Pyramid of Pepi I

The pyramid of Pepi I (in ancient Egyptian Men-nefer-Pepi, meaning Pepi’s splendour is enduring) was the pyramid complex built for the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty in the 24th or 23rd century BC. The complex gave its name to the capital city of Egypt, Memphis. As in the pyramids of his predecessors, Pepi I’s substructure was filled with vertical columns of hieroglyphic texts, Pyramid Texts. In Pepi I’s pyramid, these texts were initially discovered in 1880 by Gaston Maspero, though they originated in the pyramid of Unas. The corpus of Pepi I’s texts is also the largest from the Old Kingdom, comprising 2,263 columns and lines of hieroglyphs.

Pepi I sited his pyramid complex in South Saqqara, approximately 2.4 km (1.5 mi) north of Djedkare Isesi’s pyramid. It is unclear why Pepi I relocated to South Saqqara. Perhaps Pepi I had moved the royal palace south and away from the city, or maybe no viable sites were left in North and Central Saqqara after Teti built his pyramid there. Pepi I entrusted one of his wives, Inenek-Inti, with constructing the funerary monument. The pyramid and substructure replicated the basic design of Djedkare-Isesi’s and are proportionally very similar.

The pyramid has been extensively damaged and is now a small ruinous mound. The mortuary temple has also seen extensive damage from stone thieves. Still, the work carried out by the Mission archéologique française de Saqqâra/Mission archéologique franco-Suisse de Saqqâra (MAFS) has revealed that the temple is laid out in nearly precisely the same manner as those of his predecessor. Excavation work at the causeway has only extended to a few metres, and the valley temple and pyramid town remain unexcavated.

The most significant finds at the complex are the queens’ pyramids. As of 2017, nine pyramids have been discovered southwest of Pepi I’s complex. These pyramids belong to Nebuunet, Inenek-Inti, Meritites IV, Ankhesenpepi II and Ankhesenpepi III, Mehaa with a tomb belonging to her son Hornetjerikhet to its north, Behenu, Reherichefnakht and one, the Western Pyramid, remains anonymous. The pyramids of Queens Ankhesenpepi II and Behenu contain Pyramid Texts. The pyramid of Reherichefnakht includes both Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. This finding is significant for two reasons. The first is that it is the oldest known pyramid not built for a royal family member. The second is that its epigraphy represents a link between the Old and Middle Kingdoms.

Location of Pyramid of Pepi I

Pepi I selected a site about 2.4 km (1.5 mi) north of Djedkare’s pyramid in South Saqqara. Mark Lehner suggests that sitting the pyramid in North or Central Saqqara may not have been possible after Teti built his pyramid there and that this may be the reason for Pepi I’s choice to move to South Saqqara. Jaromír Malek proposes that the “squalor, smell and noise of a crowded city”, Djed-Isut to the east of Teti’s pyramid, may have caused Djedkare Isesi and Pepi I to relocate their royal palaces further south. He adds that this would explain the siting of their funerary monuments at South Saqqara.

Excavation of Pyramid of Pepi I

John Shae Perring first examined the pyramid in the 1830s. In 1880, Gaston Maspero, director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, arrived in Egypt. He selected a site in South Saqqara, a mound previously mapped by Karl Richard Lepsius, for his first archaeological dig. Here, he found the ruins of a large structure he identified as the pyramid of Pepi I. During the excavations, he gained access to the substructure, where he discovered that the walls were covered in hieroglyphic text – the Pyramid Texts. This was the first pyramid in which texts were found. Maspero also found texts in Unas, Teti, Merenre I, and Pepi II pyramids in 1880–1. He published his findings in Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah in 1894.

MAFS has been leading efforts at the site of Pepi I’s pyramid since 1950. Jean-Philippe Lauer and Jean Sainte-Fare Garnot led the efforts until 1963, and since then, the site has been under the supervision of Jean Leclant and Audran Labrousse. Under Jean Leclant’s care, a “major architectural and epigraphic project” was undertaken in the pyramids of Unas, Teti, Pepi I, and Merenre I. In 1966, the burial chamber and passageway of the substructure in Pepi I’s pyramid were unearthed. It was revealed that the texts in Pepi I’s pyramid were engraved and painted in green, referred to by ancient Egyptians as wadj, symbolising “renewal and germination”.

