Necropolis of Saqqara

, which was also discovered in 1893.The entrance is at the south end of the east front, which has an inscription giving the name and titles of the dead man. It leads into a vestibule, with reliefs of fishermen and offering bearers, beyond which is a hall with three pillars containing an attractive series of scenes: dancing girls; hunting in the marshes; a farmyard; boats; cattle crossing a ford; boys feeding a puppy; court scene. To the left is a corridor, off which open five store-rooms (originally probably two storied). To the north of the pillared hall is the first chamber. Left hand wall: Kagemni inspecting his cattle and poultry; tame hyenas and poultry being fed; bird catching. Right-hand wall: Kagemni watching fishermen; the catch is recorded and carried away. Above the door into the next room: the dead man carried in a litter. To the west of this room is the serdab (inaccessible). Second room: the dead man receiving votive giftsfrom servants. To the left is a room in which two figures of the dead man have been obliterated. Third room, on longitudinal walls: Kagemni, seated on a chair, receiving votive gifts. In the end wall is a false door, in front of which stood the offering table, approached by steps. Fourth room: two figures of Kagemni, standing, while attendants bring in votive gifts; tables, with various vessels on them; large jars of unguents being brought in on sledges.From the vestibule a dooron the north side leads into a hall from which a staircase mounts to the roof of the mastaba. On the roof were two rooms 36ft/11m long, probably for the solar barques.

temple of the Late and Ptolemaic periods which was replaced in Christian times by a church. The intricate system of underground galleries and passages in which the animal mummies were buried was entered from the temple terrace.The worship of animals was practiced in Egypt from early times, but developed on a considerable scale in the Late Period. The animals venerated as sacred were kept and reared for the specific purpose of being mummified and buried in specially constructed burial complexes. Burial-places of this kind have been found for ibises, falcons, baboons, dogs, jackals, crocodiles, rams, bulls, cows, fish, ichneumons, cats and other animals. It was regarded as meritorious for a pilgrim visiting a particular shrine to acquire one of the animals sacred to the divinity and to have it mummified, elaborately painted and decked with ornaments, and then buried in a stone or wooden coffin (or in the case of a bird a pointed pottery vessel)The animal cemeteries of Saqqara comprise a burial gallery for the 'Apis mothers" (the Iseum; only partly accessible), the counterpart of the Serapeum, in which the sacred cows were buried in stone sarcophagi; a baboon gallery, on two levels, with over 400 coffins; an ibis gallery, in which more than 2 million ibis mummies buried in pointed jars have so far been found; and a falcon gallery which contained a variety of cult vessels and equipment and yielded much valuable information.