Information AboutAbusir |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ABUSIR | |
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Just one, relatively small segment of the extensive "pyramid field" that extends from north of Giza to below Saqqara , the locality of Abusir took its turn as the focus of the prestigious western burial rites operating out of the then-capital of Memphis during the Old Kingdom 5th Dynasty . As an elite cemetery, neighbouring Giza had by then "filled up" with the massive pyramids and other monuments of the 4th Dynasty , leading the 5th Dynasty pharaohs to seek sites elsewhere for their own funerary monuments. Abusir was the origin of the largest find of Old Kingdom . This discovery was supplemented in the late Twentieth Century when excavations by a Czech expedition to the site revealed papyri from two other cult complexes, that of the pharaoh Neferefre (also read Raneferef) and for the king's mother Khentkaus II . NECROPOLIS There are a total of seven pyramids at this site, which served as the main royal necropolis during the Fifth Dynasty. The quality of construction of the Abusir pyramids is inferior to those of the Fourth Dynasty — perhaps signalling a decrease in royal power or a less vibrant economy. They are smaller than their predecessors, and are built of low quality local Limestone . The three major pyramids are those of Nyuserre Ini (which is also the most intact), Neferirkare and Sahure . The site is also home to the incomplete Pyramid of Neferefre . All of the major pyramids at Abusir were built as Step Pyramid s, although the largest of them — the Pyramid of Neferirkare — is believed to have originally been built as a step pyramid some seventy metres in height and then later transformed into a "true" pyramid by having its steps filled in with loose masonry. EXTERNAL LINKS
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