Sahure pyramid
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 East side of the Sahure pyramid
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The pyramid of sahure is the first pyramid , which in the necropolis of Abusir was built. Its builder Sahure was the second king ( pharaoh ) of the ancient Egyptian 5th dynasty and ruled from 2490 to 2475 BC. With this pyramid, a standard type of pyramid construction developed, which was only slightly changed until the end of the 6th Dynasty. The Sahure complex is of particular importance due to the numerous preserved reliefs with which valley and mortuary temples as well as the walls of the access road were decorated. The large number of building materials used in the temple area was also impressive: alabaster and basalt floors, pedestals made of rose granite and fine limestone were used.
exploration
A = pyramid, B = cult pyramid, C = surrounding wall , D = mortuary temple, E = entrance
The first investigations of the pyramid complex of the Sahure by John Shae Perring and a little later by the Lepsius expedition were only superficial. Jacques de Morgan later re-opened access to the interior of the pyramid, but this time again, no thorough exploration of the complex was carried out.
From 1902 to 1908 Ludwig Borchardt explored the complex and carried out extensive excavations. As a result of this work, Borchardt published the two-volume work "The Tomb of King Sahurā" , which is still considered the standard work on the Sahure complex today. In the course of these excavations, the pillars and architraves of the temple courtyard, which were still largely preserved, were recovered from the pyramid temple and divided between Germany and Egypt. The German part came to Berlin in the collection of the Egyptian Museum on Museum Island , but could not be exhibited due to lack of space. It was not until the 1980s that some of the finds were shown in the West Berlin Museum in Charlottenburg Palace in an extension to the Marstall . After the return of the Egyptian Museum to Museum Island, the temple's finds are to be shown in a controversial fourth wing of the Pergamon Museum that is yet to be built . It is therefore not foreseeable (as of the end of 2009) when they will be presented to the public.
At the beginning of the 1960s, a survey by Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi was able to make Borchardt's values more precise, but did not produce any fundamentally new findings.
In 1994, when Abusir was opened to tourism, a surprising discovery was made. The excavation of the lower part of the Aufweg, which was not investigated by Borchardt, yielded a series of blocks decorated with reliefs. This gave a new insight into the pictorial program of the pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom .
Construction circumstances
Sahure left the already heavily built-up necropolis of Saqqara for his tomb to found a new necropolis at what is now Abusir. This new necropolis also served his four direct successors as a building site for their pyramids until Djedkare gave it up again in favor of Saqqara-South. The building site is about 400 meters southeast of the sun sanctuary of its predecessor Userkaf, which already existed at the start of construction .
In terms of the size of the pyramid, Sahure was based on the somewhat smaller pyramid of his predecessor Userkaf , so that the structure was significantly smaller than the giant pyramids of the 4th Dynasty. The basic dimensions and the structure of the complex of the Sahure pyramid set a standard that was adopted for numerous other royal pyramids of the Old Kingdom. The pyramid complex of the Sahure was already completed before the king's death.
The pyramid
The pyramid had a base dimension of 78.75 m (150 royal cells ) and reached a height of 47 m at an angle of inclination of 50 ° 11 ′. When measuring the base, the builders made a remarkable measurement error: the southeast corner is 1.58 m too far to the east, which leads to a distortion of the usually square base. In the base area, the offset is on the east side of the pyramid and is concealed by the adjoining mortuary temple. The distortion is smoothly compensated for in the surface.
In contrast to most other pyramids, this structure was not erected directly on the rocky subsoil, but on a two-layer thick foundation made of limestone blocks. The pyramid originally had a six-tiered core made of inferior masonry. The roughly hewn limestones from local quarries were laid in horizontal layers and the voids between the stones were filled with rubble and mortar . A T-shaped breach was left open around the trench of the substructure so that work on the substructure and the core could be carried out simultaneously. This breach was finally also bricked up, but differs in the masonry and is therefore still recognizable today. The pyramid core is clad with fine limestone from the quarries near today's Ma'asara on the eastern bank of the Nile . There was no rose granite cladding base .
The substructure
The substructure of the Sahure pyramid was built in a shallow, open trench. In this case the ditch was so shallow that large parts of the corridor and the burial chamber protruded into the pyramid body. The substructure is badly damaged by stone robbers and therefore does not allow an exact reconstruction of the dimensions and the floor plan.
