Pyramid texts on line (Unas: cannibal god)

Even if we allow Pharaoh Khufu a reign of 30 to 32 years, his workers and builders would had to set in place 230 m³ of stone per day, i.e. a rate of 1 average-size block of 2.5 tons every 4 or 6 minutes (working in day and night shifts), to finish his pyramid, causeway, two temples, satellite pyramids, three queens' pyramids and official's mastabas (a combined mass of ca. 2.700.000 m³). Although this king did not equal his father's total mass of monuments, he surpassed his pyramids in sheer size and accuracy. After a few failures, the principle of pyramid-building had been mastered and the building of the king's royal pyramid-complex (also containing his tomb) become state policy.

The base of the Great Pyramid (containing about 2.300.000 blocks of stone weighing on average ca 2.5 tons) is level within 2.5 cm (290.33 m) with an angle of slope of 51°50'40", the average deviation of the sides from the cardinal points is 0°03'06" degrees of arc and the greatest difference in length of the sides is 4.4 cm. The pyramid alone covers 5.3 ha. The finished pyramid was surrounded by an 8m high Tura limestone wall !

The Great Pyramid has three chambers : a King's Chamber with the sarcophagus near the western wall ; a Ka chamber with the statue of the king, the so-called "Queen's Chamber", never intended for the burial of the queen and the Subterranean Chamber, 30 m below the plateau surface, reached by a Descending Passage cut straight into the natural rock of the plateau. Some think the lower chambers were "mistakes", while this seems unlikely (in view of the triune architecture of royal tombs, with burial-chamber, antechamber and Ka-chamber). What is typical for these "Stellar" pyramids of Sneferu (Bent Pyramid as well as North Pyramid) and Khufu is the elevated position of the King's Chamber. In both, the funerary symbolism is clearly celestial. The expanse of the sky was the celestial Nile, with banks on the West and on the East. The Milky Way was called "the beaten path of stars" and paradise was invisioned as the Nile Valley at inundation : the Field of Reeds (Osiris) on the eastern edge (i.e. the culminating moment in the movement from dusk to dawn) and the Field of Offering (Re) further North.

By elevating the King's Chamber, the architects of the Great Pyramid underlined the celestial goals of Solar Kingship, and, by doing so, also made it possible for the "son of Re" to unite with the celestial, stellar corpse of Osiris, associated with the Orion constellation and the star Sirius (the Southern shafts). By the bright appearance of the Dog-star in the dawn sky of July, the annual Nile inundation was heralded. This star, associated with Isis, was called "the Bringer of the New Year and the Nile flood". Osiris, the brother and husband of Isis, was identified with Orion : the announced renewal of life by the heliacal rising of Sirius, entailing the blessing of Osiris, the vegetation god. Moreover, the Ba of King Khufu, son of Re, could rise in its "sah" ("sAH", "noble") and be transformed into an "Akh" ("spirit") helped by Osiris and Isis in their stellar, celestial form (in the South). Thus he reached his final destiny : the Imperishable Stars in the North.

Pyramid with Sphinx

In this remarkable architecture, we may "read" the same ambiguity, apparent in the Pyramid Texts, between, on the one hand, the sky of Re ("pet"), creator of the deities and the universe, and, on the other hand, the Netherworld ("Duat") of Osiris, its king hidden in the darkness of the subterranean world, i.e. between, on the one hand, the royal Solar/Stellar prerogative and, on the other hand, the influence of the popular (Lunar and Predynastic ?) Osiris, with whom eventually (in the Middle Kingdom), every deceased would identify. The kings of the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE) emphasized the Solar component of divine kingship, the direct manifestation of the supreme deity on Earth. Nevertheless, Heliopolitan theology incorporated Osirian thematics, but only insofar Osiris assisted the celestial terminus of the deceased king, i.e. the son of Re returning to his father, and escaping the darkness of the Duat, thematized in the New Kingdom Amduat.

Cairo taken from behind the Sphinx

2. The rise of henotheism.

"Men hide, the gods fly away."
King Unas (Utt.302 - antechamber, North Wall)

At the start of Dynastic times (ca. 3000 BCE), the religious beliefs of the Egyptians were contextual, local & relative to social class. Hither and thither, a variety of gods and goddesses were worshipped. Each and every local deity was "great" ("wr") and polytheism reigned. At the level of state, Horus (Lower Egypt) & Seth (Upper Egypt) represented the balance of the Two Lands, realized by the institution of divine kingship (his Great Word) and the powers of state (cf. the royal palace or "great house", the temples, the economy, the seats of learning, the administration, health-care, the military, etc). The (Predynastic ?) identity of the anarchic Seth seems obvious enough, but the identity of Horus is less so, appearing as a fusion of (a) Horus the Elder and (b) Horus, son of Osiris.

