Abusir Necropolis
pr wsjr (Per Usire), 'House of Osiris'; Arabic: أبو صير · Abusir Pyramid Field · Abu Sir · Abousir
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty (mainly); Early Dynastic to Late Period·Ancient Egyptian (Memphite)·🇪🇬 Giza Governorate, Badrashin markaz, Egypt
Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0
About
About Abusir Necropolis
Abusir (Egyptian pr wsjr, 'House of Osiris'; Arabic Abu Sir) is the Fifth Dynasty royal necropolis on the Western Desert plateau edge between Giza and Saqqara, part of the Memphis and its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage Site. After Giza filled up under the Fourth Dynasty, 5th Dynasty kings founded their pyramid field here: Sahure, whose mortuary temple reliefs — including the earliest naval expedition to Punt — and palm-column court set the dynastic standard; Neferirkare Kakai, the tallest pyramid at Abusir (planned 72 m, left in stepped form); the unfinished Neferefre, converted to a mastaba-like stump but with an intact mudbrick cult temple, royal statues and papyri found by Czech excavators; and Nyuserre Ini, the most intact complex, wedged between Neferirkare and Sahure with an L-shaped mortuary temple and bent co-opted causeway.
Queens' pyramids (Khentkaus II; Khentkaus III, discovered 2015; Lepsius XXIV and XXV) and courtiers' mastabas — above all the vast multi-phase mastaba of the vizier Ptahshepses — cluster around the royal monuments, while Abusir South holds Early Dynastic First Dynasty tombs (the 'Bonnet cemetery') and Old Kingdom officials' tombs. The site yielded the Abusir Papyri, the largest Old Kingdom temple-archive find, from the funerary cults of Neferirkare, Neferefre and Khentkaus II.
Construction quality is markedly poorer than at Giza: smaller pyramids with rough local-stone step cores whose fine Tura limestone casing was largely robbed. Explored by Perring (1838) and Lepsius (1842-43), excavated by Borchardt for the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (1902-08), and by the Czech Institute of Egyptology continuously since 1960 (Zaba, Verner, Barta); Barta et al. (2020) published the complete map and list of all structures excavated to 2019.
Why it mattersType-site of 5th Dynasty kingship and funerary architecture; source of the Abusir Papyri, the largest Old Kingdom administrative archive; subject of the longest continuous modern excavation program in the Memphite necropolis (Czech mission since 1960).
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Identity of the owners of the Lepsius XXIV and XXV queen pyramids
- 02Location of the tomb of ephemeral King Shepseskare
- 03Function of the cult pyramid and unexplained square platform in the Nyuserre complex
- 04Original extent of the Lake of Abusir and its valley temples
Theories
- 01An Abusir-Heliopolis sight-line (Abusir diagonal) governed pyramid placement; Nyuserre's off-axis siting shows cost trumping theology (Verner)
- 02Smaller, poorer pyramids than Giza reflect strained 5th Dynasty royal economy
- 03Nyuserre's funerary cult uniquely survived into the Middle Kingdom (contested)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 2487-2421 BCE (5th Dynasty: Sahure to Nyuserre); elite reuse into the Late Period
- Period
- Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty (mainly); Early Dynastic to Late Period
- Culture
- Ancient Egyptian (Memphite)
- Builders
- 5th Dynasty pharaohs Sahure, Neferirkare Kakai, Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini; queens and courtiers
- Purpose
- Royal necropolis and elite cemetery of Memphis
- Abandoned
- Gradual; royal funerary cults faded by the First Intermediate Period (Nyuserre's may have survived into the Middle Kingdom)
- Rediscovered
- 1838 (Perring); scientific survey 1842-43 (Lepsius)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c. 2487-2475 BCE
Sahure founds the necropolis with the first Abusir pyramid
c. 2475-2421 BCE
Pyramid complexes of Neferirkare, Neferefre and Nyuserre; queens' pyramids and courtiers' mastabas
1838
John Shae Perring (Vyse expedition) clears the entrances of the Sahure, Neferirkare and Nyuserre pyramids
1842-43
Karl Richard Lepsius expedition catalogues the Abusir monuments (Denkmaler)
1893
First Abusir Papyri surface from the Neferirkare temple archives; acquired by Western museums
1902-08
Ludwig Borchardt (Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft) excavates the pyramids, temples and causeways
1960-
Czech Institute of Egyptology concession: Ptahshepses mastaba (Zaba), southern necropolis from 1976 (Verner), Abusir South from 1991; directed by Miroslav Barta
1979
Inscribed as part of Memphis and its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage Site (id 86)
2015
Tomb of previously unknown Queen Khentkaus III found southeast of Neferefre's complex
2020
Barta et al. publish the complete map and list of all Abusir structures excavated to 2019 (PES XXV)
On the ground
Structures & features
29.8956° N · 31.2028° E · 60 m · 8 mapped features
Pyramid of Sahure
pyramidFirst Abusir pyramid; famed mortuary-temple reliefs, palm court and valley temple on causeway
29.8978° N · 31.2033° EPyramid of Neferirkare
pyramidTallest Abusir pyramid, left in stepped form; source of the main Abusir Papyri archive
29.8950° N · 31.2025° EPyramid of Nyuserre
pyramidMost intact complex; L-shaped mortuary temple, bent co-opted causeway, cult pyramid
29.8956° N · 31.2036° EPyramid of Neferefre (Raneferef)
pyramidUnfinished pyramid completed as mastaba stump; intact cult temple with statues and papyri
29.8939° N · 31.2017° EPyramid of Khentkaus II
pyramidQueen's pyramid south of Neferirkare; completed under Nyuserre with its own papyri archive
29.8961° N · 31.2006° ELepsius XXIV Pyramid
pyramidSmall queen's pyramid of Nyuserre's reign (builders' marks name vizier Ptahshepses)
29.8940° N · 31.2050° ELepsius XXV Pyramid
pyramidLikely 5th Dynasty queen's pyramid south of the main cluster
29.8950° N · 31.2040° EMastaba of Ptahshepses
tombVast multi-phase mastaba of Nyuserre's vizier; largest non-royal Old Kingdom tomb
29.8966° N · 31.2046° E
Gallery