Know Secrets of Serapeum in Saqqara

The Serapeum of Saqqara is one of the most important tombs built in Memphis, the capital city of the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt.

The Serapeum is located in the Apis calf burial complex, which was sacred in the period of the ancient Egyptian dynasties and symbolizes fertility and was worshiped in Memphis.

The Greek Serapis was sacred  for the ancient Egyptian god "Hep" and Serapis is a compound word combining the two gods "Osiris" and "Hep" and was discovered by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette in 1848.

Asma Masoud, a researcher in ancient Egyptian antiquities, said that the Serapeum Temple located in the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt is a puzzle for scientists and specialists in Egyptology, whether because its coffins are in such large numbers, amounting to 26, or they are made of very solid granite, in addition to its long tunnels that exceed 400 meters and the unique architect used in the third century BC, which is considered a scientific miracle.

There is the oldest love poem engraved on the Saqqara temple 4400 years ago.

Asma Masoud added that the Serapeum is a name given to every temple or religious structure dedicated to the worship of the monotheistic god Serapis, a sacred cult in Egypt in the Hellenistic Greek era that combines two gods of ancient Egypt, Osiris and Apis, with the aim of making citizens of Greek origin and others of Egyptian origin. The Egyptians and Greeks  share in the worship of the protector deity, who combines the attributes of the Greek gods "Zeus" and "Hades" with the attributes of the Egyptian gods "Osiris" and "Apis.”

There are many temples of the Serapeum in Egypt and Italy, including one located in Saqqara and another located in Alexandria, which is dedicated to the god Serapis.

There is also a Serapeum in ancient Rome, which is the province of Atakma, one of the temples dedicated to the Egyptian gods “Isis” and “Osiris” and another Serapeum in the Campo Marzio area in Rome, but The Serapeum of Saqqara is the most important and the most complex in its rare engineering.

The coffins are another of the mysteries of the Serapeum in terms of their number and size, as they number 26 coffins made of well-made granite, the body weight of the coffin is 75 tons, its lid  is 30 tons, the height of the coffin ranges between 3 and 4 meters, its width is 2.5 m and its length is 3 meters.

The mystery in the group of coffins is not only in their number or size, but also in the reason for their manufacture, as they were all found empty and closed except for one coffin, which refutes the claims of archaeologist Mariette, discoverer of the cemetery, that they were coffins for burying the body of the calf Apis, as no mummy or a corpse was found in any of them. The body of the calf is Apis, and the question remains, why these coffins were made

Thus, the Serapeum of Saqqara temple, its tunnels and corridors, in addition to its coffins, remain a great mystery that baffles scholars and specialists in the history and civilization of Ancient Egypt.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar