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A causeway links Unas's mortuary temple to his valley
temple and must have been very impressive in its time. It was
excavated by Selim Hassan in 1937 and is now the best surviving
pyramid causeway. It consisted of a covered passageway, 720,
long, its interior surfaces decorated with high quality reliefs
depicting a range of colourful scenes. The walls were lit by a slit
in the roof of the causeway which ran along the whole of its
length. The theme of decoration on the causeway walls
progresses from the living world in the east to the land of the
dead in the west. It depicts scenes such as the transportation of
stone from Aswan, hunting scenes (including giraffes, lions and
leopards), agriculture, metalworking and battle scenes, as well ad
royal rituals and vignettes from heb-sed ceremonies. On haunting
representation on the lower part of the causeway was thought to
be unique for the time, and portrayed impoverished emaciated
foreigners (probably Bedu tribes) who were living a life of
famine and hardship. Unfortunately parts of this scene were
missing and the explanation has been lost, but in recent years a
similar scene was found on older blocks from Sahure's causeway.
The scene appears to show the realities and hardships in Old
Kingdom Egypt and may also be connected with the "famine
stela" on Sehel Island at Aswan, which supposedly documents a
7-year famine during the reign of king Djoser.

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