From the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 BCE), initiating the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 - 2205 BCE), the royal ritual issued a new emphasis on the single, Solar creator-god Re, replacing the traditional balance between Horus and Seth. The original battle was reorchestrated as a smaller part within the scheme of a single, universal, all-powerful creator : Atum-Re. The latter did not assimilate or reject the other deities (as in monotheism, stressing the singular), but became their original point of departure, the self-created initiator of the "first time" (zep tepi) of them all (cf. the Heliopolitan Ennead, or henotheism), the operative principle (ba) of Nun, the primordial ocean of unending potential outside creation.

The architectural wonders of Pharaohs Djoser (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE), Snofru (ca. 2600 - 2571 BCE) and Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE) evidence this new royal theology, focusing on the divine king while in power (cf. as Osiris & Horus in the Sed-festival) and as Son of Re in the afterlife. The latter is two-tiered : first the Duat is confronted (the king becomes Osiris), then, in the horizon, the Ba of the king is transformed into a spirit rejoining the Imperishables.

The pyramid is a stairway to heaven, a rising as given by , 041, the double stairway, a determinative indicating "ascent" and "high place" (cf. the Step Pyramid of Djoser). The names given to the earliest edifices imply the transformation (happening in the Akhet or "horizon") of the royal soul (ba) of the king into a spirit (akh) rejoining the stars : "Sneferu Endures" (Sneferu"), "The Southern Shining Pyramid" (Sneferu), "The Shining Pyramid" (Sneferu), "Akhet Khufu" (Khufu), "Djedefre is a Sehed-star" (Djedefre), "Great is Khafre" (Khafre), "Menkaure is Divine" (Menkaure), "The Purified Pyramid" (Shepseskaf), "Pure are the Places of Userkaf" (Userkaf), "The Rising of the Ba Spirit" (Sahure), "Pyramid of the Ba of Neferirkare" (Neferirkare), "The Places of Niuserre Endure" (Niuserre), "Beautiful is Isesi" (Djedkare-Isesi).

By the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE), when King Khephren (ca. 2540 - 2514 BCE) added the title "son of Re" to his royal titulary, Ancient Egyptian culture had reached its pinnacle. Canonical attainments in science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, magic, ritual and sapiental teachings had been realized, and we have to wait until the New Kingdom (ca. 1539 - 1075 BCE) to witness new developments (cf. Amduat, Atenism and Amonism). However, in all periods, especially in the Late Period (664 - 332 BCE), Egypt would return to the canon initiated by King Djoser and his "Leonardo da Vinci", the vizier, scribe, doctor and architect Imhotep, "the one that comes in peace". In architecture (cf. Giza pyramids), religion (cf. the Pyramid Texts) and wisdom-teaching, to name but a few areas of interest, these Old Kingdom rules became sanctosanct.

► the henotheist religion of Re

As Papyrus Westcar puts into evidence, the beginning of the Vth Dynasty saw major changes in Egyptian religion. The powerful influence of Re made the first Pharaoh of the Vth Dynasty (King Userkaf - ca. 2487 - 2480 BCE) highpriest of Re and begotten by Re himself. Re had visited the wife of Userra, a highpriest of Re. The result was the birth of a divine child.

"From the 3th Dynasty we have the evidence for a new emphasis on a single creator, eclipsing the balance between the good Horus and the anarchic Seth. The battles of Horus and Seth do no disappear in the new, classical Egyptian arrangement of divine powers, but they become a smaller part within the general scheme of a single all-powerful creator." - Quirke, 2001, p.83.

The popular Osiris and the crucial battle between his son Horus and Seth, were apparently not ousted from the royal mindset. On the contrary, his divine family-drama became part of the cycle of the "Great Re", the overarching & overseeing deity. Osiris became the "Sun of the night", although an essential tension between both myths continued to exist throughout the Old Kingdom.

"In the royal and state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky, and while he is there Solarized, we have just shown how he also tinctures the Solar teaching of the celestial kingdom of the dead with Osirian doctrines. The result was thus inevitable confusion, as the two faiths interpenetrated." - Breasted, 1972, p.160.

