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Saqqara
Q192134Saqqara: southern cemetery of Memphis, capital of ancient Egypt.
Saqqara
- Named after a local deity, Sokar, who would become associated with the creator god of Memphis, Ptah, and the god of death, Osiris
- Becomes a cemetery in the Early Dynastic Age, but especially during the Third Dynasty, when king Djoser (c.2650 BCE) orders the first pyramid
- Many tombs next to the pyramid, built for important dignitaries
- The cemetery remained in use for centuries. Important tombs from the Eighteenth Dynasty; Maya and Horemheb (before he became king)
- Continued funerary cult; tomb of Khetbeneit-erboni II and Amasis' temple of Anubis (both Twenty-Sixth Dynasty)
- Still in use in the Hellenistic age: Court of the Greek Philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, Thales, Homer, Hesiod, Demetrius of Phaleron, Pindar)
- Cemetery of the dead Apis bull ("Serapeum")