The south face and wall and a section of the east face of the pyramid were excavated between March and April 1996. A wealth of inscribed limestone blocks were also uncovered. They bear the names of individuals involved in the complex’s construction, and their recovery is significant because the encasement would typically hide them. From these inscriptions, it was discovered that the pharaoh’s family members were involved in the project.

According to Vassil Dobrev, teti-ankh, a son of Teti, managed various activities around the complex. His name is mainly associated with the enclosure wall and measurement taking. Inenek-Inti, a wife of Pepi I, appears on multiple blocks inscribed with titles indicating her role as the architect and builder of the monument. More carved limestone blocks were uncovered between February and April 1997. From 1995 to 1997, all four sides of the pyramid were cleared, and hundreds of blocks that recorded the involvement of about forty individuals were discovered.

Mortuary complex

Old Kingdom mortuary complexes consisted of five essential components: (1) a valley temple; (2) a causeway; (3) a pyramid, or mortuary, temple; (4) a cult, or satellite, pyramid; and (5) the main pyramid. Pepi I’s complex comprises a main pyramid constructed of six steps of limestone encased in fine white limestone; a mortuary temple that nearly exactly replicates those of his predecessors, with a cult pyramid to its south; and a valley temple and causeway that has not been excavated. Pepi I’s pyramid complex, Men-nefer-Pepi, was adopted as the name of the capital city of Egypt, Men-nefer (Memphis).

Main pyramid

The pyramid was constructed in the same fashion as others since Djedkare Isesi’s reign: a core was built six steps high using small limestone blocks bound together with clay mortar and then encased with fine white limestone blocks. The limestone casing has been stripped away for the production of lime and is intact only at the lowest steps. A fragmentary inscription found by MAFS in 1993 belonging to Khaemwaset, High Priest of Memphis and son of Ramesses II, from the Nineteenth Dynasty indicates that the pyramid was in relatively good condition, needing only minor improvements.

The pyramid is now destroyed, and the original dimensions are estimated. The length of the base of the pyramid was 78.75 m (258 ft; 150 cu), converging towards the apex at ~53°, giving the pyramid a peak of 52.5 m (172 ft; 100 cu) high on completion. The remaining ruins leave a mound about 12 m (39 ft; 23 cu) tall, with a pit dug by stone robbers in its centre.

Substructure

A north chapel once stood over the entrance corridor on the pyramid’s north face. This leads into a descending corridor built from limestone. The passageway terminates at a vestibule that leads into the horizontal passage. Midway along the horizontal passage is the main barrier of three pink granite portcullises. The passage is further reinforced with granite in three places. The layout of the chambers in Pepi I’s pyramid is the same as those in his predecessor’s pyramids: the antechamber sits on the pyramid’s vertical axis, with a room containing three recesses – called the serdab – to its east, and the burial chamber to its west. The ante- and burial- sections had gabled roofs made from limestone blocks set three layers deep with sixteen blocks in each layer. The ceiling is estimated to have weighed around five thousand tons.

The ceiling was painted with white stars, oriented to the west, against a black background. A sarcophagus was found on the west wall of the burial chamber, though examination indicates that this was a substitute sarcophagus, not the original. Labrousse suggests that the original was either damaged during transportation or otherwise contained flaws that were later revealed. MAFS made a rare discovery while conducting vital work in the chamber: a pink granite canopic chest, sunk into a niche at the foot of the coffin, along with a bundle of viscera, once contained inside an alabaster jar and retaining its shape, presumed to belong to the king.

The provenance of a mummy fragment and delicate linen wrappings found in the burial chamber are unknown but are hypothesised to belong to Pepi I. Other components of burial equipment found in the chamber are fragments of canopic vessels made from yellowish alabaster; a sandal made from reddish, possibly sycamore, wood; a small flint knife; some pleated linen; and a fragment of linen bearing the inscription “Linen for the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, may he live forever”.