The pyramid of Userkaf was built at North Saqqara, close to the north-eastern corner of Djoser's enclosure. It evidences a truly substantial re-evaluation of the rigid monumentality of the previous Dynasty (cf. its small size : side = 73.5m and height = 49m) and less painstaking methods of construction. The main surviving architectural achievement of Pharaoh Userkaf was his temple dedicated to Re, the Sun-god. Six of the seven kings of this Vth Dynasty, King Unas included, would do the same in the next eighty years. Re became a state god and Pharaoh the son of Re. These temples were personal monuments to each king's continued relationship with Re during life and in the afterlife.

The funerary ritual was also elaborated, and in the Vth Dynasty, the Lector-priest, or "Kheri-Heb" appears in scenes. He was a specialist, and master of the mortuary rituals for the royals. He was attended by the "Heri-Shesheta", the "Head of Mysteries". These developments evidence an increased interiority. Sacred writing realizes its first internal structure : words joined together in simple sentences. Internalization led to the formation of pre-concepts, i.e. word-images created through imagination and the interplay of meaningful objective relational contexts. Subjectivity was expressed as a function of an objective state. The actions of the "I"-form are objective states which are not yet (self) reflective. The opacity of the material side of presence prevailed. The subject has no transparancy of its own, but functions as a "collective Self" walking the Lunar and Solar paths.

However, in the royal cult, three central natural types emerge : on the one hand, the divine king, his residence and magical power to assure a "good Nile", and, on the other hand, his father, the creator-god Re, "father of the gods" and giver of life. This is Atum, the "Ba of Nun", the potential to autogenerate floating in the inert waters of chaos. In-between there is Osiris, the prototype of the regeneration brought by darkness and silence.

Pharaoh, being the son of Re, returns the "right order" to his father (as the sole god on Earth, he is the only one able to do so). Because he worships his father properly (effectively), he is blessed by the latter and receives a "good Nile". Thanks to the tomb, his father may descend from the sky and assist his son. The dead would thus continue to rule and Egypt would last for millions of years ...

Because of this emphasis on Re, a constellational henotheism ensued. To evidence unity, multiplicity is not eliminated. To operate the multiple, the original unity of the divine is not eclipsed. The various natural types work together under the overarching order of Re, who is their beginning and end. The deities are so many appearances of the creator. Every night they are reborn with him. Likewise, his son Pharaoh is present in more than hundred temples simultaneously and he alone effectuates the necessary rituals to make the god find his shrine pleasant and become united with his statue. Deities only communicate with other deities. A human coming face to face with the god dies.

► the royal titulary

Changes in the royal funerary rituals had already been monumentally expressed by Kings Sneferu and Khufu, but under Khufu's son, Pharaoh Radjedef (ca. 2548 - 2540 BCE), the signs of far-reaching religious change become institutional. Re surpassed all other deities, even Horus, the sky god and emblem of the "Followers of Horus". Pharaoh Radjedef, who provided himself with the name "belongs to the firmament", is the first to bear the name "son of Re" ("sA Ra").

His brother or half brother King Khephren (ca. 2540 - 2514 BCE) incorporated the royal title "son of Re" in his official, royal titulary. This titulary ("nxb.t") consisted of 5 titles or "rn wr", "great names". Each of these express a specific view-point on kingship. As the name of someone was crucial and all-important for his or her survival and effectiveness, the royal name was the "name of names". To know and understand Pharaoh's names revealed his power in life and to have one's own name written next to his, guaranteed success in the afterlife.

As the "son of Re", King Khephren added a fifth name to his four other titulary names, thereby expressing the idea of the divine king being the human form of Re at birth, i.e. Re begets the king, who rules over Egypt in the former's name.

"From this time onward every king of Egypt, whether of Egyptian origin or not, called himself the 'son of Râ'. In later days, when Amen, or Amen-Râ, became the King of the Gods, it was asserted by his priesthood that the god assumed the human form of a man and begot the king of Egypt." - Budge, 1989, p.33, my italics.

The definitive form of the royal titulary was attained : it began with the Horus Name of the Early Dynastic Period and ended with the name of the king at birth (as a prince), preceded by "son of Re". When enthroned, the king received a "prenomen", a divine name referring to Re. Both names were enclosed by an oval ring (suggestive of the Solar cycle), a cartouche. The "nomen" name is phenomenal. The "prenomen" name is for all of eternity. This enclosure may be compared with the wall surrounding the temple. Thus it reflects the Solar horizon of the Sun-disk and assures the clear distinction between the divine and the profane.

