Tomb of Akhethetep

The Tomb of Akhethetep (French: Mastaba d'Akhethétep), also Tomb or Mastaba of Akhethotep, is a tomb complex that was built and completed at different times in Saqqarah, Giza, Egypt. It is the tomb of Akhethotep, a royal official, located near the western part of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara. Akhethotep and his son Ptahhotep Tshefi, grandson of Ptahhotep, were senior court officials during the rules of Djedkare (2414-2375 BC) and Unas (Weinis), towards the end of the 5th dynasty (2494 to 2345 BC).

The tomb was discovered in 1903 by Georges Aaron Bénédite and two female colleagues, Miss Petrie and Miss Murray. Akhethotep was a high dignitary of Ancient Egypt who lived during the Fifth Dynasty around 2400 BC and directed its construction initially. He was a son of Peseshet. Bénédite excavated the tomb and reassembled it in the Louvre in Paris. One of the depictions on the wall of the tomb was Akhethotep directing the building of the tomb.

A sketch plan dated 1940 prepared by Abd El Salam Mohammed Hussein, architect of the Department of Antiquities, based on his explorations near the causeway of King Unis, shows a group of tombs located about 190–220 metres (620–720 ft) away from the pyramid of Unis, which among others included the tomb of Akhethotep. The tombs were found in a depression about 10 metres (33 ft) below a wall that protected the causeway.

Akhethotep, son of the first Prthotep, who served as the court official, was a third generation of his family serving the kings. He named his son as Prthotep Tshefi who also became a vizier. While the first Prthotep’s tomb is also in Saqqar, his son’s and grandson’s tomb adjoin each other, as a complex, as the tomb of Akhetheotep and its annexe; Prthotep Tshefi is credited with having authored the Deir el-Madina Maxims on a papyrus manuscript. Akhethotep held the positions of “vizier, judge, supervisor of pyramid cities and supervisor of priests.” His son Prtahotep, who inherited all the titles and the tomb, was also buried in the tomb in an annex wing adjoining his father’s tomb. This tomb on the southern side of the causeway is a combined mastaba comprising two burial chambers, two chapels and a pillared hall. When the tomb was located during archaeological explorations they were in a good state of preservation undisturbed by human vandalism. It was dated as not later than the 5th Dynasty vintage. In 1903, the funerary chapel of the tomb was relocated in the Louvre under the direction of Georges Benedite, the Curator of the Egyptian Department of the Museum, after it was bought from the Government of Egypt. The reassembled chapel in the Louvre is a structure of limestone blocks with bas relief that also recreates the monument as it existed originally.)

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