The Pyramid of Teti is smooth-sided in the pyramid field at Saqqara in Egypt. It is the second known pyramid containing pyramid texts. Excavations have revealed a satellite pyramid, two pyramids of queens accompanied by cult structures, and a funerary temple. Gaston Maspero opened the pyramid in 1882, and the complex was explored during several campaigns ranging from 1907 to 1965. It was initially called Teti’s Places Are Enduring. The preservation above ground is very poor, and it now resembles a small hill. Below ground, the chambers and corridors are very well preserved.
Location of Pyramid of Teti
The pyramid of Teti is located in Central Saqqara, just south of the 1st dynasty mastabas and northeast of the Userkaf pyramid.
The funerary complex
The pyramid complex of Teti follows a model established during the reign of Djedkare Isesi, the arrangement of which is inherited from the funerary complexes of Abusir.
A valley temple, now lost, was probably destroyed in antiquity due to the place of an Old Kingdom temple dedicated to Anubis. A better-known funerary temple, revealed by James Edward Quibell in 1906, is connected to the valley temple by a causeway. The plan of the temple of Teti is also comparable to that of Unas, its immediate predecessor.
Teti’s temple has a somewhat unique project; however, due to a deviation of the floor, which traditionally should have been located on the temple’s axis but here is moved south. It then accesses the temple through a hallway of the north-south facade, joining the east-west axis of the monument. Following in this central axis is a second hall. The thickness of the walls suggests a vaulted cover. It was probably the “Room of the Greats”, on the walls of which the royal family and influential court members were to be represented, assisting and accompanying the eternal journey of their sovereign.
This hall opened into an open courtyard surrounded on all four sides by colonnades whose primary purpose was the presentation of daily offerings and ritual libations. The only way out is centred to the west and provides access to the innermost part of the sanctuary.
Included in the Peribolos (In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peribolos was a court enclosed by a wall, especially one surrounding a sacred area such as a temple, shrine, or altar), an inalienable part of the royal pyramid reserved for priests of the king was a chapel containing the five Naos, housing five statues of the king appearing in the aspect of the five principal deities of the realm.
This part also included a private room containing the false door stela of the king, a veritable object of funeral worship, and a double row of stores on both sides of the temple’s axis. The first row frames the party host and is accessible by a long corridor along the entire building width that leads to the south and north within the Peribolos of the pyramid. The second set framed the sanctuary and the hall of statues of gods and was only accessible from the latter.
The last element essential to the funerary cult is the satellite pyramid encircled by its Peribolos. This small pyramid covers an underground plan with a short ramp leading to a single underground chamber. It is located southeast of the royal pyramid and accessible only through a corridor of stores and halls of worship. In the middle of the courtyard of the Peribolos, facing east and west, are two landscaped basins on the granite floor. Egyptologists dispute their use, but the location of these basins, following the path of the sun, suggests ritual practices that shed some light on the role of this monument.
Pyramid of Teti
The orientation of the pyramid is not aligned with the four cardinal points. However, the proportions and plan of the pyramid follow the same pattern as that of the pyramid of Djedkare Isesi. The internal dimensions and slope are the same and are otherwise very similar.
The burial chambers are inside the adjoining chapel against the pyramid’s north face. The entrance hallway leads to a long descent of eighteen hundred and twenty-three metres. The entrance was once blocked by a plug of granite, which is now lost. The descending passage was probably clogged along its length by large blocks of limestone that thieves had broken up. The debris still littered the path at the time of discovery. In the descending corridor are a next horizontal hallway, a vestibule, another hallway, a bedroom with harrows, a final corridor, and a final granite passage that opens into the king’s funerary apartments.
The room with harrows spans more than six metres and is designed with alternating limestone and granite. The three granite harrows that were initially lowered are now broken into several pieces, leaving the way open to visitors.
The horizontal passage leads to rooms consisting of a funeral serdab, an antechamber, and a burial chamber. All three are aligned along an east-west axis. The only peculiarity of the serdab is the size of the block, ensuring its coverage, measuring 6.72 metres long with a weight of forty tons. The antechamber and burial chamber are covered with substantial vaulted rafters. They are connected by a passage where a double door has closed access. The walls of these rooms are covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions commonly called the Pyramid Texts. The pyramid of Teti is the second royal monument to contain the complex theological corpus to assist and support the king’s rebirth.
The burial chamber contains an unfinished greywacke sarcophagus, a lid fragment and a canopic container that is nothing more than a simple hole in the ground. And for the first time, a royal sarcophagus contains inscriptions, here slightly etched on the hollow interior of the vessel.
Although looted since ancient times, remains of the king’s grave goods were found during the first excavation of the monument. Consisting mainly of stone materials, these objects have been abandoned by looters, probably considered useless or worthless. Thus, a series of club heads named Teti and one of the canopic jars containing the king’s viscera have reached us. The most troubling item found among the debris of the funeral viaticum is the plaster mould of a death mask. The reproduced moulding transmits to us the face of a man with eyes closed and mouth slightly open. The expression is striking and purported to be an image of Teti, making it the only authentic royal portrait that has survived from the Old Kingdom.
The Egyptian Royal Cubit is estimated at 525 mm. Teti’s pyramid measures 78.5 per side at the base, and the height is 52.5 m—these equal 150 cubits per side at the base and 100 cubits high. The core was assembled in steps and accretions made of small, locally quarried stone and debris fill. This was covered with a layer of dressed limestone removed, causing the core to slump.
The Necropolis of Teti
All around, the funerary complex of the king extends to one of the wealthiest parts of the necropolis of Saqqara. The king, whose unique destiny seems to have impressed his contemporaries, will be revered later as a divine mediator along with a few courtiers who have, in some sense, inherited it by reputation. The king was also accompanied by his two principal wives, each with a pyramid and a temple of worship.
The pyramid complexes of the Queens of Teti, Khuit and Iput
Among the many tombs that form this cemetery of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt include:
- The pyramid complex of Khuit II;
- The pyramid complex of Iput;
- The pyramid complex of Sesheshet I, the king’s mother;
- The mastaba of Tetiankhkem, royal prince, son of Teti and Khuit;
- The mastaba of Kagemni, Vizier of Teti;
- The mastaba of Ankhmahor;
- The mastaba of Mereruka.
During the Middle Kingdom, the cult of the king was assured, as evidenced by recent discoveries to the east of Teti’s pyramid of the tombs of Sa-Hathor-Ipy and Sekoueskhet (Sekweskhet). These were two priests attached to the worship of the famous pharaoh.
In the New Kingdom, other graves are arranged near the funerary complex of Teti, which is sometimes referred to as an actual deity. Mose, a scribe, had his decorated tomb chapel here. Under the reign of Ramses II, Khaemwaset, the royal prince and High Priest of Ptah, would restore the distant ruler’s pyramid, taking care to re-register his name on one side of his pyramid.