The entrance to the pyramid is at ground level in the middle of the north side. The adjoining passage had a width of about 1.27 m and a height of about 1.87 m. This passage, about 4.25 m long, descending at 24 ° 48 ′ and clad with rose granite, leads to a passage chamber. This was lined with fine limestone. Directly next to this chamber was a fall barrier to secure the pyramid against intruders. Both the fall lock chamber and the fall lock itself were made of hard rose granite. After the fall lock, the corridor climbs slightly over 22.3 m with an incline of about 5 °. The last 3 m of the corridor are horizontal again and it opens into the central chamber through a granite-clad gate.
The central chamber, oriented in an east-west direction, has been badly damaged. Assuming that whole-number units of the ancient Egyptian length were used, this chamber was possibly 3.15 m (6 royal cells) in width and 12.60 m (24 royal cells) in length, the value for the length being due the destruction is speculative. It is also no longer possible to tell whether it was a single, large chamber or whether it was divided into an antechamber and an actual burial chamber.
Huge blocks of fine limestone formed the gable roof of the chamber in three layers. The blocks of the top layer were nearly 10 m long and 4 m thick. However, under the weight of the pyramid built above, all of the gable stones broke.
Perring found one of his inquiry fragments of basalt -made sarcophagus . Other finds that belonged to the burial or grave goods were not made.
The pyramid complex
In addition to the main pyramid, the pyramid district contains the typical elements of a mortuary temple, cult pyramid and surrounding wall . Queen tombs in the form of secondary pyramids or mastabas are not known. The only known wife Neferethanebti is only known from inscriptions in the pyramid complex. A north chapel at the entrance to the pyramid has not been found. At Borchardt's excavations, however, the existence of north chapels was not yet known, so that any sparse remains that may have remained may have gone unnoticed. The complex is completed by an access road and a valley temple at its end.
Cult pyramid
At the southeast corner there was a small cult pyramid with a base dimension of 15.7 m (30 royal cells). At an angle of inclination of 56 °, it originally reached a height of about 11.55 m. The two-tier core masonry consisted of roughly hewn limestone and was clad with fine limestone. Today the structure is largely destroyed.
The substructure of the cult pyramid consisted of an access passage beginning in the north and the centrally located chamber facing east-west. The substructure is also largely destroyed. No finds of artifacts buried there were found in the remains of the corridor and the chamber, but the corridor appears to have originally been closed.
The cult pyramid was located in its own, paved courtyard, which was accessible from the side entrance of the mortuary temple. Places of worship are not proven there.
Mortuary temple
With the mortuary temple, the prototype of the pyramid temple was created, which was to be the style for the second half of the Old Kingdom. Here the separation of the mortuary temple and the temple of worship was abolished and both functions were integrated into one complex in an axial east-west arrangement. The temple itself was built of limestone and out with fine Tura -Kalkstein with coved completion dressed. The corners had round bars .
The Aufweg initially led to an elongated entrance hall on the east side of the temple, which forms a connection between the Aufweg and the actual mortuary temple. This had a limestone floor and limestone walls with painted relief decoration on a granite dado (granite base). The entrance hall had the designation per-wer ("House of the Great") in contemporary inscriptions . After Borchardt it served as the last station of the funeral procession before the burial.
From there, a granite gate led into an open inner courtyard, which was lined with 16 granite columns supporting a granite architrave . These columns symbolically reproduced the trunk and petals of a palm tree , which was considered a symbol of fertility and eternity. This first form of the plant column replaced the earlier pillars and, with deviations in the depicted plant, became the standard for the pyramid temples of the second half of the Old Kingdom. All pillars bore the name and title of Sahures. The columns in the northern half also bore the inscription of the snake goddess Wadjet , symbolizing Lower Egypt , the columns of the southern half the vulture-shaped goddess Nechbet, symbolizing Upper Egypt . The architrave, inscribed with the title and name of the king, then had limestone slabs with star decorations that covered the outer area of the courtyard.
The inner courtyard was paved with irregularly shaped basalt blocks that were polished flat on the surface. This pavement is still extensively available today. In the northwest area of the courtyard on off was alabaster -made altar , the offering scenes and symbols of unification was wearing.
The walls of the courtyard were made of fine limestone and were decorated with painted bas-reliefs. The few remaining parts of the relief depict scenes of Sahure's triumph over his foreign enemies.