Pepi I’s antechamber, burial chamber, and corridor walls were inscribed with vertical columns of green-painted hieroglyphic text. The corridor texts in Pepi I’s pyramid are the most extensive, covering the whole horizontal passage, the vestibule, and even a section of the descending corridor. The serdab was left uninscribed, as it had been in Unas’ and Teti’s pyramid.

Pyramid Texts of Pepi I

The Pyramid Texts originally appeared in the Pyramid of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, initiating a tradition that carried on in the pyramids of the kings and queens of the Sixth through Eighth Dynasty until the end of the Old Kingdom. Though the tradition of writing pyramid texts had started in Unas’s pyramid, they were initially discovered in King Pepi I’s pyramid in 1880. The texts in Pepi I’s pyramid, comprising 2,263 columns and lines of text, are the most extensive corpus from the Old Kingdom.

Ancient Egyptian belief held that the individual consisted of three essential parts: the body, the ka, and the ba. When the person died, the ka would separate from the body and return to the gods from where it had come, while the ba remained with the body. The individual’s body, interred in the burial chamber, never physically left, but the ba awakened, released itself from the body and began its journey toward a new life. Significant to this journey was the Akhet: the horizon, a junction between the earth, the sky, and the Duat.

To ancient Egyptians, the Akhet was where the sun rose and symbolised a place of birth or resurrection. In the texts, the king is called upon to transform into an akh in the Akhet. The akh, literally “effective being”, was the resurrected form of the deceased, attained through individual action and ritual performance. If the deceased failed to complete the transformation, they became mutu, “the dead”. The function of the texts, in unity with all funerary literature, was to enable the reunion of the ruler’s ba and ka, leading to the transformation into an akh, and to secure eternal life among the gods in the sky.

Barring the lower section of the western end of the chamber, painted in the royal palace facade motif, all four walls of Pepi I’s burial chamber were covered in Pyramid Texts. The west wall and gable of Pepi I’s burial chamber were inscribed with texts concerned with two themes. The first presents Horus as the head liturgist, and the second involves the presentation of Osiris’ corpse to his mother, Nut.

These texts are sakhu, meaning “that which makes one into an akh”, and serve the “protection, reconstitution, and transfiguration of the king in his sarcophagus”. They are flanked – predominantly on the west end of the north wall, but also by two texts in a small register on the west end of the south wall – by texts concerned with the role of Osiris’ sisters, Isis and Nephthys. On the west end of the south wall, beneath the texts of Isis and Nephthys, is a set of texts dealing with the theme of the king’s ascent to the sky.

The remainder of the north wall of the burial chamber is composed of the Offering and Insignia Rituals. Unique to Pepi I’s pyramid, the two rituals are delineated in separate registers. The remainder of the south wall of the burial chamber is inscribed with the Resurrection Ritual; these deal with the king’s relationship with the gods and his departure from his tomb. Pepi I’s version of the ritual begins with a unique but nearly entirely lost spell. Finally, the east wall and gable are inscribed with texts dominated by the relationship between “the ritualist” – in Pepi I’s case, his son – and Pepi I and contain occasional personal spells. In the passageway between the burial and ante chambers are four spells inscribed on the north and south walls.

Go back, be far away! Let Horus respect me and Seth protect me.

Go back, be far away! Let Osiris respect me and Kherti protect me.

Go back, be far away! Let Isis respect me and Nephthys protect me.

Be far overhead! Let Eyes-Forward respect me and Thoth protect me.

Go back, be far away! Let those of the nighttime respect me and those

in old age protect me.

[…]

Should Isis try to come in that bad coming of hers, don’t open your

arms to her, but let there be said to her her identity of Putrid

Crotch, (and say): “Barred! Go to the houses of Manu! Enough! Go

to Hedjbet, to where you will be beaten!”

