Page 32 - اثار مصر الفرعونية2

Pyramid and Mortuary Temple of Unas:

Unas (Wenis) reigned at the end of Dynasty V, for a period
of up to 30 years. His pyramid at Saqqara, although the smallest
of the Old Kingdom pyramids, reflects his long reign in the
intricately carved hieroglyphic decoration of the inner chambers
– the earliest known example of the Pyramid Texts. Before his
time (with the exception of Djoser's monuments) all of the
known pyramids had been undecorated.

The pyramid itself looks unremarkable, little more than a
large heap of rubble which is dwarfed by its older neighbour, the
Step Pyramid of Djoser. The structure was first investigated by
Gaston Maspero in 1881 who had been collating a corpus of texts
found in other Dynasty V and VI pyramids and he was the first to
enter Unas's subterranean chambers. The pyramid and part of the
mortuary temple was excavated by Alexandre Barsanti on behalf
of Maspero at the turn of the 20th century, and investigation of
the mortuary temple and causeway was later continued by Cecil
Firth, Jean-Philippe Laure and others up to the present time.

The structure's core of rough limestone blocks diminished in
size towards the top of its six Layers and had a casing of blocks
of fine white limestone (now only remaining on the lowest
levels).

32