When I was in Egypt earlier this year I wanted to visit and take photos inside Unas's Pyramid. I knew that it was now sealed so I wasn't optimistic but was lucky as a contact at Saqqara was able to get me inside. He then offered me the chance to go underneath the Step Pyramid via the Saite Period Gallery which was an unexpected and very welcome opportunity.



I've coloured the route in red on the following diagram (taken from Lauer's classic work on the Step Pyramid):



Sometime during the Saite Period in the 26th Dynasty a tunnel was cut into the Step Pyramid from the centre of the South Face. The tunnel was supported with a odd collection of re-used pillars, many of which have now split. Eventually the excavators reached the massive central shaft which is cut 80 feet down into the ground underneath the Pyramid. It was originally filled with rubble, all of which they removed. Zoser's original burial chamber was below but it was probably already robbed by another tunnel that had been driven in from the North much earlier.

With astonishing foolhardiness the excavators also cut upwards into the Pyramid itself. Eventually they abandoned the work and left a dome shaped ceiling over the shaft. They shored it up with some timbers and there it has stayed ever since poised over the shaft with all the weight of the pyramid above it.

It's an awesome feeling peering cautiously over the edge of the shaft and then up at the suspended rubble above knowing that 200 feet of Pyramid are overhead. My flash was pathetically inadequate to light the ceiling or, particularly, the shaft so the photos are not brilliant .

Here's the entrance:



The passage cut through the pyramid with the collection of re-used pillars:







The shaft and the ceiling with original timbers:









Jon

www.egyptarchive.co.uk