[…]

He who shall give his finger against this pyramid and this god’s

enclosure of Pepi and of his ka, he has given his finger against

Horus’s Enclosure in the Cool Waters. Nephthys shall traverse for

him every place of his [father] Geb. His case has been heard by the

Ennead and he has nothing, he has no house. He is one accursed, he

is one who eats his own body.
– Pyramid Text 534

The west and south walls of the antechamber are inscribed with texts whose core theme revolves around the transition from the human to the celestial realm. The north wall contains two text groups: those concerning the king’s ascent to the sky, which doesn’t otherwise appear in the antechamber of other pyramids, and those concerned with the king’s transformation into Horus. The east wall of the antechamber bears spells that protect and provide for the king. The passage into the serdab is inscribed with the Morning Ritual, but the serdab itself was left uninscribed.

The texts of the horizontal corridor are split into three sections. Their dominant theme is the king’s ascent into the sky, alongside other personal texts, a protective spell for the tomb, and a “final imprecation against the guardian of the door” in the northeast section. The vestibule is inscribed on the south, west and east walls. The texts of the south wall generally appear to have been intended to be performed on a statue of the king, with some additional spells allowing the king to open the vestibule’s doors. The west and east walls are concerned primarily with the king’s ability to pass into and out of the tomb. The north wall remained uninscribed.

Pepi I’s descending passage/ascending corridor appears to be the only one inscribed with Pyramid Texts. These are split into two sections, but their contents are unknown due to the damage to the walls. The south end of the west wall has texts relating to the king joining Re in the sky, as does the north end of the east wall, which also has spells for the perpetuation of the king’s cult. The south end of the east wall contains provisioning texts. The north end of the west wall has more spells concerned with the king’s ascent to the sky.

Valley temple, causeway and Pyramid town

The valley temple, pyramid town, and the causeway have not yet been excavated except for a few metres near the mortuary temple.

Mortuary temple

The mortuary temple has been severely damaged by stone thieves who harvested the limestone used in its construction for lime production, leaving behind a lime furnace they had set up on the temple grounds. Despite the state of the temple, the archaeological work of MAFS has allowed the plan and features of the temple to be reconstructed. The temple was laid out according to a standard plan, precisely like the temples of Djedkare Isesi, Unas, and Teti.

The temple had an entrance hall leading into an open columned courtyard. Storage magazines flanked the hall to the north and south. The inner temple contained a chapel with five statue niches. It also included an offering hall and other core chambers. Limestone statues of kneeling captives with hands tied behind their backs were discovered in the southwestern section of the inner temple, where they were planned to be thrown into a lime furnace. The statues were broken at the neck and waist. Miroslav Verner states that these statues once lined the open columned courtyard and possibly also the entrance hall, where they served to ward off anyone who threatened the tomb. Jean-Philippe Lauer postulates that the statues once lined the causeway, representing the subjugated people of the north and south. Richard Wilkinson notes that the original location of these statues is unknown.

The antechamber carée in Pepi I’s temple has been nearly destroyed. An entrance door on its east side has been identified based on granite remains. The room initially had a height of 6.29 m (20.6 ft; 12.00 cu). Discoveries inside the room include pavement sections and the base of the central column, which remained in situ in the chamber’s centre. The typical granite column had been replaced with an octagonal pillar. Labrousse recovered fragments of the relief decoration.

Cult pyramid

The cult pyramid is in a better state of preservation than the mortuary temple. Fragments of statues, stelae and offering tables indicate the continuation of the funerary cult into the Middle Kingdom. Despite this, the pyramid fell into ruin by the New Kingdom.

The purpose of the cult pyramid remains unclear. It had a burial chamber not used for burials and appeared to have been a purely symbolic structure. It may have hosted the pharaoh’s ka or a miniature statue of the king. It may have been used for ritual performances centred around the ka spirit’s burial and resurrection during the Sed festival.

Queens’ pyramids and other significant structures

The queens’ pyramids are the most significant finds at Pepi I’s complex. As of 2017, nine pyramids have been discovered southwest of Pepi I’s pyramid. These pyramids belong to Nebuunet, Inenek-Inti, Meritites IV, Ankhesenpepi II and Ankhesenpepi III, Mehaa with a tomb belonging to her son Hornetjerikhet to its north, Behenu, Reherichefnakht and one anonymous.

