Site · Egypt
Saqqara
Dynastic Egypt, 2900–30 BCE
Saqqara is the main necropolis of Memphis, used from the First Dynasty to the Roman period and containing Djoser's Step Pyramid of about 2650 BCE, the earliest large stone building, the pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties with their Pyramid Texts, and the New Kingdom tombs of Horemheb and Maya. Ongoing discoveries keep it in the news and it is the source of many shabtis, amulets and animal mummies in old collections.
| Country | Egypt |
|---|---|
| Dates | 2900–30 BCE |
| Status | Archaeological site within the UNESCO World Heritage Site Memphis and its Necropolis (1979) |
| Managed by | Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Supreme Council of Antiquities |
| Access | Open daily with tickets for the Step Pyramid complex, the Imhotep Museum and selected tombs including those of Ti, Mereruka and the Serapeum. |
| Coordinates | 29.871, 31.216 (public site) |
What was found
Excavations from Mariette's discovery of the Serapeum in 1851 through Firth, Quibell and Lauer at the Step Pyramid, Emery's First Dynasty tombs, and the recent finds of sealed coffin caches, mummified animals and the tomb of Wahtye, have yielded the Pyramid Texts of Unas, Old Kingdom mastaba reliefs and hundreds of thousands of animal mummies.
Rules
Nothing may be collected; Egypt's Law 117 of 1983 on the Protection of Antiquities makes all antiquities state property, bans export and criminalises trade, and the United States has restricted import of Egyptian archaeological material under the CPIA since 2016. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Saqqara" (Site). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/sites/saqqara. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-saqqara,
title = {Saqqara},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/sites/saqqara}},
year = {2026},
note = {Site article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.