The pyramid of Pepi I () is the funerary monument built for the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty in the 24th or 23rd century BC. The complex lent its name to the ancient capital city of Egypt, Memphis. As in the pyramids of his predecessors, Pepi I's substructure was filled with vertical columns of hieroglyphic texts: Pyramid Texts. It was in Pepi I's pyramid that these texts were initially discovered in 1880 by Gaston Maspero, though they originated in the pyramid of Unas. The corpus of Pepi I's texts is also the largest from the Old Kingdom, comprising 2,263 columns and lines of hieroglyphs.
Pepi I sited his pyramid complex in South Saqqara, approximately north of Djedkare Isesi's pyramid. It is unclear why he relocated to South Saqqara, but perhaps he had moved the royal palace south and away from the city, or no viable sites remained in North and Central Saqqara after Teti built his pyramid there. Pepi I entrusted one of his wives, Inenek-Inti, with the construction of the funerary monument. The pyramid and substructure replicated the basic design of Djedkare Isesi's and is proportionally very similar. The pyramid has been severely damaged and is now a small ruinous mound. The mortuary temple suffered extensive damage from stone thieves, but the work carried out by the / (MAFS) has revealed that the temple was laid out in near exactly the same manner as his predecessor's. Excavation work at the causeway has only extended out to a few metres, and the valley temple and pyramid town remain unexcavated.
The most significant finds at the complex are the queens' pyramids. As of 2017, a total of nine pyramids have been discovered south-west of Pepi I's complex. These pyramids belong to Nebuunet, Inenek-Inti, Meritites IV, Ankhesenpepi II, Ankhesenpepi III, Mehaa with a tomb belonging to her son Hornetjerikhet to its north, Behenu, Reherishefnakht and one, the Western Pyramid, that remains anonymous. The pyramids of Queens Ankhesenpepi II and Behenu also contain Pyramid Texts. The pyramid of Reherishefnakht contains both Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. It is significant for two reasons: It is the oldest known pyramid not built for a member of the royal family and its epigraphy links the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
Location and excavation
Pepi I selected a site about north of Djedkare's pyramid in South Saqqara. Mark Lehner suggests that siting the pyramid in North or Central Saqqara may not have been possible after Teti built his pyramid there, and that this may be the reason for Pepi I's choice to move to South Saqqara. Jaromír Malek proposes that the "squalor, smell and noise of a crowded city", Djed-Isut to the east of Teti's pyramid, may have caused Djedkare Isesi and Pepi I to relocate their royal palaces further south and that this would explain their siting of their funerary monuments at South Saqqara.
The pyramid was first examined by John Shae Perring in the 1830s. In 1880, Gaston Maspero, director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, arrived in Egypt. He selected a site in South Saqqara, a mound that had been previously mapped by Karl Richard Lepsius, for his first archaeological dig. Here he found the ruins of a large structure which he identified as the pyramid of Pepi I. During the excavations he was able to gain access to the substructure where he discovered that the walls were covered in hieroglyphic text – the Pyramid Texts. This was the first pyramid in which texts were found. Maspero also found texts in the pyramids of Unas, Teti, Merenre I, and Pepi II in 1880–1. He published his findings in Les inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqarah in 1894.
MAFS has been leading efforts at the site of Pepi I's pyramid since 1950. Jean-Philippe Lauer and Jean Sainte-Fare Garnot led the efforts until 1963, and since then the site has been under the supervision of Jean Leclant and . Under Jean Leclant's supervision, a "major architectural and epigraphic project" was undertaken in the pyramids of Unas, Teti, Pepi I, and Merenre I. In 1966, the burial chamber and passageway of the substructure in Pepi I's pyramid were unearthed. It was revealed that the texts in Pepi I's pyramid were engraved and painted in a shade of green, referred to by ancient Egyptians as wadj, that symbolized "renewal and germination".
The south face and wall and a section of the east face of the pyramid were excavated between March and April 1996. A wealth of inscribed limestone blocks were also uncovered. They bear the names of individuals involved with the construction of the complex, and their recovery is significant because they would typically be hidden by the encasement. From these inscriptions it was worked out that family members of the pharaoh were involved in the project. Teti-ankh, a son of Teti according to Vassil Dobrev, managed various activities around the complex. His name is particularly associated with the enclosure wall and measurement taking. Inenek-Inti, a wife of Pepi I, appears on multiple blocks inscribed with titles indicating her role as the architect and builder of the monument. More inscribed limestone blocks were uncovered in the period between February and April 1997. Over the course of the years 1995 to 1997, all four sides of the pyramid were cleared, and hundreds of blocks recording the involvement of about forty individuals discovered.
Mortuary complex Old Kingdom mortuary complexes consisted of five essential components: (1) a valley temple; (2) a causeway; (3) a pyramid, or mortuary, temple; (4) a cult, or satellite, pyramid; and (5) the main pyramid. Pepi I's complex comprises: a main pyramid constructed of six steps of limestone encased in fine white limestone; a mortuary temple that near exactly replicates those of his predecessors, with a cult pyramid to its south; and a valley temple and causeway that have not been excavated. Pepi I's pyramid complex, Men-nefer Pepi, lent its name to the ancient capital city of Egypt, Men-nefer (Memphis).
