Serapeum of Saqqara

Archaeological Site

Archaeological Site · Giza, Egypt 29.8747°N 31.2124°E

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Serapeum of Saqqara

Time needed

Under an hour20 to 30 minutes below

Cost

TicketedAsk at the main office

Effort

Stairs and tunnelsLong underground corridors

Access

Stairs to go downStaircase into the ground

Tickets

Do you need a separate ticket for the Serapeum of Saqqara?

Plan on it. The official Saqqara price list names the Serapeum apart from the inclusive ticket, and Serapeum tickets are sold at the main Saqqara ticket office, not at the Serapeum itself. Ask there which tickets the visit needs.

The boxes

What are the Serapeum of Saqqara boxes made of?

Hard stone: the sarcophagi are cut from stones such as granite, basalt and diorite. Each was made for the burial of a sacred Apis bull, and they still stand in the underground galleries.

What it was

What was the Serapeum of Saqqara used for?

It was the tomb of the Apis bulls, sacred animals associated with the god Ptah. Their burials filled its underground galleries, and the stone sarcophagi made for them still line the corridors.

Under the desert at Saqqara lie the galleries where the sacred Apis bulls were buried, and their enormous stone sarcophagi are still down there in the dark.

What makes it special

Bulls were buried down here for well over a thousand years, from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period. Among the monuments of Saqqara, this is one of the most important, and it lies a short distance from the Step Pyramid.

Deep underground, long corridors stretch away into the dark, lined with stone sarcophagi one after another. Each of the boxes is roughly 4 metres long, 2.3 metres wide and 3.3 metres high, big enough to feel uncomfortable standing beside.

One box has its own staircase, so you can climb up and look closely at the texts carved into its side. It is the only box set up this way.

Visiting

A five-minute drive from the Pyramid of Djoser brings you to the parking area. From there, a dirt trail leads a few minutes on foot to a small pavilion, where a staircase goes down into the ground.

Walk the main corridor end to end. At the box with a staircase, climb up and read the carvings, then look back along the line of sarcophagi before you head up.

Keep it for the end of your day at Saqqara, after the Step Pyramid and the tombs.

Know before you goAs of October 2026, official pages list a last entry at 4pm for Saqqara, and the site asks you to arrive at least an hour before closing. Keep hold of your ticket at all times.