Site (29o51' N 31o14' E), of the principial necropolis of the ancient city of Memphis, situated some 17 km from the Giza, which was in use from the Ist Dynasty to the Christian period (AD 395-540). The entire length of the site is about six kilometers, with a maximum width of about 1.5 km. It has been suggested that the name of the site may be derived from that of the god Sokar. The importance of the Saqqara necropolis is indicated by very crowded nature of the burials, with some having been re-used many times and most having been extensively plundered throughout antiquity. The Ist Dynasty ruler Narmer is the earliest king whose name is known from Saqqara; a stone bowl bearing his name was discovered in one of the extensive storerooms beneath the Step Pyramid of Djoser. It is not impossible that there was originally also a monument of the reign of Narmer at Saqqara, since slightly later Ist Dynasty mastaba tombs are well attested at the site, forming a distinct group along the northeastern edge of the plateau. Building of the Step Pyramid was the first time that stone architecture had been used on such a large scale in Egypt. Mastaba tombs were constructed at Saqqara for the Memphite elite during the Old Kingdom, many of them focusing closely on the pyramids of the kings, which date from Djoser to the XIIIth Dynasty monument of Khendjer. In the New Kingdom many tombs of nobles were build at Saqqara necropolises. These tombs are date between Akhenaten (XVIII Dynasty) and Ramesses II (XIX Dynasty). There was also New Kingdom activity in northwestern Saqqara, in the form of the hypogea of the sacred Apis bull, which began to the buried in the underground galleries of the Serapeum from at least the time of Amenhotep III until the Roman Period. Private tombs of post New Kingdom date XXVIth and XXVIIth Dynasties are also located near the pyramid of Unas.Tombs of the XXXth Dynasty and Greco-Roman Period are clustered mainly on the northern side of the Step Pyramid, and towards the Serapeum.
