The tomb of the royal clerk responsible for secret documents in the Royal Chancellery during the reign of one of the first pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty was discovered by Polish archaeologists in Saqqara next to the oldest pyramid in the world. It’s 4.3 thousand years old.
So far, the researchers have reached the chapel, which is the above-ground part of the tomb where reliefs can be seen. Egyptologists were also able to read from the hieroglyphics on the facade that the tomb had belonged to a man named Mehcheczi.
“So far, we have only revealed the façade of the chapel, the interior is waiting for the next excavation. Thanks to his position, Mehcheczi was probably able to hire a skilled team of craftsmen, because his chapel is adorned with reliefs of extraordinary beauty,” Professor Kamil O. Kuraszkiewicz of the Oriental Faculty at the University of Warsaw (UW) in Saqqara said in an interview with PAP (Polish Press Agency). The work was carried out as part of the mission of the Center for Mediterranean Archaeology of the UW.
The tomb is located on the eastern bank of the so-called Dry Moat. It was a vast trench hewn in the bedrock around the funerary complex of Netjerykhet, on a rectangular plan (approx. 750 by 600 m). It surrounded the complex of Egypt’s oldest pyramid (the Step Pyramid) built 4.7 thousand years ago.