Just as the "sah" is the result of "senetjer" or ritual consecration, the king becomes the "son of Re" in actu exercito only after having received his throne-name. As a prince, he was the son of a divine father, as divine king he is a Lone Star, the son of the unique creator-god and god of light, Re, the star of stars. By adding "son of Re" to the birth name, the divine birth (not yet divine right) of the royal prince was underlined. At his coronation, he received the "form" of kingship ritually (cf. the royal Ka), but his divine nature was already present at birth (cf. the royal placenta), for he was conceived by Re himself.

The five names of the royal titulary, a temporal as well as a spiritual declaration of divine rule, are :

the Horus name, Banner name or Ka-name : designating the king as the manifestation of Horus, the elder sky god (Horus in the palace, not yet Horus, son of Osiris, although both were confused), the divine prototype and patron of the Egyptian kings. The earliest divine kings, the "Followers of Horus", ruled with this Horus name alone. In the Early Dynastic Period, the perched falcon of Horus was part of the name of the king. King Aha, for instance, was "Horus-Aha", or "Horus who fights". In the New Kingdom, "Mighty Bull" was added at the beginning of the name, but it was usually quite variable. Although it would continue to be used throughout the entire Ancient Egyptian history, it lost its importance to the prenomen en nomen from the end of the Old Kingdom on. This name was not the birth name of the king, but it was given to him when he ascended the throne. During the Early Dynastic Period and the early Old Kingdom, it was the king’s official name. His name of birth would not appear in official documents.

This name is often written within a rectangular frame, at the bottom of which is seen a design of recessed panelling, such as we find in the facades of early tombs and in the false doors of many private tombs. The Ancient Egyptian name for this facade was "serekh". When speaking of the (palace) facade, this name is often used in modern texts as well. On top of this "serekh" is perched the falcon of Horus, hence the appellation "Horus-name". In more elaborate New Kingdom examples, Horus is wearing the double crown and is accompanied by the Sun and an Uraeus ;


the Nebti name or "Two Ladies" title : first met in the reign of Pharaoh Aha, Nekhbet and Uadjit ("wADiit") were the protective goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively (a vulture & a cobra, each atop the basket for "Lady"). These two refer to the dual kingdom the king unites as "Lord of the Two Lands". The "Two Ladies" correspond to these "Two Lords", and to the royal gods Horus and Seth (Lower and Upper Egypt respectively). The concept of the king embodying both goddesses, highlights the reconciliation of opposites to maintain the balance, here on a geographical level ;


the Gold name, Golden Horus name or Falcon of Gold name : this name of gold, a falcon atop a beaded collar (meaning "gold"), is first attested in the IVth Dynasty and is represented by a Horus falcon atop a beaded collar ("nbw" - gold). The name might refer to the wealth and splendour of Pharaoh's divinity, as well as to his enduring qualities (gold was considered to be the untarnished "flesh" of the deities). The Papyrus of Ani (chapter 77) makes the Falcon of Gold refer to the Sekhet Hetep, the Field of Peace. The notion of "gold" may thus be linked to neheh-time & its eternal repetition. The burial-chamber in the royal tombs of the New Kingdom was often called the "golden room", not (only) because of the presence of actual gold, but because it was there for all of eternity. The gold name may convey the same notion of eternity, expressing the wish that the king may be an eternal Horus, i.e. he and his kingdom endure ;


the Throne name (prenomen) : is preceded by the "nswt-bitii" title, which translates as "he of the sedge and bee", "King of Upper and Lower Egypt" or "Dual Kingdom" and is enclosed (in a cartouche). The first known example of this title is dated to the reign of Pharaoh Den, when it was often combined with the Nebti-name. It would take until the end of the IIIth Dynasty before it came into use and eventually replaced the Horus-name as the most important official royal name. The systematic presence of the name of Re in the prenomen (starting with Pharaoh Khephren) indicates it was given to the king when he ascended the throne. It put him in a narrow relationship with the universal Solar god Re. More recent scholarship conjectures the name to be a statement regarding Pharaoh and his policies (instead of a theological statement concerning the god). It was compounded with the name of the Sun god Re (including the hieroglyph of the disk of the Sun), written first (cf. honorific transposition) ;


the personal name of Pharaoh (nomen - our family-name) : always preceded by the epithet "son of Re". It is the name given to the prince at birth. After coronation, it was also enclosed in a cartouche. It affirmed Pharaoh was by birthright a god. A "cartouche" or "royal ring" depicts a loop formed by a rope, the ends tied together. This conveys the notions of "eternity" and "encompassing the entire creation". The loop can be seen as the cycle of the Sun itself, the celestial ecliptic (in reality, the elliptical movement of the Earth around the Sun). The crucial role of "Tail-in-Mouth" in the VIth Hour of the Amduat refers to this "encircling of creation".

