Ancient site · Giza
Serapeum of Saqqara
The burial place of the sacred Apis bulls at Saqqara: underground galleries holding colossal stone sarcophagi from some 1,400 years of devotion.
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The story
The Serapeum was the burial place of the sacred bulls of the Apis cult of Memphis, believed to be incarnations of the god Ptah who became Osiris-Apis after death, a name that evolved into Serapis. Over about 1,400 years, from the New Kingdom to the end of the Ptolemaic Period, at least sixty bulls were buried here. The earliest burials were isolated tombs, later joined by underground galleries linking successive chambers. From the Late Period onward the bulls lay in huge sarcophagi weighing several dozen tonnes each (estimates range from about 40 to over 70 tonnes). The site was closed after 30 BC and was heavily looted in the centuries that followed.
Good to know
- At least sixty sacred bulls were buried here over roughly 1,400 years.
- The large sarcophagi weigh several dozen tonnes; estimates range from about 40 to over 70 tonnes.
- Only four of the 24 surviving sarcophagi carry inscriptions.