Abu Sir & Abu Ghurab: Crashing Dr. Mallek's Excavation Party; Oogling 5th Dyn Pyramids & Sun Temple

Abu Sir

Dr. Salima Ikram took my History of Ancient Egypt class to descend on Dr. Mallek's dig at Abu Sir.  Abu Sir at this time was a closed site, so we had the place all to ourselves, aside from the workers.  My first stop, being obsessed with Pyramids and all, was the 5th Dynasty pyramids of Sahure, Niuserre, and Neferirkare.  These rulers didn't have as much wealth as the pyramid builders at Giza, and it shows in shoddy shape of their pyramids.  They are smaller and use poorer quality stone than the 4th Dyansty Pyramids at Giza.  During the 5th Dyansty the emphasis moved from the Pyramid to the mortuary temple - which we highly decorated.

Then we popped in on Dr. Yauromir Malleck and his excavation of Raneferef's Double Pyramid.  Double Pyramids are very rare.  Most of the superstructure was gone but we could see into the complex substructure.  Dr. Malleck showed us the stones they found which indicated that the pyramids belonged to Raneferer.

Abu Ghurab

Our next stop was the 5th Dynasty Sun Temple at Abu Ghurab, which is right next to Abu Sir.  We ended up accessing it from quite the interesting route.   From Abu Ghurab we had an amzing view of Abu Sir.  The Sun Temple was comprised of an altar, 6 basins, and a large pyramid shaped structure.    It wasn't a very large complex, but Abu Ghurab is the best preserved Sun Temple.