A closed corridor ran around the courtyard and was closed off to the west by a transverse corridor. This corridor was also decorated with painted reliefs which, among other things, depicted hunting scenes. There was also a relief here that showed a royal entourage, in which Sahure's successor and alleged brother Neferirkare is depicted. After taking office, Neferirkare had the inscription supplemented with the royal title “King of Lower and Upper Egypt”.
Inner courtyard of the temple with two pillars
Palm leaf column from the courtyard
Remains of the paved colonnade
Scene with captured enemies from the Tempelhof
The western end of the corridor surrounding the courtyard was formed by the cross corridor, which was paved with basalt, like the courtyard. This separated the public part of the temple from the intimate, only accessible to the priests. The corridor also provided access to various parts of the inner temple. Similar to the courtyard, the walls of the transverse corridor had a granite dado and relief-decorated limestone walls. The reliefs that are only partially preserved today show scenes of sea battles and ships.
In the northern and southern part of the inner temple there were two two-story magazine galleries , each of which was accessible from the cross corridor via a deep niche with a papyrus bundle column. The northern galleries consisted of ten rooms. The designation as treasure chambers indicates that the cult objects for the ritual acts in the mortuary temple were housed here. The southern galleries comprised 17 rooms that were presumably used to store offerings. Each chamber contained a staircase to the second floor, partially carved out of the massive blocks of wall masonry.
At the northern corner of the transverse corridor one came to a few more chambers and the passage to the pyramid courtyard. There was also a staircase to the roof terrace of the temple. The southern corner of the transverse corridor also housed access to some chambers. From these chambers one entrance led to the pyramid courtyard and another to the small courtyard of the cult pyramid. In the outer wall there was a small portico with two granite columns, which served as a side entrance directly into the pyramid complex.
In the middle of the corridor there was a small staircase as access to the five-niche chapel. This chapel had an alabaster floor, a rose granite dado for the magnificently decorated limestone walls. The ceiling was decorated with a star pattern. The five niches with a short staircase were clad in rose granite and each housed a statue. The statues themselves are no longer preserved.
From the south side of the chapel a passage led to two elongated chambers and finally to the room for the dead. This room was directly adjacent to the pyramid and had a false door on the side facing this , through which, in ancient Egyptian beliefs, the spirit of the Sahure could step to eat the meal offered to him as an offering. The false door was made of rough-worked granite and, unusually, had no inscriptions. Borchardt concluded from this that the false door had a metal panel on which the inscriptions important for the cult were attached. There are no traces of the cladding itself. The sacrificial room also had an alabaster floor and a vaulted ceiling with star decorations. A basin for collecting liquids during the sacrifice had a drain made of copper pipe. This was connected to an extensive drainage system made of copper pipes laid under the pavement, which drained water from the temple into a central sewer channel lined with limestone. In total, the drainage system consisted of around 380 m of copper pipeline. Lead plugs were used to seal the basins.
To the north of the sacrificial room were five other chambers, which were presumably used to prepare the food offerings. In some of these chambers there were also basins that were connected to the copper pipe system.
Ruins of the temple: cross corridor, on the right the side entrance
Part of a monolithic granite gate
Pillar fragment of the side entrance with inscriptions
The ruins of the inner temple area
The way
A 235 m long path connected the mortuary temple with the valley temple. This path was perfectly straight with no bends or kinks. It was covered and had side walls and cover plates made of limestone. In the middle of the cover plates was a narrow slot that let light penetrate into the interior. Borchardt only excavated the upper area, so exploring the rest of the trail in the 1990s surprisingly revealed a number of well-preserved reliefs from the lower area of the trail. These included depictions of the king as a griffin defeating his enemies.
The valley temple
The valley temple had a rectangular floor plan 32 m long and 24 m wide, which was oriented in a north-south direction. It was right on Lake Abusir . It had sloping outer walls with a fillet finish on the upper side and round bar finishes at the corners. Two construction phases have been verified on the valley temple: the actual temple and a later extension on the south side with a second entrance.
As usual, the main entrance to the valley temple was on the east side. A ramp was directly in front of a portico with two rows of four palm columns made of rose granite. The second entrance portal with a ramp on the south side of the temple, which was added in a second construction phase, was unusual. There a portico with four columns standing next to each other enabled the entrance to the temple. Here the columns were designed as conical columns without a capital . The access to the central hall was carved out of the existing masonry of the temple.
