name of the third pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt during the Early Dynastic Period. Archaeologically, Nynetjer is the best attested king of the entire dynasty. Direct evidence sh ...
. In his opinion, the empty rectangular structure interacted with the graves similarly to how the valley areas interacted with the graves at
Abydos.
[ Mark Lehner. ''Geheimnis der Pyramiden.'' ECON, Düsseldorf 1997, pp. 82ff. ''Saqqara im Überblick.''] Other scholars ascribe the structure to
Khasekhemwy
Khasekhemwy (ca. 2690 BC; ', also rendered ''Kha-sekhemui'') was the last Pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt. Little is known about him, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built the mudbrick fort known as S ...
on account of similarities to his enclosure at Abydos,
Shunet el-Zebib, and also because the erection of a stone building called ''Men-Netjeret'' is attributed to him in the
Palermo Stone
The Palermo Stone is one of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The stele contained a list of the kings of Egypt from the First Dynasty (c.3150–2890 BCE) through to the early par ...
which seems to fit chronologically with the construction of Gisr el-Mudir.
[Ian Mathieson, Elizabeth Bettles, Joanne Clarke, Corinne Duhig, Salima Ikram, Louise Maguire, Sarah Quie, Ana Tavares: "The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Projekt 1993–1995." ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.'' 83, 1997, pp. 17–53, here p.36, 38ff., 53.] The rectangular structure probably represents a transitional stage between the enclosures at Abydos and the Step Pyramid complex of Djoser.
References
Bibliography
* Toby A. H. Wilkinson: ''Early Dynastic Egypt.'' Routledge, London 1999, , pp. 210 ff.
External links
* Egypt State Information Service
Gisr el-Mudiron egyptphoto.ncf.ca
Satellite photo of Gisr el-Mudirat
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
Article with imageson ''Egyptian Monuments''.
on ancient-egypt.org.
{{Second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt
Saqqara
Buildings and structures completed in the 28th century BC
Second Dynasty of Egypt