Serapeum at Saqqara: Massive Stone Coffins and Control of the Apis Rite

At Saqqara in Egypt, a path leads down to the underground Serapeum. From the Eighteenth Dynasty, around 1550 BCE, through the Ptolemaic period, about 332 to 30 BCE, Egyptians used this place to bury Apis bulls. The stone coffins are large enough to look as if they were made for kings. They were made for bulls.

The Egyptians did not choose Apis at random. The temple of Ptah at Memphis, a major religious centre near Saqqara, treated Apis as the living form of Ptah. The Metropolitan Museum records that only one Apis bull lived at a time. The animal had to show distinctive marks, including a white triangle on its forehead and dark patches resembling birds or scarabs. When the bull died, people embalmed it and held ceremonies. They then looked for a successor with the required signs.