ancientart:One of the slightly less glamourous looking Egyptian pyramids visible today: the Unas Pyr

ancientart:One of the slightly less glamourous looking Egyptian pyramids visible today: the Unas Pyraimd. Despite looking like not much more than a 43m high heap of rubble today, the historical significance of this structure is great. The last of the rulers of Egypt’s 5th dynasty, Unas, had his pyramid built to the south of Djoser complex’s in Saqqara. It is dated to approximately 2340 BCE.Within this pyramid we find the first appearance of the ‘pyramid texts’: which are of the oldest religious texts known in the world. These texts, in part, discuss the existence of Unas in the afterlife, in the community of gods.The pyramid texts of Unas make for… interesting reading to say the least. Below are translated sections from these famous texts. “Unas cometh forth into heaven by thee, Ra. The face of Unas is like the [faces of the] Hawks. The wings of Unas are like [those of] geese. The nails of Unas are like the claws of the god Tuf. There is no [evil] word concerning Unas on earth among men. There is no hostile speech about him with the gods. Unas hath destroyed his word, he hath ascended to heaven.” […]Unas hath weighed his words with the hidden god who hath no name, on the day of hacking in pieces the firstborn… Unas devoureth men, and liveth upon the gods, he is the lord of envoys whom he sendeth forth on his missions. ‘He who cutteth off hairy scalps,’ who dwelleth in the fields, tieth the gods with ropes. Tcheser-tep shepherdeth them for Unas and driveth them unto him; and the Cord-master hath bound them for slaughter. Khensu, the slayer of the wicked, cutteth their throats, and draweth out their intestines, for it is he whom Unas sendeth to slaughter [them], and Shesmu cutteth them in pieces, and boileth their members in his blazing caldrons of the night. Unas eateth their magical powers, and he swalloweth their spirit-souls.” (Budge translation, via Project Gutenberg).Photo taken by Dennis Jarvis. -- source link

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