The Development of the Royal Tomb | Images and Education
The Development of the Royal Tomb
The Belief in Afterlife and the Origins of the Egyptian Tomb
The ancient Egyptian's belief in life after death was a driving force that led him to care for his final resting place, the tomb, which is referred to in ancient Egyptian texts as per-djet, meaning "the house of eternity." The Egyptian occupied himself during his temporary earthly life with preparations for his eternal, everlasting life. For this reason his tombs were built as solid, fortified structures capable of withstanding the ravages of time, and their walls were filled with every activity he practised in this world, together with scenes expressing the next world and his relationship with the gods and goddesses. The development of the royal tomb is an expression of religious thought and of a practical concern intended to preserve the body that the tomb contained.
To speak of the development of the royal tomb means that the First Dynasty must be taken as the starting point, when the two lands of Egypt were united and became a single kingdom, whose foundations were laid by a group of rulers.
When the traditions of kingship became established, many other matters also had to be settled, among them the concept of the royal tomb.
Before Egypt began its written history in the First Dynasty, and during the Neolithic period, Egyptian tombs consisted of oval or rectangular pits inside or outside the dwellings. Over time the walls of some of these pits were reinforced with tree branches or matting and sometimes lined with mud; their roofs were also covered with tree branches. Later they came to be built of mud brick and contained a group of chambers. The surface of the ground above the tomb was marked with a few stones. The body of the deceased was sometimes wrapped in matting and placed in a contracted position, perhaps expressing the position of the foetus in its mother's womb (as if it were being reborn). Pottery vessels and certain everyday objects were placed beside the deceased.
The Mastaba: The Royal Tomb of the First Dynasty
With the beginning of the First Dynasty the royal tomb took the form of the mastaba. This may refer to the rectangular structure that stands in front of some houses in the Egyptian countryside and is used for sitting. Perhaps the workmen who uncovered these tombs saw that they resembled the village mastaba in shape. The term "mastaba" refers to the superstructure above ground level, which consists of a rectangular building whose walls are broader at the base and taper as they rise.
The exterior surfaces of this structure contain recesses and projections known conventionally as "palace façade" or "niched" decoration. It is believed that their purpose was to create the necessary balance for the long walls, as if they were supporting pillars, and perhaps also to create a balance between shadow and light. The subterranean part is reached through an opening in the floor of the mastaba that leads to a shaft, which in turn leads to a group of chambers, one of which was allocated for burial and the others for offerings and funerary furniture.
Although the kings of the First Dynasty came from the nome of This (perhaps from El-Birba, centre of Girga–Sohag), they chose their capital in a central location in Egypt and called it Ineb-hedj, meaning "the White Wall," later known as Memphis and then Mit Rahina, the name it still retains (Mit Rahina, centre of El-Badrashein, Giza Governorate). Some of them chose to build their tombs in one of the cemeteries of the capital Memphis, namely the cemetery of Saqqara, and others at Abydos, the centre of the cult of the god Osiris and the place from which the rulers of this dynasty had originally come, as already mentioned.
Debate has arisen among Egyptologists concerning the actual cemetery in which the kings of the First Dynasty and some of the kings of the Second Dynasty were buried. Recent excavations by the German expedition at Umm el-Qa'ab (Abydos) suggest that Abydos was the actual place of burial, while Saqqara may have been a symbolic burial place or its tombs may have belonged to high officials. Nevertheless, one must take into account – if burial took place at Abydos – that the kings of the First Dynasty chose a cemetery hundreds of kilometres away from the capital Memphis, something not encountered throughout ancient Egyptian history in the spatial relationship between capital and cemetery, which normally did not exceed a few kilometres.
In any case, the royal mastaba, whether at Abydos, Saqqara, Naqada or elsewhere, contained a relatively large chamber located below ground level (the burial chamber), surrounded by a group of smaller chambers that were used for storing offerings and funerary furniture. With regard to the entrance leading to the burial chamber, access was originally through the roof; beginning with the reign of King Den (First Dynasty) an entrance appeared that led via a descending staircase to the burial chamber and was roofed with wood.
In front of the superstructure stood two stelae (funerary stelae) of stone bearing the name of the tomb owner; they became a marker above ground level for the presentation of offerings.