Pyramid of Nebuunet

Nebuunet was a wife of Pepi I, buried in a pyramid adjacent to his. The complex is the easternmost one so far discovered and contains a ruined pyramid and a small mortuary temple. The pyramid, constructed from limestone, had a base length of about 20.96 m (68.8 ft; 40.00 cu) and a peak height of 21 m (69 ft; 40 cu). Its entrance is set into the pavement of the north chapel and leads into a descending corridor. This transitions into a horizontal passage through a faux vestibule.

A single granite portcullis guarded the burial chamber south of the pyramid’s vertical axis. The substructure has the same layout as Inenek-Inti’s pyramid, distinguishing that her sarcophagus was made of pink granite rather than greywacke. East of the burial chamber was the serdab, which contained fragments of funerary equipment, including a cylindrical wooden weight and wooden ostrich feather, potentially representing the feathers of Maat.

The complex is entered through a limestone door facing Pepi I’s pyramid. The door has nearly wholly been reassembled from rediscovered components. Each doorjamb has a complete image of the Queen depicting her as a slender woman, wearing a wig that frames her face, equipped with a scabbard and a large necklace dangling around her neck. She holds a lotus flower, breathing in its scent in one hand while the other hangs behind her. Her name and title are inscribed on the doorjambs: “the wife of the king, his beloved, Nebuunet” (French: l’épouse du roi, son aimée, Noubounet). On the upper part of the jamb, beneath the hieroglyph for the sky, a royal falcon with spread wings clutches an ankh pointed at a cartouche bearing Pepi I’s name, itself part of a unit of three columns of text.

The limestone door of the complex leads into an antechamber from which the courtyard surrounding the pyramid and a small mortuary temple on the east face of the pyramid could be accessed. The temple is in complete ruins, except for the offering hall and a section of wall about 1 m (3.3 ft) thick, which have been better preserved. North of the offering hall was a chapel with three niches. Inside the hall, fragments of sculptures depict the Queen on a podium with lions facing a goddess holding a sceptre and the ankh sign. Very little of the relief decoration of the temple has been preserved.

Pyramid of Inenek-Inti

Inenek-Inti was a wife and vizier of Pepi I, buried in a pyramid adjacent to his. The pyramid had a base length of 21 m (69 ft; 40 cu), converging towards the apex at a ratio of 1:2 to a peak height of 21 m (69 ft; 40 cu). The base area of Inenek-Inti’s pyramid is thus 1/14th that of Pepi I’s pyramid, and its volume is 1/10th. In contrast, her pyramid and its mortuary temple are more extensive than Nebuunet’s to the east. Inenek-Inti’s pyramid is enclosed by a thick perimeter wall of 1.5 m (4.9 ft).

Entrance into the pyramid is gained at a small entrance chapel on its north face. The entry leads into a short descending passage, terminating at a vestibule opening onto the main corridor. The corridor, guarded by a single granite portcullis, leads toward the burial chamber under the pyramid’s vertical axis. To the east of the burial chamber is a serdab. On the west side of the burial chamber is a greywacke sarcophagus. The section is in ruins, and only fragments of funerary equipment have been preserved: pieces of stone hardware in various colours and containers with limestone covers meant to protect funerary provisions.

The mortuary temple of the complex is cramped and spreads along the pyramid’s north, east and south sides. Two granite pillars facing north towards the king’s pyramid serve as the door to the temple. The pillars are engraved with Inenek-Inti’s name, and the Queen is depicted seated, breathing in the scent of a lotus flower. Two obelisks of grey limestone are present here, which show the Queen standing. These, too, are engraved with her name, one with Inenek and one with Inti. They also bear her titles.

The outer temple consists of a hall and a pillared courtyard northeast. The offering hall and a room containing three statue niches south of the courtyard are on the east face. A group of storerooms flanked these to the north and south. In the southeast corner was a small cult pyramid. The cult pyramid had a base length of 6 m (20 ft; 11 cu).

Western pyramid

The identity of this pyramid’s owner is preserved on an obelisk in front of her pyramid only as “the eldest daughter of the king”. This was the first Queen’s pyramid unearthed by MAFS in 1988. The pyramid had a base length of around 20 m (66 ft; 38 cu), the same as Nebuunet’s, but the ruins stand a little 3 m (9.8 ft; 5.7 cu) tall. Entry into the substructure is gained on the north face.