On a single royal monument, all five names seldom appear together. When only one name was used, the Throne name was the most common. Usually, it was also used when the king had died, avoiding the necessity to add numbers to the personal names, a method in vogue since the time of Manetho, an Egyptian priest of the third century BCE, who wrote a history of the Dynasties (of which only fragments have survived). For example, by his contemporaries, King Amenhotep III was named "Nebmaatre", his Throne name, or "Re is the Lord of Maat" and not "Amenhotep", or "Amun is pleased", the name given to the royal prince at birth (indicative of his family lineage).

The kings of old were named by their Horus name, suggestive of the overseeing qualities of the Falcon flying over the "Two Lands". After the theological changes brought about by the Old Kingdom Heliopolitans, the Throne name was preferred. The complexity of the titulary and the use of these names, tries to encompass the supernatural effectivity of the presence of the divine king on Earth. His "name of names" conveys his extraordinary nature in the order of things. The king is "divine" because he is an incarnated Akh, which is truly exceptional, and also the only living being possessing a "Ba" or principle of transformation (dynamism, change, movement). He is a human being with a personal name, but also a divine being, with a Ba becoming an Akh (soul becoming spirit). The nomen of the prince underlines his divine origination and vocation, but without the "royal Ka". Although in the titulary, the nomen is preceded by "the son of Re", he does not use this epithet as long as his father rules. Once crowned, the king is no longer called by his princely nomen name. Whenever used, it is preceded by "son of Re". As a king, only his Throne name is heard.

the complete titulary of Pharaoh Amenemhet III (ca. 1818 - 1773 BCE)
Middle Kingdom, XIIth (Theban) Dynasty :

Mighty Horus
Great of Might
He of the Two Ladies
Taking possession of the inheritance of the Two Lands
Horus of Gold
Permanent of Life
King of Upper and Lower Egypt
Maat of Re (Nimaatre).
Son of Re
Amun at the Head

► the theology of Heliopolis

In the theology of Heliopolis (the "On" of the Bible and today the Coptic suburb of Cairo), the divine king of Egypt, as the sole son of Re, ascends to the realm of Atum, the unique supreme deity (cf. Hornung, 1986). There, in the Sun's domain, the First Time, the king is ensured of an ongoing increase in spirituality (an efficiency due to the transformation of his Ba into an Akh, a spirit of light) and a union with the only true source of life and youth, projected near the Northern Circumpolar Stars ; he arrives there as an awesome god (cf. Cannibal Hymn). He sails on Re's Bark of Millions of Years, ascends with a ladder or flies as a bird, a grasshopper or sacred smoke ... He escapes the realm of Geb (the Earth) and the Duat of Osiris (the land of the dead).

The lightland of Re, fountain of rejuvenation and endless power, is a continuing cycle of renewal (in neheh-time), a perpetuum mobile at the core of (stellar) light. Here, the powerful Sa-energy of the universal Heka-field can be harvested. The latter is due to the autogenic activity of the sole creator-god Atum.

"Nun" : the unmanifested sameness of everything that is not light ;

"Atum" : unmanifested light diffused in Nun ;

"Atum-Kheprer" : the unmanifested, first occurrence of eternally recurrent light ;

"Re" : the manifest presence of Atum as light on the primordial "hill".

Grosso modo, this Heliopolitan ideology of the divine king was Solar, stellar & national, complementing the contextual, regional and variable Lunar spirituality of the common Egyptians. In the latter, shared by the majority of Egyptians, the role of Osiris was as crucial as the yearly inundation (cf. the agrarian, Sothic calendar) and the monthly cycle of fertility (cf. Isis & Osiris as Moon deities).

