This temple is a most
interesting monument of the civilization of the "Old Kingdom" at the time
of the Vth Dynasty.
At Sakkara itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
officers of the _Service des Antiquites_, which reserves to itself the
right of excavation here and at Dashur. The mastaba of the sage and
writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, "I-have-found-a-ghost," which
sounds very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
"I-have-found-a-ghost" lived in the reign of the king Tatkara Assa, the
"Tancheres" of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
Phtahhetep ("Offered to Phtah"), who was also buried at Sakkara. The
officials of the _Service des Antiquites_ who cleaned the tomb unluckily
misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only mean,
literally translated, "Ghost-soul-of" or "Ghost-soul-to-me"), and they
have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This mastaba,
like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed "Mera")
and the famous Ti, both also at Sakkara, contains a large number of
chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Grebaut, then
Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it.
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