The burial chamber is located under the vertical axis of the pyramid. The location of the serdab is unusual, being to the south of the burial chamber instead of the east. Substantial remains of funerary equipment were found inside, but no name: wooden weights and ostrich feathers, copper fish hooks, and fired-clay vessels. It has a hastily built mortuary temple, with an offering hall and a room with two statue niches. Relief fragments depict scenes of processions and estates, along with an incomplete cartouche of Pepi I’s name.

Pyramid of Meritites IV

Meritites IV was the wife of Pepi I or Pepi II. Her pyramid lies to the south of the anonymous “Western pyramid”. It has a base length of 21 m (69 ft; 40 cu), and its substructure is decorated with the titulary of the Queen painted halfway up the chamber walls. During the excavation, wood fragments, likely from a box or canopic chest, were discovered with formulas from the Pyramid Texts.

Her identity, image and titles were recorded in a courtyard with five pillars. In 2007, the pyramid of Meretites IV had been completely restored, and a greywacke monolith pyramid was replaced. The pyramids of Ankhesenpepi II surround her complex to the west, Inenek-Inti to the east, and the Western Pyramid to the north. The complex is accessed from the northeast via a long corridor linked off the street, which leads into the courtyard. West of the courtyard is the north side of the pyramid. South of the courtyard is the inner temple.

Pyramid of Ankhesenpepi II

Ankhesenpepi II was a wife of Pepi I and mother to Pepi II. Her pyramid lies southwest of Meritites IV’s pyramid, at the southwestern corner of the complex. With a base length of 31.4 m (103 ft; 59.9 cu), it is the largest pyramid in the complex after the pyramid of Pepi I. The outer, or public, mortuary temple was built on a north-south axis. To the west is a series of twenty-one storerooms arranged in a tooth-comb fashion, and to the south is a large courtyard with two doors. The southeast door leads to the inner, or private, template. The southwest door leads to the north face of the pyramid.

On the pyramid’s north face, remnants of 4.2 metres (14 ft; 8.0 cu) wide north chapel were found. The substructure of the pyramid was discovered filled with sand and debris but, once cleared, revealed a large 7.34 m (24.1 ft; 14.01 cu) (east-west) by 3.15 m (10.3 ft; 6.01 cu) (north-south) burial chamber. To the east was an uninscribed serdab. The burial chamber of Akhesenpepi II’s pyramid contains a massive, carefully dressed basalt sarcophagus. The body of the sarcophagus is 2.84 m (9.3 ft) long by 1.27 m (4.2 ft) wide. It had a lid, fragmented into four pieces, made from a material different from the sarcophagus body.

The Queen’s titulary appears on the sarcophagus and lid, identifying her as the mother of the king and daughter of Geb and Nut. Bone fragments of the arm, leg and foot were recovered during the evacuation of the sarcophagus. These were identified as belonging to a mature adult female with osteoarthritis. The walls of the substructure contain Pyramid Texts.

In the mortuary temple of Ankhesenpepi II’s funerary monument, a decorative block bearing the cartouches of Pepi I, Pepi II and Merenre I was discovered in 1998. The first two cartouches were easily explained: Pepi I was the husband of Ankhesenpepi II, and Pepi II was her son. The third that of Mererenre I remained unexplained until a damaged second decorative block was found in the pillared courtyard a year later. It bore the title of Queen Ankhesenpepi II and identified her as the wife of Merenre I. According to Labrousse, Ankhesenpepi II remarried Merenre I, her nephew, after the death of Pepi I.

Pyramid of Ankhesenpepi III

Ankhesenpepi III was a daughter of Merenre I Nemtyemsaf and a wife of Pepi II. Her pyramid is north of Ankhesenpepi II’s pyramid and southwest of Mehaa’s. Her pyramid complex is the smallest in Pepi I’s Great Complex. Its size is constrained by the boundary of the complex to the west, Ankhesenpepi II’s mortuary temple to the south and east, and an esplanade to the north that likely contained worship facilities. The pyramid has a base length of 15.72 m (51.6 ft; 30.00 cu).

