Unas’ mortuary temple is located east of his pyramid, as was usual for funerary complexes of the Old Kingdom. Its entrance lies in the east, along the east-west axis of the complex. It was completed and inscribed by Teti, Unas‘ successor, showing that the transition between both reigns went smooth.
Location of Mortuary Temple of Unas
The mortuary temple is on the eastern side of Unas’s pyramid, which lies on the Saqqara plateau, on a line running from the Buried Pyramid of Sekhemkhet to the pyramid of Menkauhor.
Layout
The causeway
Next to the Pyramid Texts, the causeway is the most impressive part of Unas’ funerary complex. With its 750 metres length, it must have been one of the longest pyramid causeways ever constructed, equalled only by the causeway of Kheops at the Giza complex.
The causeway connects the mortuary temple to the Valley temple. It was built in a long Wadi that opened onto a lake east of the pyramid. Some of the blocks used to fill gaps in the wall came from the enclosure of Netjerikhet’s complex, suggesting that by the end of the 5th Dynasty, Netjerikhet’s complex had already fallen into decay.
Only bits and pieces of the original decoration of the inner walls of the roofed causeway have been found. They can merely hint at the diversity of scenes that covered the causeway.
Part of the decoration appears to have been dedicated to the representation of the building of the funerary complex: the transport by boat of the granite palm columns for the mortuary temple and artisans working gold or copper.
Another part represented the usual offering scenes, labourers working on the fields, harvesting grain or gathering figs and honey. The traditional offering bearers are present and carry the rich produce of the estate into the temple.
Other scenes include battles with enemies and representations of wild animals. One scene on the causeway’s walls has puzzled many generations of Egyptologists: it shows a person emaciated by famine. Some believe this refers to an actual famine in Egypt during Unas’ reign. If, however, this is the case, this would be a rare example of a historical event -a adverse historical event!- to have been represented in a royal mortuary complex. Others believe that it described a famine that occurred outside of Egypt. It is also possible that this scene is part of the set of scenes representing Egypt’s enemies.
Considering the nature of Wadi, the causeway bends twice to the south to connect the Valley temple with the mortuary temple. At the uppermost bend, two boat pits, each 45 metres long, have been found immediately to the south of the causeway.
Mortuary Temple
At the end of the causeway was a large hall leading to a pillared open court surrounded by magazine chambers. This was immediately adjacent to the eastern side of the pyramid, surrounded by an enclosure wall defining the sacred space. The court directed to the mortuary temple proper, which housed statues of the king and where the offerings to the deceased took place.
The sixteen columns in this court had palm-leave-shaped capitals. Some magazines were to the north and south of the court and the entrance hall. These could only be entered by the traverse corridor behind the open court that separated the front from the inner temple.
A door in the centre of the traverse corridor and along the east-west axis of the temple opens onto the five statue niches that once contained statues of the king. To the north of these niches are some different magazines. To the south is a door that opens onto a small room; to the east is the small square antechamber. The roof of this antechamber was once supported by a single pillar made of red quartzite from Gebel Ahmar near Heliopolis, a hard stone associated with the solar cult.
The actual sanctuary of the temple lies to the northwest of the antechamber, again along the complex’s east-west axis. It contained a false granite door in front of which the daily offerings for the king were deposited. Surrounding it are some other magazines.
At the southeast corner of the enclosure was a small satellite pyramid for the king’s Ka. The pyramid’s internal chambers were entered in 1881 by Gaston Maspero, who thus discovered the pyramid texts. The burial chamber housed nothing but a black greywacke sarcophagus sunk into the floor and a canopic chest. The sarcophagus proved to contain scattered bones, which may belong to Unas.