The four compass points and the Heliopolitan ritual.
WEST
dusk

Re at dusk and his entry into the Netherworld to regenerate. Thanks to the magic of Isis and Thoth, Osiris rose in the realm of the dead. When Pharaoh Horus brought his restored eye to his father, Osiris was pulled out of his slumber and became the king of the "beautiful West" ;
NORTH
nadir

During the twelve hours of the night of the Netherworld, Re travels (and countless Bas with him) on his Bark of Millions of Years. At midnight, the darkest point is reached. The stars shining in Osiris' Netherworld are in the upper sky, the abode of the Imperishable Stars, the spirits of Re, the pantheon, the sons of Horus and Pharaoh.
EAST
dawn

The rise of Re's rebirth at dawn, the place of light, rebirth and the Ka-statue (the false door). "Khepri", the end result of the nocturnal regeneration of the deities thanks to Re and his (re)union with Osiris - Horus as a child ;
SOUTH
zenith

The culmination of Re at noon, the heat of Seth, the place of birth of the Egyptian state, the inundation given by Osiris (Sothis), the slaying of Osiris, the mourning of Isis, the fierce battle between Horus and Seth and the justification of the former as the "avenger of his father" - Horus as king ;

For good reasons, Kemp (1989) and Lesko (1999) doubt whether, in the Predynastic and the historical periods, Heliopolitan henotheism was shared by the vast majority of unlettered Egyptians. The opposite seems to be true, associating Heliopolitanism with elitism and Osirian faith with populism.

"Kemp has suggested that Egyptian religion, as we know it from the formal, state-approved written texts, is an intellectually manipulated construction of the historic period, most likely of the middle or late Old Kingdom (...) to promote the divinity of the king of Egypt." - Lesko, 1999, p.31.

3. The ritual complex of King Unas

► the architecture

King Unas, Unis or Wenis (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE) was the last Pharaoh of the Vth Dynasty. His pyramid at Saqqara, called "Perfect are the Placed of Unas", is at the South-western corner of Djoser's enclosure and the smallest of all known Old Kingdom pyramids. The complex, a model for subsequent rulers, is almost diagionally opposed to the pyramid of Userkaf (ca. 2487 - 2480 BCE), the founder of this Heliopolitan Dynasty. Located between the enclosures of Djoser's pyramid and Sekhemkhet's, King Unas completed "a historical and architectural symmetry" (Lehner, 1997, p.154). The pyramid temple was erected directly over the substructure of the IInd Dynasty tomb assigned to King Hetepsekhemwy. The entrance of the pyramid proper, in the middle of its North side, opens at ground level in the pavement of the pyramid court (and not in the face of the pyramid). There are remnants of a small entrance chapel.

Plan of the Pyramid-complex of Unas (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE).
The Pyramid was 57.75 m², 43 m high, with a slope of 56°.
(after Lehner, 1997, p.155)

Like most Old Kingdom pyramids, the complex of Unas included a pyramid-complex, a causeway and a valley temple below, adjacent to a canal. Coming in by boat, preparatory rituals took place in the valley temple. One then proceeded uphill along a causeway, a long corridor with high walls and an insulating roof. The processional causeway to the pyramid of Unas is 750m long and equal to Pharaoh Khufu's. Most causeways have been destroyed, but that of King Unas at Saqqara is in a good condition and hand been restored in modern times. In its roof, a slit is left open, so a shaft of light illuminates the gallery of brightly painted reliefs, of which only fragments survive. A wide array of scenes once covered the wall : boats transporting granite palm columns, granite cornices or lintels, craftsmen working gold & copper, harvesting scenes (grain, figs & honey), deer hunted by greyhounds, archers, woman bearing offerings, battles with enemies, bearded "Aziatics", scenes of starving people, prisoners begging for mercy ... The causeway had two changes of angle, and South of the second bend lay two boat pits (each 45m long). By the New Kingdom, the complex had fallen into ruins. More than 1000 years after King Unas died, Khaemwaset, son of Ramessess II and high priest at Memphis, restored it, causing the famous name of Unas to live again ...

Plan of the Valley temple and Pyramid-complex of Unas
(after Lehner, 1997, p.154)

The pyramid-complex of Unas consisted of two parts separated by a long, transverse corridor : the foretemple had an entrance hall and a pillared court and the secret, inner temple included a hall with five statue niches, an antechamber (a high square room with in the middle a single granite pillar) and a sanctuary. A network of storerooms enclosed these elements. There the offerings and sacred objects for the royal ritual were kept. A temenos wall surrounded the complex. Today it is in ruin, and the pyramid reduced to a small heap of debris. The temple design itself is also lost.

Plan of the royal tomb underneath the pyramid of Unas.