The complex is entered at the northeast corner of the north wall and is preceded by two obelisks. On the east face of the pyramid is the mortuary temple, which has been reduced to an intimate temple consisting of two rooms leading to the offering hall. A small courtyard that hosts a cult pyramid in its centre is southeast of the pyramid. Fragments of a decree from Pepi II honouring Ankhesenpepi III were found north of the complex’s enclosure wall.

The burial chamber of the pyramid is badly damaged. It contains a sarcophagus from a single sandstone block buried in the floor, with a lid of roughly cut granite. The walls around the sarcophagus have been painted to represent the royal palace facade. The sarcophagus is inscribed with Ankhesenpepi III’s name and titles and contains bone fragments.

A mudbrick superstructure was uncovered in the funerary complex’s western part. A shaft by the structure led to a vaulted chamber through which a decorated limestone burial chamber could be accessed. The burial appears to date to the First Intermediate Period. The owner of the burial is Ankhnes, a priestess of Hathor of Ankhesenpepi III. Alongside the burial, a 38 cm (15 in) decorative wooden statuette of the subject and five decorated wooden mirror handles were recovered.

Pyramid of Mehaa and Hornetjerikhet’s tomb

Mehaa was the wife of Pepi I. She was buried in a pyramid at the end of “Queen’s Street” (French: rue de Reines). Before the pyramid is a building which bears the name and image of Prince Hornetjerikhet, a son of Pepi I.

Pyramid of Behenu

Behenu was a wife of Pepi I or Pepi II. In 2007, the remains of her pyramid were uncovered. The pyramid is located at the western end of the complex, directly north of Mehaa’s pyramid. It has a base length of 26.2 m (86 ft; 50.0 cu), making it the second-largest Queens’ pyramid in the necropolis after Ankhesenpepy II. Fragments found in the mortuary temple identified the owner, Behenu. The name matches fragments of Pyramid Texts previously found around the tomb of Reherichefnakht. These fragments must have originated from the chambers of her pyramid. The walls surrounding the sarcophagus in the burial chamber were adorned with a black and red painted rendition of the royal palace facade and text inscribed above. Fragments of green paint have been retained on some of the inscribed hieroglyphs, with black and red painted lines separating vertical registers.

The enclosure to the complex is entered near the northeast corner of a north-south street. The doorway leads into a vestibule with a door to the courtyard in its north-western corner. The courtyard has two entrances. The first, in the southeast, leads to a vestibule with two connecting rooms. To the north is an extended windowless vestibule. To the west are a series of ten store-rooms. A second door northwest of the courtyard leads into the inner, or private, temple. A series of rooms can be accessed from a north-south running passage, including a windowless room, the statue chapel and the offering hall. At the southeast corner of the pyramid is a small courtyard with a cult pyramid at its centre. The cult pyramid has a base length of 5.5 m (18 ft; 10.5 cu).

In the debris of the temple, which bore marks of destruction and restoration, a preserved statuette head of Behenu wearing a wig and with in-laid eyes was found. An offering table discovered near Behenu’s monument has identified a daughter of Behenu named Hapi.

Pyramid of Reherichefnakht

In 2004, a pyramid belonging to an individual named Reherichefnakht was discovered in King Pepi I’s pyramid complex. The pyramid likely dates to the end of the Eleventh Dynasty and is thus the oldest known pyramid not built for a royal family member. It has a base length of 13.12 m (43.0 ft; 25.04 cu) made from limestone blocks presumably scavenged from nearby structures. Remnants of stelae, offering tables, door stops and lintel, many of which bear names, were found in the pyramid’s core.

One significant find is the name of a previously unknown wife of Pepi I, Sebutet. The pyramid substructure contains both Pyramid and Coffin Texts, thus representing a link between the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The substructure has a simple design: from the north, a shaft leads to the burial chamber covered with stone slabs, one of which bears Reherichefnakht’s name. The chamber was richly decorated and contained Pyramid Texts 214–217 and Coffin Text 335. No other buildings associated with pyramid complexes were built, and no burial for the wife of Reherichefnakht was found.