Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (12.2000(2001))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

REMARKS ON CORRIDOR 1

Kamil Omar Kuraszkiewicz

Corridor 1 was discovered and explored
during the 2000 season of Polish
excavations at West SaqqaraA This
structure, having no direct parallels in the
area excavated by the mission, as well as in
all of the Old Kingdom necropolis at
Saqqara, is situated in the western part of
the presently known late Old Kingdom
necropolis, its entrance being located in
sector I/Fl, where the edge of the alleged
“dry moat” of Netjerykhet's funerary
complex was expected.1 2) 3
The entrance to Corridor 1 is situated
in the cliff ledge facing west, 1.00 m below
its upper edge (Fig. 1)A The floor level of
this corridor is 2.88 m below the upper
edge of the shelf. The corridor itself runs
east-west, declining slightly south of due
east; it is 22 m long, 1.55 m broad, its
height varying from 1.20 m (in the middle
part) to 1.80 m (in the western and eastern
parts). On the east it ends in a plain wall.
At the eastern end of the north wall,
there is the entrance to a rectangular,
oblong chamber, which is parallel to the
corridor, measuring originally 4.15 (E-W)
by c. 1.50 (N-S) m, its maximum height
being 1.80 m. In its present state, the walls
and ceiling of the chamber, as well as the

walls at the eastern end of the corridor, are
damaged in great measure (as much as
c. 0.5 m in places) by heavy water action,
most probably a huge flood.4) The three
upper corners (SW, NE and SE) survive,
however, permitting a reconstruction of
the original shape. Both floor and roof in
the chamber are depressed c. 0.20 m with
respect to the floor and roof of the corridor.
Like the corridor, the chamber was only
roughly hewn out of the rock (deep chisel
marks still visible) and devoid of any
decoration.
In the south wall of the corridor, c. 13 m
from the entrance and flush with the
ceiling, there is the irregular opening of
Shaft 37. Below this hole the shaft narrows
down suddenly, almost certainly because of
the presence of Corridor 1,5) indicating
that the corridor was earlier than the shaft,
itself dated to the late Old Kingdom.
The corridor was filled with debris
practically up to the roof — c. 0.20 m below
the ceiling at the entrance and c. 1.00 m
below the ceiling in the chamber. A careful
observation of the stratigraphy suggests
that the lower strata in both the corridor
and the chamber had been deposited
intentionally.

1) Cf. report by K. Mysliwiec in this volume.
2) Cf. K. Mysliwiec, K. Kuraszkiewicz, Recent Polish-Egyptian Excavations in West Saqqara, Abusir and Saqqara in the
Year 2000, Archiv OrientalniSupplementa IX (Prague 2000), 499-
3) See fig. 3 in the report by K. Mysliwiec in this volume.
4) According to expedition geologists E. Mycielska-Dowgiallo and B. Woronko.
5) K. Mysliwiec, PAM XI, Reports 1999 (2000), 98.

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