Main pyramid The pyramid was constructed in the same fashion as others since Djedkare Isesi's reign: a core was built six steps high using small limestone blocks bound together with clay mortar, and then encased with fine white limestone blocks. The limestone casing has been stripped away for the production of lime, and is intact only at the lowest steps. A fragmentary inscription found by MAFS in 1993 belonging to Khaemwaset, High Priest of Memphis and son of Ramesses II, from the Nineteenth Dynasty indicates that the pyramid was in relatively good condition at this time, needing only minor improvements.
The pyramid is now destroyed, and original dimensions are estimates. The length of the base of the pyramid was , converging towards the apex at ~53° giving the pyramid a peak high on completion. The remaining ruins leave a mound about tall, with a pit in its centre dug by stone robbers.
Substructure A north chapel once stood over the entrance corridor on the north face of the pyramid. This leads into a descending corridor built from limestone. The corridor terminates at a vestibule that leads into the horizontal passage. Midway along the horizontal passage is the main barrier of three pink granite portcullises. The passage is further reinforced with granite in three places. The layout of the chambers in Pepi I's pyramid are the same as those in his predecessor's pyramids: the antechamber sits on the pyramid's vertical axis, with a room containing three recesses – called the serdab – to its east, and the burial chamber to its west. The ante- and burial- chambers had gabled roofs made from limestone blocks set three layers deep with sixteen blocks in each layer. The ceiling is estimated to have weighed around five thousand tons.
The ceiling was painted with white stars, oriented to the west, against a black background. A sarcophagus was found on the west wall of the burial chamber; though examination indicates that this was a substitute sarcophagus, not the original. Labrousse suggests that the original was either damaged during transportation, or otherwise contained flaws that were later revealed. MAFS made a rare discovery while conducting restorative work in the chamber: a pink granite canopic chest, sunk into a niche at the foot of the sarcophagus, along with a bundle of viscera, once contained inside an alabaster jar and retaining its shape, presumed to belong to the king. The provenance of a mummy fragment and fine linen wrappings found in the burial chamber are unknown, but are hypothesized to belong to Pepi I. Other components of burial equipment found in the chamber are: fragments of canopic vessels made from yellowish alabaster; a sandal made from reddish, possibly sycamore, wood; a small flint knife; some pleated linen; and a fragment of linen bearing the inscription "Linen for the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, may he live forever".
The walls of Pepi I's antechamber, burial chamber, and corridor were inscribed with vertical columns of green painted hieroglyphic text. The corridor texts in Pepi I's pyramid are the most extensive, covering the whole horizontal passage, the vestibule, and even a section of the descending corridor. The serdab was left uninscribed, as it had been in Unas' and Teti's pyramid.
Pyramid Texts of Pepi I
The Pyramid Texts originally appeared in the Pyramid of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty initiating a tradition that carried on in the pyramids of the kings and queens of the Sixth through Eighth Dynasty, until the end of the Old Kingdom. The texts in Pepi I's pyramid, comprising 2,263 columns and lines of text, are the most extensive such corpus of texts from the Old Kingdom. Though the tradition of writing pyramid texts had started in Unas' pyramid, they were originally discovered in Pepi I's pyramid in 1880.
Ancient Egyptian belief held that the individual consisted of three basic parts; the body, the ka, and the ba. When the person died, the ka would separate from the body and return to the gods from where it had come, while the ba remained with the body. The body of the individual, interred in the burial chamber, never physically left; but the ba, awakened, released itself from the body and began its journey toward new life. Significant to this journey was the Akhet: the horizon, a junction between the earth, the sky, and the Duat. To ancient Egyptians, the Akhet was the place from where the sun rose, and so symbolised a place of birth or resurrection. In the texts, the king is called upon to transform into an akh in the Akhet. The akh, literally "effective being", was the resurrected form of the deceased, attained through individual action and ritual performance. If the deceased failed to complete the transformation, they became mutu, that is "the dead". The function of the texts, in congruence with all funerary literature, was to enable the reunion of the ruler's ba and ka leading to the transformation into an akh, and to secure eternal life among the gods in the sky.
Barring the lower section of the western end of the chamber, which is painted in the royal palace facade motif, all four walls of Pepi I's burial chamber were covered in Pyramid Texts. The west wall and gable of Pepi I's burial chamber were inscribed with texts concerned with two themes. The first present Horus in the role of the head-liturgist, and the second involve the presentation of Osiris' corpse to his mother, Nut. These texts are sakhu, meaning "that which makes one into an akh" and serve the "protection, reconstitution, and transfiguration of the king in his sarcophagus". They are flanked – predominantly on the west end of the north wall, but also by two texts in a small register on the west end of the south wall – by texts concerned with the role of Osiris' sisters Isis and Nephthys. On the west end of the south wall, beneath the texts of Isis and Nephythys, are a set of texts dealing with the theme of the king's ascent to the sky.