The pyramid of Pepi II was the tomb of Pharaoh Pepi II, located in southern Saqqara, to the northwest of the Mastabat al-Fir’aun. It was the final pyramid complex to be built in Ancient Egypt. Long used as a quarry, the pyramid was excavated by Gaston Maspero in 1881 for the first time. Its ruins were studied in exhaustive detail by Gustave Jéquier. He reconstructed the funerary complex and the texts on the walls of the funerary chamber during his excavation campaigns from 1932-1935. Since 1996, a French mission has thoroughly investigated the pyramid and its surroundings.
Location of Pyramid of Pepi II
The Pyramid of Pepi II is located in the southern section of the Necropolis of Saqqara, northwest of the Mastabat al-Fir’aun.
The pyramid complex
The complex consists of the main Pyramid of Pepi II, a Ka pyramid, three queen’s pyramids, a valley temple and a mortuary temple, and a four hundred meter-long covered causeway running through the desert from the Nile to the pyramid.
Valley Temple
The valley temple is unique for this type of structure. Located on a large quay, extending more than a hundred and fifty metres from north to south, it dominated a large harbour which once was linked to Memphis by a canal. It could be entered by two side ramps, which led to a terrace bounded by the temple facade on three sides, stretching the entire length of the quay and ending in two wings at the northern and southern ends, with stairways built into them.
It is difficult to reconstruct the appearance of this facade because the whole structure is ruined, and only a few layers of stone remain at the bottom. Some traces of a colonnade have been discovered, which probably indicate a long, high wall, lightly inclined at the sides, resting on two piers at the two ends of the harbour, which would have formed the heart of a pyramid town reaching the suburbs of Memphis.
The wall at the back of the terrace contained a single doorway that opened onto a large hall, with a ceiling supported by eight columns and a series of four magazines on the south side. At the western end of the hall, there was a second hall surrounded by two further rows of magazines and a small corridor on the northern side leading to a staircase which allowed access to the temple’s roof. Finally, a third hall, on the same east-west axis as the other two, led into the causeway, which rained southwesterly to the mortuary temple by the pyramid.
In the ruins of this structure, Gustave Jéquier discovered caskets with Pepi II’s name and lids showing the king accompanied by gods who offered him the ankh, a symbol of eternal life, or carried out parts of the coronation ritual. These items were part of the cultic equipment of the temple.
Mortuary temple
The mortuary temple has an entrance space over sixty metres wide on an east-west axis. From the end of the causeway to the pyramid enclosure, one passed through an entrance hall flanked by two small annexes, then a large corridor opening onto a massive ceremonial court. The court had a peristyle consisting of eighteen quartzite pillars. The side of each pillar, which faced the centre of the court, was engraved with a representation of the king accompanied by a god and inscribed with royal protocol.
A long corridor could only access the magazines flanking this courtyard at the eastern end of the courtyard. At the other end of the courtyard was a doorway leading through the pyramid enclosure’s wall into the mortuary temple’s inner part. To the south of this inner part of the mortuary temple, within the pyramid enclosure, was the ka-pyramid, a dozen metres high. There were five cult chapels with all the annexes necessary for their operation, and finally, one came to the hall, which contained the false door of Pepi II.
Many fragments of the temple decoration have been recovered, allowing the reconstruction of the iconographic programme, which showed the king receiving processions of people bringing offerings and leading hunts and battles against the enemies of Egypt in the presence of the high officials of the kingdom. Some representations of these enemies on round bosses have been discovered. Figures on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs were presumably dominated by statues of the king, which would have been scattered in niches throughout the temple. The depiction of these enemies is identical to that found in the mortuary temple of Sahure. There are also several depictions of the god Min and the heb-sed festival.
The Pyramid of Pepi II
The superstructure of the Pyramid of Pepi II was once composed of six steps, forming the true pyramid. Each step comprised a masonry formwork of local limestone held in place with mortar, filled with the rubble of the same limestone. Each step was built on top of the one below. Once the six steps were completed, the second layer of limestone masonry filled in the gaps between the steps. This was covered by a cladding of fine limestone from Tura, partially preserved around the pyramid’s base.