One usually asks: does the method by which the mastabas were constructed express purely architectural thought, or does it also contain religious thought? It can be said that if the mastaba is regarded as a step on the road towards the complete pyramidal form of the royal tomb, and if the pyramid represents the primeval mound or the rays of the sun, then the tomb had to contain something of this religious thought. This is clearly visible in the broadening of the mastaba at the base and its narrowing as it rises, which represents a step in the direction of the pyramidal form.
The mastaba represents one of the types of ancient Egyptian tombs, which may be a pit, a mastaba, a stepped mastaba, a pyramid, or a rock-cut tomb; all these types fall under the umbrella of the word "tomb." The tomb is a unit within the cemetery that the Greeks called "necropolis," meaning "city of the dead," in contrast to the city of the living. In this connection one can link the cities of the living and the dead with one of the designations given to Egypt (idbwy), meaning "the two banks," one of which was for the dead (west or east) and the other for the living. The ancient Egyptian was careful to locate his tombs in dry desert or mountainous soil in order to preserve the bodies they contained from decay caused by a damp environment.
Although the mastaba continued as a type for private tombs throughout the Old Kingdom, it ceased to be used for kings (with the exception of the Mastabat Fara'un of King Shepseskaf of the 4th Dynasty and the mastaba of Queen Khentkawes of the 4th Dynasty). The royal tomb then took the next step: the stepped mastaba, which appeared for the first time in the reign of King Djoser, the most important king of the 3rd Dynasty.
The Stepped Mastaba and the Architectural Revolution of King Djoser
At the beginning of this dynasty Egyptian architectural thought witnessed a tremendous leap that consisted of two things:
1. The extensive use of stone in Djoser's complex, after its use in the mastabas of the First and Second Dynasties had been limited to the tomb entrance, the false door and the offering table.
2. The change in the design of the tomb from a mastaba to a stepped mastaba (conventionally called the Step Pyramid). This change was invented and adopted by Imhotep, the architect of King Djoser and a physician of many talents who was later deified and identified by the Greeks with their god of medicine, Asclepius.
The architecture of Djoser's stepped mastaba and its components expressed a new architectural thought, a firm religious belief, a stable political and administrative system, and experience acquired over long years of work in the construction of mastabas. It also expressed a splendid imitation of the vegetal architecture that had arisen from the original Egyptian environment, such as bundles of papyrus, palm trunks, wooden door leaves, vegetal fences and the like.
The stepped mastaba was built in six stages through lateral additions, and not, as some imagine, by stacking six mastabas one on top of the other. Work began on the lower part, which consists of a shaft reaching a depth of approximately 28 metres that leads to a burial chamber and a group of rock-cut corridors. Three of these lead to magazines for storing funerary furniture, while the fourth leads to four chambers whose walls were covered with compositions of blue faience tiles in the form of matting. One of the walls contains a relief representing King Djoser performing certain rituals of the Sed festival.
As for the stages through which the stepped mastaba passed: it began as a stepped mastaba about four metres high, each of its four sides measuring approximately 63 m. In a subsequent stage three metres were added to the sides of the mastaba so that it retained a square shape.
The third addition was made on the east side, giving the mastaba a rectangular shape. In the fourth stage additions were made on every side so that the structure appeared as a stepped mastaba reaching a height of approximately 43 m.
In the fifth stage additions were made on the north and west sides, and in the sixth and final stage additions were made on every side, bringing the height of the stepped mastaba to about 60 metres.
Attached to the stepped mastaba was a group of architectural elements: the enclosure wall, the entrance colonnade, the Sed-festival court, the northern and southern houses (pavilions), the structure located to the north of the stepped mastaba, the statue serdab, and the southern tomb.
The third stage in the development of the royal tomb also took place at Saqqara in the reign of Djoser's successor (his son King Sekhemkhet), to the south-west of his father's complex. The stepped mastaba of King Sekhemkhet, known as the "Buried Pyramid," was supposed to represent a step on the road towards the complete pyramidal form of the tomb, although some believe that its plan indicates that it was intended to consist of seven additions. Apart from that, Sekhemkhet's complex largely resembles that of his father.
