Inscriptions on the ruins of the Egyptian Pharaoh Nyuserre
Inscriptions on the ruins of the Egyptian Pharaoh Nyuserre
The weather and people of the past have reduced the once almost 52 meters 171 feet high pyramid to ruins. Built in the mid-25th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Nyuserre Ini of the 5th Dynasty the unfinished monument to his father is a pyramid complex. The core is a stepped structure covered with Tura limestone made of rough-hewn limestone. Adjacent to the eastern side of the pyramid is a mortuary temple with a unique and unusual structure possibly the nearby obelisk. The mortuary temple replaced the T-shaped plan. The eastern support columns were restored as square rooms. There is an inexplicable square platform and only one column which used to be an important element of the monument.
The main pyramid has a stepped core made of rough-hewn limestone covered with fine Tura limestone. The casing was stolen and removed. There are two separate temples for the cult pyramids. In the northeast and southeast corners of the site are two structures that appear to be prototypes of the main columns which became the main elements of the temple complex. There are smaller pyramids whose stories and purposes are still being investigated. The half-finished walkway which was completed when Neferikre died connecting the mortuary temple to the valley temple is under construction for the Neferikre monument.
There is an archway that changes direction from the mortuary temple of Neferikre to the temple of Niuserre and two other pyramids known as Lepsius XXIV and Lepsius XXV. To the northwest of the pyramid is a mastaba. The tombs of priests and officials involved in mortuary rituals are located in the vicinity of the tombs built for the pharaoh's children possibly one of the Nyuserre rites. While the royal burial rituals were lost during the Middle Ages there are no accounts of the tombs and the two other pyramids.
Double statue portraying Nyuserre as both a young man and an old man,
Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich
The pyramid of Nyuserre and two other cult pyramids where the last king of Nyuserre was buried and the main pyramid element of the mortuary temple were intended to be a memorial to Neferikre. From the late Middle Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom, the area around the bridge of the walkway and the mortuary temple of the monument became home to other tombs. On the southeastern slope of the mortuary temple there is also a tomb whose owner is still unknown.
Niuserre smiting an Asiatic, Wadi Maghara, Juan R. Lazaro, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This tomb gradually It extended eastward towards the edge of the Nile Valley reaching its peak in the 6th Dynasty but Abusir was used only as a local necropolis probably related to the royal cult and onnomasti an ancient Greek meaning of a place in the sacred scriptures between geography and ancient terminology but not considered part of either category. It dates back to the Middle Egyptian period of the 25th century BC and contains the birth name of Nyuserre and an inscription block belonging to a custodian at the nearby pyramid city of Nefer-irkare.
