Serapeum
Tuthmosis, high priest of Ptah and eldest son of Amenhotep III, and older brother of Amenhotep IV/Akhnaton, is the first to declare that he had the official task of reforming the worship of the god.
Another crown prince, Ramesses II’s son this time, Chaemwashet, follows suit, explicitly stating that he did extensive work for his father in the temple of Apis.
These restorations or reconstructions of worship and temple of the god are accompanied by the erection of a new necropolis at Saqqara, the development of which will not cease to occupy successive reigns.
The pharaohs paid special attention to honoring the god during his lifetime and ensuring the continuity of his funerary cult. Prince Chaemwaset, son of King Ramses II, had the first corridors built in the Serapeum sanctuary.
The Serapeum served as the burial place for the mummies of the sacred Apis bulls. Additionally, the prince, who was in favor, had his own grave built. Auguste Mariette, the French Egyptologist, discovered both the Serapeum with its intact burial of an Apis bull and the tomb of Chaemwaset.
The Serapeum of Saqqara is a serapeum northwest of the Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara,
a necropolis near Memphis in Lower Egypt. It was a cemetery of Apis bulls,
sacred bulls that were incarnations of the ancient Egyptian god Ptah. It was accepted
that the bulls became immortal after death as Osiris Apis. The oldest burials at this site date from the time of Amenhotep III.
In Memphis, the singular syncretism of the Egyptians operated a union between the major deities of the city and its necropolis.
So Ptah, patron god of the ancient capital, was closely associated with the god Sokar,
deity of the region’s necropolis, himself identified with the god of the dead Osiris.
Apis, who was the herald of Ptah, one of his living hypostases, thus became the representative of
this divine association and assured the connection between the world of the living and that of
the dead by his death becoming Osiris-Apis.
We understand from that moment on the importance of his sect first in the eyes of the Memphites and then of all Egypt.
His temple has been the scene of national ceremonies since his official accession to the throne when he
was revealed to men at his funeral at the Serapeum of Sakkara. The latter actually formed
the burial place of so many incarnations of the gods that its reputation far exceeded that of other shrines
During his father’s reign, Chaemweset, a son of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC), worked
From the Nineteenth Dynasty, as administrator and ordered a tunnel to be dug on it
the location and a catacomb of galleries – now known as “The Lesser Vaults” – designed with side rooms
to contain the sarcophagi for the mummified remains of the bulls.
But all but one of the rooms have been looted and everything has been taken except the stelae.
A second gallery of chambers, Sheshonq I commanded his high priest of Ptah, Chedsunefertum,
and to create a second gallery of rooms. Which is now known as The Greater Vaults
This was excavated again under Psamtik I (664-610 BC) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty and later expanded to
about 350 m long, 5 m high and 3 m wide by the Ptolemaic dynasty together with a long parallel service tunnel.
These galleries contain granite and diorite sarcophagi weighing up to 70 tons each. But these enormous sarcophagi were all found empty. And not all sarcophagi have reached their final location and remain stuck in the corridor.
The long road leading to the site, flanked by 600 sphinxes, was probably built under Nectanebo I, the founder of the Thirtieth Dynasty
The Apis sanctuary was discovered by Auguste Mariette, who had gone to Egypt for manuscripts
of Coptic script, but later he grew interested in the remains of the Saqqara necropolis.
In 1850, Mariette found the head of a sphinx poking out of the shifting desert dunes, cleared the sand and followed the road.
After using explosives to remove rocks blocking access to the catacombs,
he excavated most of the complex. Unfortunately, his notes from the excavation have been lost,
which has complicated the use of these tombs in establishing an Egyptian chronology.
Mariette found one undisturbed burial, which is now in the Agricultural Museum in Cairo. The other 24 sarcophagi of the bulls had been robbed.
In addition to the enormous sarcophagi, there was also a wall in which stelae were made in honor of the deceased Apis bulls.
They were, as it were, gravestones. Thanks to these stelae, one could tell the stories of the writers of classical antiquity
compare and know a little more about the life of the sacred bull and the rites that surrounded him.
The cult of Apis and its temple enjoyed astonishing prosperity and longevity.
Going beyond the borders of Egypt, many statues were dedicated to him in the shrines of
the Egyptian gods developing in the major cities of Greece Associated with
Sarapis, he first entered Italy through the large city opponents of the Greeks, and was eventually honored
in the Roman cities that quickly adopted these Eastern cults.
A gold death mask of Prince Chaemwaset, who had his grave here, has been found.
This is very special because there are only 2 known death masks in Egypt, of which this is one.
All masks in ancient Egypt are mummy masks placed over the mummy. However, a death mask is applied directly to the face of the deceased.