If the pyramid-complex of Unas became the model for the later pyramid temples, then the purpose of certain parts of the temple may be inferred by studying later examples, like Pepi II's pyramid temple. In the latter, the transverse corridor was adorned with reliefs illustrating the Sed festival, the this-life ritual of regeneration of the divine king. The West end of the sanctuary abutted the East wall of the pyramid. This West wall against the pyramid was covered by a granite stela, serving as point of contact between the world of the living and the realm of the dead (the tomb below). At its foot an altar was set up and offerings were brought by priests.

Entering the pyramid from the North, it is necessary to bend over in order to move down the passage. The slope is deliberate and varies between 28° (Khufu), 26° (Khafre), 25° (Pepi II) or 22° in the case of the pyramid of Unas. The passage is oriented to specific northern stars. It slopes down to a corridor-chamber or vestibule, followed by the usual horizontal passage with three granite portcullis slabs. It is not possible to stand upright. Once this barrier passed, the first hieroglyphs appear, to be read from the inside of the pyramid out.

Plan of the royal tomb underneath the pyramid of Unas.

This entrance/exit corridor then opens into the antechamber, directly under the pyramid's centre axis. Standing up, one is surrounded on all sides by blue-tinted hieroglyphs. On the ceiling of the tomb, golden, pentagram-like stars were carved in relief on a sky-blue background. The North and South walls of the antechamber and the burial-chamber stop short of the ceiling, forming a kind of shelf below it (cf. left picture).

In the East of the antechamber (on the left hand side when entering the tomb), a doorway opens to the undecorated and uninscribed tomb-chapel with three recesses. The middle recess of this possible tomb-chapel lies lower but aligned with the false door of the sanctuary above. Egyptologists are not sure about the role of this triple chamber, the so-called "serdab" or "cellar".

© Piankoff, A. : The Pyramid of Unas, Princeton University Press - Princeton, 1968.

Burial-chamber - pyramid of King Unas.
Sarcophagus West, western half of North & South walls in alabaster.

On the West of the antechamber (at the right hand side when entering the tomb and precisely opposite the Ka-chapel), a passage-way leads to the burial-chamber. This has a black granite sarcophagus at its West end. In its immediate vincinity, there are no texts. Instead, we see a palace-façade design, with reed-mats and a wood-frame enclosure, an iconography derived from the royal mastaba tombs of the First Dynasty. Together with the icon of two lotus flowers back to back, these motifs recur, possibly because the lotus represents dawn, the emergence of light as Nefertem, the son of dawn. This would make the royal ritual a ceremony of life, merging the finite life of the king (both alife & deceased ?) with the infinite life, viewed as "djedet", everlasting (as Osiris, through darkness) and "neheh", eternal recurrent (as Re, through light).

"All of these considerations may lead us to conclude that in the highly sensitive space surrounding the sarcophagus, certain ritual events took place that were -in the pyramid of Unas- regarded as too delicate to reveal in words. But in later times, after the reign of King Teti, the immediate vincinity of the sarcophagus -especially the West wall- was freed from this stricture, and what was only implied by the symbolic designs in the Unas pyramid was now openly expressed in words. It is of for this reason that the pyramid of Unas contains so little textual reference to the Osirian re-memberment : It was considered too delicate a matter to put into words." - Naydler, 2005, p.164.

In the West, the place of regeneration, the mummy is in the total darkness of Osiris, allowing it to be reborn, ascending to illumination. The walls around the sarcophagus, on which these designs were carved, are made of polished alabaster, whereas all the other walls of the tomb are in Tura limestone. Alabaster is soft and translucent. It was referred to as "ankh", or "life" and had a milky color (milk was also called "ankh was", "the sap of life"). Sunk in the floor to the left (South) of the foot of the sarcophagus was the canopic chest, meant to protect the four "ritual" elements of the physical body, represented by the "sons of Horus", or lords of the four pillars of the physical world the deceased (or the high priest) has left. Taken together, these spiritual symbols learn us a lot suggesting the sacredness of this uninscribed area of the tomb, overtowered by the West Gable hieroglyphs, acting as magical protection devices, and initiating oration.

"One of the recurrent motifs is that of two lotus flowers with their stems but no leaves, represented back to back. This is a motif that occurs in many Old Kingdom tombs and on tomb artifacts, but especially on sarcophagi and around false doors. The significance of this is that the sarcophagus was a place of transition between the physical and spiritual worlds, while the falso door was a place of communication between realms. The lotus, whose manner of growth involves passing out of the water element in order to flower in the air, touched by the rays of the sun, was preeminently a symbols of breakthrough from one world to another."
Naydler, 2005, p.162.

