AMAZING Discovery Made At The Ruins of Saqqara SCARED Archaeologists
While ancient Egypt may already be famous for its pyramids and mummies,
there are new incredible discoveries made in this former ancient civilization
that continue to amaze, and sometimes scare all of us, including archaeologists.
The ruins of Saqqara are quite an interesting part of Egypt’s history. They are located about 30
miles away from Cairo and are actually part of the Giza governorate. Considering this area already
has some of the most famous ancient Egyptian works of architecture in history, these ruins
must be something incredible if they’ve managed to rattle so many feathers in the past few years.
The ruins can be traced all the way back to the first Egyptian dynasty,
which came into power after the initial unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The first
Egyptian dynasty is said to have reigned from 3100 BC to 2900 BC and took place in the Bronze age.
Saqqara gained popularity as a necropolis in ancient Egypt, and if you didn’t know,
a necropolis is basically a glorified cemetery. As a result, numerous pharaohs, royals,
and nobles have been buried here, and it’s even home to its own pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser,
built to house the body of Djoser, a king from the third Egyptian dynasty. This may be the largest
pyramid in Egypt that’s located outside the Giza complex, and it’s quite unique as it’s a step
pyramid rather than the flat ones we’re used to in Egypt. There are two other pyramids in the area,
the pyramid of Unas, which, unfortunately, isn’t very well preserved, and the pyramid of Userkaf,
which is in better condition than the Pyramid of Unas but is still in some pretty rough shape.
Very close to these pyramids is one of the oldest known stone structures in history,
the Gisr el-Mudir. Surprisingly, this structure survived all this time because of the poor quality
materials used to build it. More expensive structures with valuable materials were often
looted over time and stripped of all of their integrity. Since the stone used in the Gisr
el-Mudir was readily available and cheap, no one thought to loot this structure in the first place.
This structure is clouded with mystery, as no one knows its purpose, why it was built,
or even who built it. There isn’t even a date given for when it could have been made,
but it’s said to predate every single structure in the area.
Since the Egyptian Revolution and political crisis in the early 2010s, Egypt has seen a
massive decrease in tourism. Since then, things have stabilized quite a bit, and the Egyptian
government is working tirelessly to bring some life back into their tourism industry.
One approach they’ve taken is to not just focus on the existing iconic structures
of the ancient Egyptian empire, but also to find new icons to boost the industry.
The ruins of Saqqara were an ideal site for archaeologists to get started, but the
things they’ve found in these ruins over the past decade have also been nothing short of shocking.
In 2011, while a team of archaeologists was working on the ruins, they found over 8 million
dead animals near a temple dedicated to Anubis, the Egyptian god of death.
The dead animals included livestock like cows and goats, but the vast majority of them were dogs.
It was common to bring dead dogs towards the temple of Anubis as an offering,
and it was believed that these dogs went straight to the protection of Anubis himself,
however, they discovered something much more sinister behind these “offerings”. There was
simply no way they could’ve gotten 8 million dogs in such a small area,
this was bigger than the population of every city on earth at the time.
They concluded that this must have been the result of the world’s oldest puppy mill,
where dogs were bred and then killed in order to be given as an offering to Anubis. While this
might sound horrible to us, and it most definitely is, according to Salima Ikram, who was the leader
of this excavation, the Egyptians believed that the dogs were going to a better place with Anubis.
Another missing puzzle piece of Egyptian history was also recently discovered at the
ruins of Saqqara when in 2019, a team of Czech archaeologists discovered a huge and lavishly
decorated 4000 year old tomb in the ruins. The name of the person in the tomb was identified as
Khuwy, and he was a pretty big deal when he was alive. He was most likely a friend
or companion of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Djedkare Isesi, who was the eighth ruler of
the fifth Egyptian dynasty. His tomb was found very close to the Pyramid of Djedkare Isesi,
which was strange because no other tomb from that era was found that close to his. There were also a
lot of perfectly preserved paintings found in the corridor that leads to his final resting place.
You would have to be extremely rich and powerful to be able to deserve a tomb like that, yet, we
don’t know anything about this man at all, despite apparently being very close to the pharaoh.
A year later, in 2020, archaeologists found the biggest discovery on the site to date,
and by far the most significant one. They found over 100 perfectly preserved coffins that were
sealed shut and decorated by extremely detailed works of art that can tell us more about the
history of that era. There were also about 40 funeral statues found in the same area, which
were usually reserved for high-ranking members of the royal family. This led to the conclusion that
Saqqara was the main burial ground for all members of the 26th dynasty, which goes to show just how
long this location was used considering it has existed since the very first Egyptian dynasty.
Some of the tombs were opened, such as one belonging to a very wealthy 40 year old man.
His wealth was determined by the fact that he clearly didn’t get much movement or
sun exposure, and he had a very weak bone structure,
something that was quite common among the ancient Egyptian elite. At the same site, archaeologists
discovered an entire family buried in one coffin, the cause of their deaths was apparently Malaria.
Earlier this year, another cache of sarcophagi and burial shafts was discovered,
with about 50 of each. These are believed to be from the time of the New Kingdom,
and along with these, some writings were also discovered, written on papyrus.
The papyrus was about 13 feet long and contained some important text from the Book of the Dead,
something that was read at every funeral. There were also various funerary items found
at the site, such as amulets, funeral masks, and canopic jars. There was likely some sort
of religious significance attached to the ruins of Saqqara which is why so many royals
from the first dynasty to over a thousand years later chose to be buried in this specific spot.
Saqqara is also famous for some not-as-scary artifacts. The Saqqara Bird is considered, by
some, to be the great ancestor of the airplane. It seems to be a toy that’s made to resemble a bird,
however, the dimensions, wingspan, tail, and ratios are strikingly similar to modern-day
airplanes. This goes to show that if they had the resources available and the empire lasted
long enough in peace, ancient Egyptians may have been able to crack the code on
how to make their own airplane, or perhaps find a way to manually achieve human flight.
Since some of the basics of aviation were found in the Saqqara bird, some physicians like Khalil
Messiha were so impressed by the design that they suggested ancient Egyptians had to have built
their own airplanes and that the Saqqara Bird was simply a model of a planned or existing aircraft.
However, there has never been anything close to one being found there,
and had it been used, we’re pretty sure someone would’ve documented it in art or text.
Saqqara is also home to one more incredible discovery (among others), and that’s the ancient
Saqqara tablet. The Saqqara tablet was made sometime during the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt,
which was famous for the rule of King Ramesses II, considered the greatest Egyptian pharaoh of all
time. It was discovered by modern-day historians who were shocked to find the work of an ancient
historian. The tablet contained the names and symbols of all the pharaohs from the first
Egyptian dynasty all the way to the 20th Egyptian dynasty, which is when this tablet was made.
This discovery was nothing short of spectacular considering we knew almost nothing about many of
these kings at the time, and it gave us more pointers to finally start looking for them.
Overall, the tablet had space for 58 names up until Ramesses II,
but 14 of these names were damaged to the point where they were indecipherable.
That’s a wrap for this video! If you enjoyed it, make sure to leave this video a thumbs up
and subscribe to our channel for more videos like this!