The fourth attempt took place at Zawiyet el-Aryan (located south of Giza and north of Abusir), but it too remained within the framework of the stepped mastaba; had it been completed the number of its additions would have been between six and seven.
Zawiyet el-Aryan contains two stepped mastabas: one known as the "Layer Pyramid," attributed to King Khaba, and the other known as the "Unfinished Pyramid," attributed to King Nebka. It appears that the first stepped mastaba (attributed to Khaba) received more additions than previous attempts. As for the second attempt (the stepped mastaba of King Nebka), although it was not completed, studies carried out by the excavators confirmed a similarity between this stepped mastaba and that of King Djoser.
Other attempts to bring the tomb to its complete pyramidal form were made in the regions of Seila (on the eastern edge of the Fayum), Zawiyet el-Amwat (south of Minya), and el-Kula (near el-Kab, north of Edfu), but they added nothing to the attempts previously made.
The Path to the True Pyramid: From Meidum to Dahshur
The next stage took place at Meidum (centre of El-Wasta, Beni Suef Governorate), south of Dahshur. This pyramid, known as the "Collapsed Pyramid" or "Unfinished Pyramid," is attributed to King Huni, the last king of the 3rd Dynasty, who died before he could complete it; it was finished by King Sneferu, founder of the 4th Dynasty.
The Meidum pyramid represents an important stage in the development of the royal tomb: the area of its base was increased by about one-third over that of Djoser's stepped mastaba, and the lateral additions reached eight, of which only four remain. Its height reached approximately 67 m.
The architect took an important step in this pyramid by casing the additions with limestone so that the structure would appear as a complete pyramid. This casing later fell away with the passage of time, which is why it is called the "Collapsed Pyramid."
Huni's pyramid is distinguished by the fact that it contains the earliest traditional pyramid complex, consisting of the pyramid, the mortuary temple, the valley temple, and the causeway linking them.
The region of Dahshur, located south of Saqqara, witnessed an important step towards the complete pyramidal form in the pyramid built in the reign of King Sneferu (first king of the 4th Dynasty), known as the Bent Pyramid, the Rhomboidal Pyramid or the Blunted Pyramid. The architect, after the long previous experiments, aimed to bring the tomb to the complete pyramidal form. It is clear that he began with an angle which (after work had progressed some way) proved to lead the pyramid to an excessive height that the foundations of the structure might not be able to bear because of the enormous weight of the stones, and which might affect the ceilings of the chambers and corridors inside the pyramid. It therefore became necessary to change the angle of construction in order to ensure the safety of the structure; hence the pyramid began bent, as if it were a mastaba surmounted by a small pyramid. Its height reached approximately 100 metres.
The Egyptian architect did not surrender to the frustration of failing to achieve the complete pyramidal form. He chose a site about 2 km north of the southern (Bent) pyramid. This time the angle of construction was precise, so that Sneferu's northern pyramid became the first true pyramid in the history of pyramid architecture in Egypt.
This pyramid is also known as the Red Pyramid, a reference to the reddish colour of its stones, which were quarried from the Red Mountain quarries at Abbasiya. Its height reached about 99 m.
The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Old Kingdom
King Khufu (who succeeded his father Sneferu) chose the Giza plateau to build his pyramid and its complex. The pyramid's architect, Hemiunu, benefited from the experiments of his predecessors and brought the Great Pyramid to an architectural and engineering achievement that no structure had reached before or since, in terms of the precision of the angles, the skill of the builders, the massiveness and height of the structure, the quantity of stone used, the excellence of the design of the internal chambers and corridors, the method of managing such a huge project, the strength of the Egyptian economy, and the depth of the belief that motivated those who took part in building the pyramid to create it for their deified king. The circle of creativity expanded: the pyramid was built on an area of approximately 13 feddans and reached a height of 146 metres (now 138 m because of erosion). Tens of thousands of workmen took part in its construction; the pyramid contains several million stone blocks, three burial chambers, an entrance in its northern face, and two corridors, the larger of which (the Grand Gallery), about 47 metres long, is a masterpiece of architecture.
Despite the massiveness of the pyramid and the beauty of its architecture, it is devoid of reliefs, scenes or decorative elements, with the exception of a text (a graffito) written in a rapid hand (abbreviated hieroglyphs) in the third of the relieving chambers that overlie the main burial chamber in which the king was interred. The text refers to the seventeenth year of the reign of King Khufu.