► the eternalization of the divine kings

In the Old Kingdom, temples for the cult of the deities were usually made out of brick, a perishable material. The tombs of the divine kings were petrified, precisely because in this way he became the sole guardian of the magical keys of the kingdom : a "good" Nile. Only the king was the son of Re on Earth (cf. Heavenly Cow). The plateau being full, the kings of the Vth Dynasty, in order to erect their pyramid complex, had to leave Giza. In doing so, they lost their sight-line to Iunu (Heliopolis). Adding a Solar temple to the pyramid complex (cf. King Userkaf) compensated for the distance, assuring the royal cult was directly associated with the son of Re on Earth. These "Heliopolitan" Dynasties (Djoser - Unas ?), were exceptional & foundational.

The royal cult also served this-life purposes (of which the celebration of the Sed festival is an outstanding example, but there must have been more). Service to the father of the king, and creator of all deities, was also part of it. To represent the link with the Sun, a massive stone mound shaped like a squat obelisk was used. It stood at the back of an open court (the best example is King Neuserre's at Abu Ghurab, following the model of the pyramid complex, and situated riverside). As a result, both the royal cult and the cult of the deities (in casu Atum-Re) took place in temples made out of lasting materials. Later cult temples, even disconnected from the royal cult, remained stone edifices. Thanks to Re the deities endured.

© Piankoff, A. : The Pyramid of Unas, Princeton University Press - Princeton, 1968.

Antechamber - pyramid of King Unas
passage-way West to Burial-chamber, corridor North

The royal cult is origin and goal of the traditional theologies of the Old Kingdom (Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Memphite & Osirian). Without the king, there is no Maat and the created world returns to chaos, as light to darkness. The ideal of divine kingship, a unity of temporal and spiritual activities, is crucial to understand the "canon" of the Old Kingdom mentality and way of life. Especially in the IIIth, IVth & Vth Dynasties, a fairly unmixed, pristine strand of this culture is revealed.

The Unas text is a literary masterpiece summarizing the best theology of the moment. It is not a loose set of funerary spells, but a composition to be viewed as an integrated whole, albeit in early ante-rational thinking. No doubt, the intellectual elite produced concrete concepts, as in proto-rational cognition, but the culture at large was still steeped in myth and pre-rational pre-concepts, remaining very situational and with limited functionality.

"But one cannot help suspecting that a fundamental revision of the ritual coincided with the decision to immortalize these spells, previously handed down on perishable papyrus, by carving them in stone and thereby also endowing them with greater magical power. The decision on Wenis's part has provided for us the earliest collection of religious texts, not only of Egypt, but of all humankind." - Hornung, 1999, p.36.

The divine nature of the king is the core myth holding Ancient Egyptian society together. It explains royal magic (effectiveness), Great Speech and Maat, truth & justice. In the "ideal" of the Heliopolitan priests, the living Horus-king guarantees a "good Nile" and his united administration creates economic surplus. The Nile records his magic, while the "pacification" of the "two lands" is his control & power, the brilliance of his Great Mansion. Centuries before Unas, this state ideology was already fully in place (cf. the great building projects).

► the texts

King Unas was the first to include hieroglyphic inscriptions in his royal tomb, namely in its corridor, antechamber, passage-way & burial-chamber. The area around the sarcophagus and the serdab are left uninscribed. This coincides with a general increase of writing in general in the later Vth Dynasty. The Unas text, carved and filled with blue pigment, contains, in 228 of the 759 (Faulkner, 1969) known "utterances", the first historical account of the (Heliopolitan) religion of the Old Kingdom, in particular its royal cult. It precedes the textualization of the Vedas, reckoned at ca. 1900 BCE (Unas died ca. 2348 BCE).

"The Pyramid Texts reflect not only an Egyptian vision of the afterlife but also the entire background of Old Kingdom religious and social structures, and they incorporate an ancient worldview much different from that of more familiar cultures." - Allen, 2005, p.13.

Technically, the Pyramid Texts are a corpus consisting of "utterances" or "spells", so called because the expression "Dd mdw" ("Dd" = "word" ; "mdw" = "speech"), "to say" or "to say the words", i.e. the sacred words to be recited is, as a rule, atop most texts, allowing for a classification. The one introduced by Sethe (1910, with 714 utterances), is an inventory of all texts, irrespective of the kind of text or its placement in the tombs.