The Pyramid of Pepi II was a little over fifty-two metres high, and each side was over seventy-eight metres long. This corresponds to a hundred Egyptian cubits in height and a hundred and fifty cubits in length. On the pyramid’s north side was a chapel sheltered by the entrance to the underground funerary chamber.
The excavations and studies of the pyramid have revealed that the construction quality was inconsistent. This caused severe structural issues, especially concerning the cladding, which threatened to crack at the base, break off, and collapse under its extraordinary weight. The ancient architects responded to this issue by building a wall around the pyramid, embedded in the paving of the enclosure, under the cladding. This wall was built from carefully dressed waste stone, which gave it enough solidity for its role as a “buttress”. In the process of making this wall, they destroyed the north chapel, reusing the stone in the wall, which indicates that the buttress wall was built due to events after Pepi II’s funeral.
Because of this reuse of the stone, it has been possible to recover all the reliefs which initially covered the walls of the north chapel. Gustave Jéquier reconstructed their iconographic programme. On the east and west walls were prominent figures of the king seated on his throne in front of tables of offerings, filled by a series of servants advancing from the north wall. Framing the doorway on the north wall were images of the arrival of people with offerings, especially scenes of butchers. A false door with a procession of gods dominated the south wall. This decoration is similar to that of the north chapels of other pyramid complexes, known only from small traces; the complete decoration of Pepi II’s north chapel allows Egyptologists to contextualise those traces.
The substructure is similar to that of the Pyramid of Djedkare-Isesi, which was the model for all subsequent pyramids. A passageway descending from a point on the north face of the pyramid, initially protected by the north chapel, runs a little over twenty metres. Four granite blocks block it at the entrance and lead to an entrance hall with a ceiling painted with five rows of white stars on a black background, oriented to the west. Then, there is a horizontal corridor, itself blocked off by three granite blocks.
The walls of this corridor are decorated with Pyramid Texts. It is followed by a funerary antechamber on east-west access and is located under the very centre of the pyramid. The burial chambers were by a vault of eighteen massive stone blocks arranged in chevrons. The ceiling of this vault was painted blue and covered with golden stars. On the eastern side of the antechamber, a doorway led to the serdab of the pyramid, which had been destroyed.
The burial chamber, whose walls are covered in pyramid texts, is 3.15 metres wide and nearly eight metres long (7.79 metres at the north end, 7.91 metres at the south end). The western wall of the chamber is painted with the facade of a palace.
The sarcophagus is made of greywacke, nearly three metres long, around 1.3 metres wide and 1.2 metres high. All four sides are engraved with hieroglyphs listing the complete royal titulary of Pepi II. The sarcophagus is a fine piece of work. Still, it shows some incompleteness concerning the inscription, which also retains marks of preparatory guidelines and shows no signs of gilding, which was usual for a royal sarcophagus in this period. The lid of the sarcophagus is also made of greywacke and is more unfinished; in places, it was never smoothed, and there are no traces of inscriptions. Some fragments of an alabaster chest for the canopic jars were found with the sarcophagus. The lid of this chest was also found but is cut from a granite block – another sign of difficulty in completing the burial goods, which were completed in a hurry.
Egyptologists have revealed uneven and incomplete work throughout the monument as if construction had been repeatedly halted. The burial goods and chambers had to be completed quickly after the king’s death. In addition, the decoration of the funerary chambers seems to have been abandoned abruptly, which further supports the conclusion that the structure was built in a hurry. This doesn’t seem easy to square with the long reign attributed to Pepi II.
Necropolis of Pepi II
Like all the royal pyramid complexes, Pepi II’s pyramid sat at the heart of a necropolis. His family and court officials built tombs to follow their king into the afterlife.
Three queen’s pyramids have been identified as part of this cemetery, all given independent cult complexes. These miniature pyramid complexes have all the elements necessary for the funerary cult of royal wives at the end of the 6th dynasty. They are the following:
- Pyramid of Wedjebten to the southeast of Pepi II’s pyramid complex,
- Pyramid of Neith, to the northwest of the royal pyramid complex
- Pyramid of Iput II, also to the northwest.