The circle of the pyramid complex expanded to include (in addition to the pyramid, the mortuary temple, the valley temple and the causeway) a subsidiary pyramid (perhaps a cult pyramid), the boats, the harbour, the pyramid town, the workmen's village, and the enclosure wall of the pyramid complex.
The idea of the pyramidal form of the tomb continued under the kings Djedefre, Khafre and Menkaure. King Shepseskaf, however, abandoned the pyramidal form and built his tomb in the shape of a sarcophagus; it is known as the Mastabat Fara'un at South Saqqara. Queen Khentkawes did the same, building her tomb also in the shape of a sarcophagus on the Giza plateau.
The idea of pyramids continued in the 5th Dynasty in the regions of Abusir, Saqqara and Dahshur, although they were poorer in construction compared with the pyramids of the 4th-Dynasty kings.
Towards the end of the 5th Dynasty, in the reign of King Unas, the hieroglyphic texts known as the Pyramid Texts were recorded for the first time in Egyptian pyramids (in the internal chambers). The pyramids of the 6th Dynasty at Saqqara continued to be poor in construction but rich in Pyramid Texts.
With the fall of the Old Kingdom at the end of the 6th Dynasty, Egypt passed through a period of weakness in all aspects of Egyptian civilisation. It soon recovered its strength and ability to shake off the period of collapse and begin a new period of creativity: the Middle Kingdom (11th and 12th Dynasties).
The Middle Kingdom: Continuation and Change
The architects of King Mentuhotep Nebhepetre (who reunited the two lands of Egypt and stood at the head of the kings of the 11th Dynasty and the Middle Kingdom, choosing Thebes as his capital) produced a new design that combined the temple and the tomb on a single platform, one above the other. They executed it in the region of Deir el-Bahari, which also contains the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. In the heart of the temple platform they built a pyramid to contain the remains of their king; this architectural composition appeared unique in Egyptian architecture.
Power then passed to the kings of the 12th Dynasty (who bore the names Amenemhat and Senwosret). They chose their capital in the Fayum region (anciently Itj-tawy, meaning "Seizer of the Two Lands"), now known as el-Lisht, Hawara, el-Lahun and Dahshur, where they built their pyramids. Their pyramids were small in size, built of mud brick, sometimes cased with limestone, and surmounted by stone pyramidions; at the same time they were rich in their internal corridors and burial chambers.
Egypt then passed through another period of collapse that oscillated between internal strife and foreign occupation (the Hyksos). Egypt rose from its slumber, rid itself of the yoke of occupation, and learned the lesson that there can be no continuity in cultural creativity except under a state that is strong politically, administratively, militarily and economically.
The New Kingdom: The Valley of the Kings
The New Kingdom (18th–20th Dynasties), or the Age of Empire, began. Egypt advanced both internally and externally: it flourished at home and expanded abroad. The royal tomb entered a completely new phase that differed entirely from the preceding stages and expressed a new religious and practical thought.
The kings of the New Kingdom and the architects of this period realised that the tombs of their predecessors (whether mastabas, stepped mastabas or pyramids) had been subjected to plundering: all of them had been opened and robbed of their contents and of the bodies of their owners, so that the opportunity for eternal life in the next world had been lost. They also realised that although the pyramids were linked with the primeval mound (on which creation had begun) and with the sun god (whom they imagined they could join in the afterlife through a pyramidal form resembling the sun's rays), on the other hand they had failed to keep their bodies safe from the hands of the desecrators. Practical considerations therefore prevailed in their thinking, and they arrived at a new solution that would still maintain their connection with the sun god.
This practical dimension consisted of the following:
1. Abandonment of the pyramidal form of the tomb. Despite its massiveness and the security of its internal corridors and chambers, it had been conspicuous to those whose souls prompted them to desecrate the tombs of their ancestors, and they had desecrated them as they pleased.
2. Choice of a desolate mountainous site far from all manifestations of life.
3. Separation of the tomb from the temple, because the connection determined the location of the tomb and thus made the task easier for thieves. They therefore chose to cut their tombs in the cliffs of the mountains of western Thebes in the Valley of the Kings, and those of their families in the Valley of the Queens.
