The New Kingdom royal necropolis was then moved south to Western Thebes in the reign of Amenhotep I, to what is known now as the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. ![]() The situation changed again for the brief “Amarna Interlude,” when King Amenophis IV (Akhenaten), built Tell el Amarna in Middle Egypt as his new capital. The importance of the necropolis region ebbed back and forth as the capital of Egypt moved, first, to the city of iTt-tAwy in the Middle Kingdom’s 12th dynasty, and then to the south in the New Kingdom to Thebes, where Amun became the State-god. While kings of the fourth dynasty selected the Giza Plateau for their funerary monuments, kings of the fifth and sixth dynasties returned south to Saqqara where we find their pyramids and most of their high officials’ tombs. The result is the famous step pyramid of Saqqara and its surrounding funerary complex, which was enclosed by a huge wall, probably emulating that which surrounded Memphis itself. ![]() This large area about 20 miles south of Cairo features the small square tombs (mastabas) of the kings of the first and second dynasties Most famously, the first king of the third dynasty, Djoser, asked his vizier and chief architect to erect for him the first monument built entirely of stone in ancient Egypt. Saqqara, the sweeping necropolis and pyramid field of Memphis, the first Capital of Egypt, has been an important historical site for 5,000 years of Egyptian history.
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