Page 55 - اثار مصر الفرعونية2

year). The clearance of the burial chamber in January 1881 also
revealed the remains of the owner the oldest known royal
mummy.

The underground chambers of Merenre's pyramid are
similar to those in his father's monuments. The entrance is in the
north wall, where cornerstones of an entrance chapel have been
found. A sloping passage led to a small vestibule and a horizontal
corridor blocked by three grantite portcullis slabs. Robbers had
entered the pyramid in antiquity by tunnelling around the stone
slabs, and the Brugsch brothers also entered by this route. The
corridor led to an antechamber with a niched statue chamber on
the east and the vaulted burial chamber on the west. The ceiling
of the burial chamber was decorated with white stars on a black
background. The west wall contained a colourful relief of the
reed-hut motif and in the debris, many fragments of Pyramid
texts were found which are thought to have differed little to Pepy
I's texts. Merenre's greywacke sarcophagus was found against the
west wall of the burial chamber, in good condition and with its
lid complete but pushed back. The mummy was removed to
Cairo Egyptian Museum and proclaimed by Maspero to be that
of a young man, still wearing his hair in a 'sidelock of youth. The
mummy was for many years thought to be an intrusive burial,
probably from the New-Kingdom because of the style of the
linen wrappings, but now Egyptologists consider it to be

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