Pyramid of Nyuserre
The pyramid of Nyuserre is the funerary monument built for the Egyptian pharaoh Nyuserre Ini of the Fifth Dynasty in the mid-25th-century BC. During his reign, Nyuserre had the unfinished monuments of his father, Neferirkare Kakai, mother, Khentkaus II, and brother, Neferefre, completed, before commencing work on his personal pyramid complex. He chose a site in the Abusir necropolis between the complexes of Neferirkare and Sahure, which, restrictive in area and terrain, economized the costs of labour and material. Nyuserre was the last king to be entombed in the necropolis; his successors chose to be buried elsewhere. His monument encompasses a main pyramid, a mortuary temple, a valley temple on Abusir Lake, a causeway originally intended for Neferirkare's monument, and a cult pyramid.
The main pyramid had a stepped core built from rough-cut limestone and encased in fine Tura limestone. The casing was stripped down by stone thieves, leaving the core exposed to the elements and further human activity, which have reduced the once nearly tall pyramid to a mound of ruins, with a substructure that is dangerous to enter due to the risk of cave-ins. Adjoining the pyramid's east face is the mortuary temple with its unusual configuration and features. Replacing the usual T-shape plan, the mortuary temple has an L-shape; an alteration required due to the presence of mastabas to the east. It debuted the antichambre carrée, a square room with a single column, which became a standard feature of later monuments. It also contains an unexplained square platform which has led archaeologists to suggest that there may be a nearby obelisk pyramidion. This is unusual as obelisks were central features of Egyptian sun temples, but not of pyramid complexes. Finally, the north-east and south-east corners of the site have two structures which appear to have been pylon prototypes. These became staple features of temples and palaces. In the south-east corner of the complex, a separate enclosure hosts the cult pyramid – a small pyramid whose purpose remains unclear. A long causeway binds the mortuary and valley temples. These two were under construction for Neferirkare's monument, but were repurposed for that of Nyuserre. The causeway, which had been more than half completed when Neferirkare died, thus has a bend where it changes direction from Neferirkare's mortuary temple towards Nyuserre's.
Two other pyramid complexes have been found in the area. Known as Lepsius XXIV and Lepsius XXV, they may have belonged to the consorts of Nyuserre, particularly Queen Reputnub, or of Neferefre. Further north-west of the complex are mastabas built for the pharaoh's children. The tombs of the priests and officials associated with the king's funerary cult are located in the vicinity as well. Whereas the funerary cults of other kings died out in the First Intermediate Period, Nyuserre's may have survived this transitional period and into the Middle Kingdom, although this remains a contentious issue among Egyptologists.
Location and excavation
Nyuserre's pyramid is situated in the Abusir necropolis, between Saqqara and the Giza Plateau, in Lower Egypt. Abusir was given great import in the Fifth Dynasty after Userkaf, the first ruler, built his sun temple there and his successor, Sahure, inaugurated a royal necropolis with his funerary monument. Sahure's immediate successor and son, Neferirkare Kakai, became the second king to be entombed in the necropolis. Nyuserre's monument completed the tight architectural family unit that had grown and centered on the pyramid complex of his father, Neferirkare, alongside his mother's pyramid and brother's mastaba. He was the last king to be entombed in the Abusir necropolis.File:Borchardt.png|thumb|right|upright=1.2|A map of the Abusir necropolis, by L. Borchardt and O. Rubensohn, showing the locations, from north to south, of Sahure's, Nyuserre's, Neferirkare's, and Neferefre's unfinished pyramids|alt=Map of the Abusir necropolis
Unusually, Nyuserre's mortuary complex is not seated on the Abusir-Heliopolis axis. On taking the throne, he undertook to complete the three unfinished monuments of his father, Neferirkare; his mother, Khentkaus II; and his brother, Neferefre, so their cost fell onto him. To maintain the axis, Nyuserre's monument would have needed placement south-west of Neferefre's complex, deep into the desert and at least from the Nile valley. This would have been too expensive. Nyuserre may still have wanted to remain with his family and so chose to insert his complex in the space north-east of Neferirkare's complex, between its and Sahure's pyramids, with steep terrain to the north. This site constrained the construction area to a region around square, but allowed for maximum economy of the labour force and material resources. The Egyptologist Miroslav Verner succinctly describes Nyuserre's siting as "the best compromise that the circumstances would permit".
