The Pyramid of Unas

Unas was probably the last king of 5th dynasty, but some archaeologists argue that he was the first king of 6th dynasty. Unas may have reigned for over 30 years?! 

His very unusual pyramid is located between the enclosures of Djoser's pyramid and Sekhemkhet's. 

What makes the pyramid of Unas unique?  

It is the smallest pyramid of all known old kingdom pyramids. Unas is also the first pharaoh to have his burial chamber inscribed with pyramid texts. Unas's chambers are the first since Djoser to be decorated: the chamber that contains the sarcophagus is covered with a gabled ceiling and golden stars like a starry night blanket!

Unas was very smart in choosing the location of his pyramid complex  

He took advantage of two natural features: long valley "wadi" for a nice paved route to his causeway and the path leading down to a lake which acted as a harbour for his Valley Temple.  

Unas's pyramid became a ruin by the time of the New Kingdom era! 

Son of Ramesses II and the high priest at Memphis left his inscription on the south side as evidence to his restoration work to revive the legacy of Unas. The restoration work of the Unas pyramid is one of many restoration projects carried out during the glorious New Kingdom.

The pyramid of Unas
The miniature Unas Pyramid 
Photo attribution: Dennis Jarvis. https://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/2216713049
Sources:
Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids
Ahmed Fakhry, The Egyptian Pyramids

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The myth of Jason and Medea: Love, Sacrifice and Revenge

Image
Jason and the Golden Fleece  One day there was a king named Aeson who was ruling the province “Iolcus” in Thessaly. Until, Pelias, the half-brother of Aeson deposed him and took the throne of Iolcus, threatening to kill any who disputed his claim.  Meanwhile the queen Alcimede , wife of Aeson was pregnant with a boy. She claimed that the boy died as she was giving birth to protect the child.  Aeson sent his son Jason (Iason in Greek) to the old Centaur Chiron who was living on the mountain of Pelion in Thessaly. Chiron brought up Jason and taught him how to fight and use all kinds of weapons until Jason became a strong, well-built young man.  After many years, Jason decided to return to Iolcus to regain his kingdom from Pelias.  Pelias felt guilty for what he had committed against his half-brother, so he asked his Oracle about the fate of his throne. The Oracle gave him a prophecy warning him of (a man with one shoe). This man was no other than Jason who helped an old woman to cross t
Read more

The Amduat: The ancient Egyptian book of the underworld

Image
Imi dw3t, means the book of what is in the Duat "Netherworld". It also means the book of the hidden chamber. It was an important funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt. It tells the journey of the sun god Re through the Netherworld. It is often believed that the king takes the same journey and becomes one with Re in eternal life. The Amduat is divided into twelve hours according to the twelve hours of the night: it begins when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east. The boat of the sun god faces many obstacles and the journey becomes a drama. The earliest complete copies of the Amduat are retrieved from the tomb of Thutmose the Third. The hours of the Amduat The first hour: the sun god enters into the Netherworld "the gate which swallows all" represented as ram-headed Ba. It describes the Netherworld's inhabitants and there's  a list of 741 deities in the burial chamber. The second and third hour: it describes the  fertile farmlands of the
Read more

The Ka and the Ba

Image
Understanding the pivotal concepts of Egyptian identity is a necessity to understand hieroglyphic writing. The Ka and the Ba are among the most important and complex hieroglyphic ideograms. "Ka" is a concept deeply rooted in the Ancient Egyptian Persona. In the simplest terms, it is the idea that each one of us has a soul consort mirroring our own souls, our spiritual double. This double takes after our own bodies "ghet" for it can only materialise with it to form us as a whole. This consort lives on even after our own death. Offerings to the Ka were a necessity since, like the person's physical body, the Ka needed nourishment. The idea is a bit similar to the Qareen in Islamic religion, however the nature of the Ka remains much more ambiguous. The phonetic biliteral sign with the predominant ideogram of the Ka represents the breast and outstretched arms of a person pictorially. Ka can also mean personality, individuality and even a man's fortune or his posi
Read more