The Pyramid of Unas stands at Saqqara, near Memphis, and was built for Unas, the last king of Egypt's Fifth Dynasty. It is a small and rather poorly built pyramid compared with the great monuments at Giza, and its core has largely collapsed. Its importance lies inside, where the walls of the burial chamber and passages are carved with columns of hieroglyphs known as the Pyramid Texts, the oldest known religious texts in Egypt. They contain spells and hymns intended to help the dead king reach the afterlife and join the gods. Later kings of the Sixth Dynasty copied and expanded the practice, and the texts were the ancestors of the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead.
Before and after
- c. 2,510s BCEConstruction of Pyramid of Menkaure
- from 26th century BCE to 20th century BCELagash
- from c. 2,500 BCE to 64 BCEPhoenicia
- from c. 2,498 BCE to 2,345 BCEFifth Dynasty of Egypt
- c. 2,360 BCEOrigins of Pyramid of Unas
- from c. 2,345 BCE to 2,181 BCESixth Dynasty of Egypt
- from c. 2,334 BCE to 2,154 BCEAkkadian Empire
- from c. 2,300 BCE to 1,000 BCEAndronovo culture
- c. 2,300 BCEEruption of Blanco, Cerro
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- 13th century BCEAncient Celts
- from c. 753 BCE to 476 CEAncient Rome
- 7th century BCEConstruction of Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- from 312 BCE to 63 BCESeleucid Empire
- from 279 BCE to 1480Construction of Lighthouse of Alexandria
- from 285 CE to 1453Byzantine Empire
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 24th century BCE.