The corridors from both entrances led to a small, central hall with two pillars. From there a staircase led to the roof terrace and to the west there was access to the access road. The floor was paved with basalt and here too the ceilings were decorated with star patterns and the limestone walls were provided with painted reliefs with hunting scenes. The floor area of the walls had a rose granite dado. According to Borchardt, the south portico could have been a separate entrance for the priesthood.
The valley temple is now in ruins and has been covered over time by up to 5 m thick mud deposits. Nevertheless, after the valley temple of the Chephren pyramid, it is considered the best preserved.
Floor plan of the valley temple
Reconstruction of the valley temple according to Borchardt without the south wing (1910)
Reconstruction of the valley temple (Metropolitan Museum Collection, 1910)
The solar sanctuary
→ Main article Sun sanctuary of the Sahure
In addition to the pyramid cult facilities, Sahure had a solar sanctuary built at the beginning of his reign called “ Sechet Rau” ( “ Fields of Re ” ), as can be seen from the inscription on the Palermostein and is also documented in the graves of five priests. This is suspected in the vicinity of Abusir, but has not yet been found. Spolia with inscriptions from the Sahure sanctuary were found in the complex of the Niuserre pyramid , which could be an indication that this pyramid was built over it. In the neighboring mastaba of Ptahsheps , there were also obelisk fragments that could have come from the solar sanctuary.
Subsequent changes
The colonnaded courtyard served in the 18th dynasty as a temple of a Sechmet cult, which was probably caused by a magnificent representation of a lion on one of the reliefs in the courtyard. Here the “Sechmet des Sahure” was venerated. In early Christian times, the court served the Copts as a Christian sanctuary.
literature
General
- Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 .
- Mark Lehner : Secret of the Pyramids. ECON, Düsseldorf 1997, ISBN 3-572-01039-X .
- Miroslav Verner : The pyramids (= rororo non-fiction book. Bd. 60890). Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 , pp. 313-324.
- Peter Jánosi : The pyramids. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-50831-6 , pp. 80-83.
- Zahi Hawass : The Treasures of the Pyramids. Weltbild, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-8289-0809-8 .
- Vinzenz Brinkmann (Ed.): Sahure. Death and life of a great pharaoh; an exhibition by the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, June 24 to November 28, 2010. Hirmer, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-7774-2861-1 .
Excavation publications
- Ludwig Borchardt : The grave monument of King Sahurā. 2 volumes, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1910–1913 (the excavation publication of the pyramid). Digitized
- Zahi Hawass, Miroslav Verner: Newly Discovered Blocks from the Causeway of Sahure (Archaeological Report). In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDIAK) Vol. 51, von Zabern, Wiesbaden 1995, pp. 177-186.
- John Baines: The destruction of the pyramid temple of Sahure. In: Göttinger Miscellen . (GM) Vol. 4, Göttingen 1973, pp. 9-14.
- Antje Krug : The Sahure reliefs (= Liebieghaus monograph. Vol. 3). Liebieghaus , Frankfurt am Main 1978.
Web links
- Alan Winston: The Pyramid of Sahure at Abusir (English)
- Floor plan / section
Individual evidence
- ↑ Year numbers according to Thomas Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Edited, updated edition, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag (Dtv), Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-423-03365-7 .
- ↑ a b c d e M. Lehner: The Sahure pyramid. In: Secret of the Pyramids. Düsseldorf 1997, p. 142 f.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m M. Verner: Die Pyramid des Sahure. In: The pyramids. Reinbek 1999, pp. 313-324.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l R. Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids, from brick construction to world wonder. Mainz 1985/1997, pp. 164-174.
- ↑ P. Jánosi: The pyramids. Munich 2004, pp. 80-83.
- ↑ Susanne Voss: Investigations into the sun sanctuaries of the 5th dynasty. Significance and function of a singular temple type in the Old Kingdom. Hamburg 2004 (also: dissertation, University of Hamburg 2000), pp. 153–155 ( PDF; 2.5 MB ).
- ^ M. Verner: Sun sanctuaries. In: Sokar. No. 10, 2005, p. 44.
Coordinates: 29 ° 53 ′ 51.6 ″ N , 31 ° 12 ′ 12.2 ″ E
