Serdab

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Chamber in ancient Egyptian pyramids

title: "Serdab" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ancient-egyptian-architecture", "persian-words-and-phrases"] description: "Chamber in ancient Egyptian pyramids" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serdab" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Chamber in ancient Egyptian pyramids ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Saqqarah_Djeser_10.jpg" caption="The pharaoh [[Djoser]]'s ka statue peers out through the hole in his serdab, ready to receive the soul of the deceased and any offerings presented to it."] ::

A serdab (), which became a loanword in Arabic for 'cellar', is an ancient Egyptian tomb structure that served as a chamber for the ka statue of a deceased individual. Used during the Old Kingdom, the serdab was a sealed chamber with a small slit or hole to allow the soul of the deceased to move about freely. These holes also let in the smells of the offerings presented to the statue.

The term serdab is also used for a type of undecorated chamber found in many pyramids. Owing to the lack of inscriptions it has been impossible to determine the ritual function of this chamber, but many Egyptologists view it as a storage space, akin to the underground storehouses in private and royal tombs of the Second Dynasty. It is most easily recognized by its position in the east end of the pyramid's internal chamber system and the three niches in its outer wall. The earliest serdab of this type is found in the pyramid of Menkaure, but it was during the reign of Djedkare Isesi that it became a part of the standard pyramid layout.

References

References

  1. Bard, KA. (1999). "Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt". Routledge.
  2. Billing, Egyptens pyramider, 2009. Page 236
  3. Ägypten Die Welt der Pharaonen, 1998. Pages 68

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

ancient-egyptian-architecturepersian-words-and-phrases