Spanish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission in Saqqara 2025

Back in Saqqara with the SEAMS project of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). This season the team returns to an area located at the southwest of the Step Pyramid, where in 2019 they discovered an undocumented squared building after surveying in the desert area included in the first concession of the IEPOA at Kom el-Khamseen.

This squared building made out of mud brick has a total area of 1.250 m2, and it measures 40m wide by 30m long. The quadrangular shape in mud brick with limestone elements (main entrances, columns bases and thresholds), a series of pottery ritual deposits, the remains of wall paintings with royal motifs discovered during the first excavation that took place in 2022, and the absence of any funerary use of the site determined that this building was most likely a royal complex dating back to the New Kingdom.

As there are not so many examples of royal buildings still preserved in Egypt, this makes the discovery of this New Kingdom Royal Complex a very special and enthralling breakthrough. The main goal of this season is to finish the excavation, documentation and study of this singular archaeological site.

All images © Patricia Mora.

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