Cutting the tombs in the mountain realised their hopes of placing their remains in a region characterised by dryness, and also made it easy to deceive thieves by piling natural stones over the entrance of the tomb that extended deep into the mountain, so that the mountain appeared as if the hand of man had never touched it.
As for the desire to express their worship of the sun god, this was achieved by recording a hymn to the sun in most cases on the walls of the first corridor of the tomb immediately after the entrance, thereby maintaining a balance between the urgent necessity of protecting the mummy in order to guarantee eternity in the next world and the continuation of their relationship in the afterlife with the sun god.
The plans of the royal tombs of the New Kingdom (beginning with the reign of Thutmose I, the first to cut a tomb in the Valley of the Kings) varied between a tomb with a single axis, or with two parallel axes that meet at a point, or that form a right angle with each other, or with three axes, each forming a right angle with the next.
Despite all the security measures taken by the Egyptians to protect their tombs, all of them were robbed with the exception of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, which escaped the hands of the thieves and was preserved for us by fate, clearly revealing how rich the tombs of the kings and queens were in every kind of funerary furniture that expresses a distinctive artistic creativity and the wealth that Egypt enjoyed in the New Kingdom.
Summary of the Development of the Royal Tomb
| Period / Dynasty | Tomb Type | Key Examples and Features |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-Dynastic (Neolithic) | Oval or rectangular pits | Pits inside or outside dwellings, reinforced with branches or matting, later mud brick; contracted body position; pottery vessels placed beside the deceased. |
| First Dynasty | Mastaba | Rectangular superstructure with "palace façade" decoration; subterranean chambers accessed via shaft; funerary stelae at entrance; tombs at Abydos and Saqqara. |
| Third Dynasty (King Djoser) | Stepped Mastaba (Step Pyramid) | Designed by Imhotep at Saqqara; built in six stages through lateral additions; extensive use of stone; height approximately 60 metres; includes enclosure wall, Sed-festival court, serdab, and southern tomb. |
| Third–Fourth Dynasty (Huni–Sneferu) | Transition to True Pyramid | Meidum ("Collapsed Pyramid"): eight lateral additions, cased with limestone, height approximately 67 m. Dahshur: Bent Pyramid (angle changed mid-construction, height approximately 100 m) and Red Pyramid (first true pyramid, height approximately 99 m). |
| Fourth Dynasty (Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure) | True Pyramid | Giza plateau; Great Pyramid of Khufu (height 146 m, now 138 m); Grand Gallery; complex includes mortuary temple, valley temple, causeway, subsidiary pyramid, boats, and enclosure wall. |
| Fifth–Sixth Dynasties | Pyramids (poorer construction) | Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur; Pyramid Texts first recorded in the reign of King Unas (end of 5th Dynasty); 6th Dynasty pyramids rich in Pyramid Texts. |
| Middle Kingdom (11th–12th Dynasties) | Pyramids and temple-tomb combinations | Mentuhotep Nebhepetre: unique platform temple with pyramid at Deir el-Bahari. 12th Dynasty: small mud-brick pyramids at Lisht, Hawara, Lahun, Dahshur; cased with limestone and surmounted by stone pyramidions. |
| New Kingdom (18th–20th Dynasties) | Rock-cut tombs | Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, western Thebes; hidden entrances concealed by natural stones; separation of tomb from temple; sun hymns on corridor walls; varied axial plans. |
Module Key Takeaways
- Religious and Practical Dualism: The development of the royal tomb reflects a continuous interplay between deeply held religious beliefs in the afterlife and practical concerns for preserving the body and its funerary contents from both natural decay and human desecration.
- Architectural Evolution: The royal tomb evolved through distinct stages — from simple pits to mastabas, stepped mastabas, true pyramids, and finally hidden rock-cut tombs — each stage building upon the technical experience and religious concepts of its predecessors.
- The New Kingdom Shift: The decisive move from conspicuous pyramids to concealed rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings was driven by the failure of earlier tomb types to protect the royal mummy, demonstrating that practical security ultimately prevailed over monumental visibility while still preserving the king's connection with the sun god through textual programmes.