The Pyramid of Unas

The Pyramid of Unas stands at the southern end of the Saqqara necropolis, about thirty kilometers south of Cairo. From outside, it is one of the least impressive pyramids in Egypt, heavily weathered and reduced to a low mound. Inside, it contains the oldest religious texts in the world.

The Pyramid Texts

Unas was the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, ruling from approximately 2353 to 2323 BCE. When his burial chamber was opened in 1881 by the French archaeologist Gaston Maspero, the walls were covered floor to ceiling with hieroglyphic inscriptions painted in blue-green pigment on white limestone. These are the Pyramid Texts, a collection of spells, hymns, and instructions intended to guide the dead pharaoh through the afterlife.

The Cannibal Hymn

One section of the texts, known as the Cannibal Hymn, describes the pharaoh hunting and eating the gods to absorb their power. He wades through their blood, cooks their organs in cauldrons, and swallows their magic whole. The largest gods are his dinner, the medium ones his lunch, and the smallest his breakfast. This is not metaphor in any modern sense. The text describes a king becoming immortal by consuming divinity itself.

Significance

The Pyramid Texts appear only in the pyramids of Unas and a handful of later pharaohs. They predate the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead by centuries. They represent the oldest attempt to record, in writing, what happens to a human being after death.