In 1838, John Shae Perring, an engineer working under Colonel Howard Vyse, cleared the entrances to the Sahure, Neferirkare and Nyuserre pyramids. Five years later, Karl Richard Lepsius, sponsored by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, explored the Abusir necropolis and catalogued Nyuserre's pyramid as XX. From 1902 to 1908, Ludwig Borchardt, working for the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft or German Oriental Society, resurveyed the Abusir pyramids and had their adjoining temples and causeways excavated. Borchardt's was the first, and only other, major expedition carried out at the Abusir necropolis, and contributed significantly to archaeological investigation at the site. His results at Nyuserre's pyramid, which he had excavated between January 1902 and April 1904, are published in Das Grabdenkmal des Königs Ne-User-Re. The Czech Institute of Egyptology has had a long-term excavation project at Abusir since the 1960s.
Mortuary complex
Layout
mortuary complexes typically consist of five main components: a valley temple; a causeway; a mortuary temple; a cult pyramid; and the main pyramid. Nyuserre's monument has all of these elements. Its main pyramid is constructed from seven steps of limestone, with a cult pyramid located near its south-east corner and an unusual L-shaped mortuary temple adjacent to its eastern face. The valley temple and causeway were originally intended for Neferirkare's monument, but were co-opted by Nyuserre.Main pyramid
Though Nyuserre reigned for around thirty years, his pyramid is smaller than Neferirkare's and more comparable in size to Sahure's. Mindful of the cost to his family, he commissioned his pyramid to lie in the only available free space not in the desert. It is, therefore, positioned against the north wall of Neferirkare's mortuary temple and with the ground to the north falling steeply towards Sahure's monument. It was further hemmed in by a group of mastabas to the east that had been built during Sahure's reign. This combination of factors may have constricted the size of Nyuserre's pyramid.The pyramid comprises seven ascending steps, anchored on cornerstones. This was encased with fine white Tura limestone which most likely came from limestone quarries west of the village of Abusir, giving it a smooth-sided finish. On completion, it had a base length of sloping inwards at approximately 52° resulting in a summit height of around and a total volume of approximately.
Nyuserre's pyramid, as with each of Abusir pyramids, was constructed in a drastically different manner to those of preceding dynasties. Its outer faces were framed using large – at Neferefre's unfinished pyramid the single step contained blocks up to by by large – roughly dressed grey limestone blocks well-joined with mortar. The inner chambers were similarly framed, but using significantly smaller blocks. The core of the pyramid, between the two frames, was then packed with a rubble fill of limestone chips, pottery shards, and sand, with clay mortaring. This method, while less time and resource consuming, was careless and unstable, and meant that only the outer casing was constructed using high quality limestone.
The chambers and mortuary temples of the Abusir pyramids were ransacked during the unrest of the First Intermediate Period, while the dismantling of the pyramids themselves took place during the New Kingdom. Once the limestone casing of the pyramid was removed – for reuse in lime production – the core was exposed to further human destruction and natural erosion which has left it as a ruinous, formless mound. Nyuserre's monument underwent significant stone looting during the New Kingdom, during the Late Period between the Twenty-Sixth and Twenty-Seventh Dynasties, and again during the Roman era.
The pyramid is surrounded by open courtyards paved with limestone blocks thick, while the bricks layers can be up to thick. Unusually, the south wing of the courtyard is significantly narrower than the north wing. The enclosure wall of the pyramid courtyard was about high.
Substructure
The substructure of the pyramid mimic the basic design adopted by earlier Fifth Dynasty kings. It is accessed by a north–south downwards-sloping corridor whose entrance is located on the north face of the pyramid. The corridor was lined with fine white limestone, reinforced with pink granite at both ends and follows an irregular path. It is inclined up to the vestibule, where two or three large granite blocks acted as a portcullis blocking the passage when lowered. Immediately behind, the corridor deflects to the east and is declined by about 5°. It then terminates at the antechamber – connected to the burial chamber – almost directly underneath the pyramid's summit. Damage to the interior structure caused by stone thieves makes accurate reconstruction of its architecture nigh on impossible.The burial- and ante- chambers and access corridor were dug out of the ground and then covered, rather than being constructed through a tunnel. The ceiling of the chambers were formed by three gabled layers of limestone beams, which disperse the weight from the superstructure onto either side of the passageway preventing collapse. Each stone in this structure was about in size – averaging at long, thick, and wide – and weighed. Between each layer of blocks, limestone fragments had been used to create a filling which helped shift the weight of the structure on top of it, particularly in the event of earthquakes. This was considered to be the optimal method of roof construction at the time. Stone thieves have plundered the underground chambers of much of its high-quality limestone considerably weakening the structure and making it dangerous to enter. Borchardt was unable to find any fragments of interior decoration, the sarcophagus or other burial equipment in the debris-filled chambers of the substructure, much of which was rendered inaccessible by the rubble. The Abusir pyramids were entered for the last time at the end of the 1960s by Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi, who refrained from speaking while working for fear that even the slightest vibration could cause a cave-in.