DescriptionPerneb (the name means: my Lord has come forth to me) was a court official who functioned primarily at the robing and crowning of the king.

 

This open-air courtyard forms the center of Perneb's above ground funeral monument. It was originally furnished with a low platform for the deposition of offerings and two small obelisks, powerful symbols of rebirth, dedicated to the sun god as the ultimate source of life.

 

A central, recessed doorway leads into the main offering chamber of the tomb, while the door on its left gives access to a secondary ritual chamber connected with the so-called serdab (Arabic for "cellar"), a closed room in which Perneb's statues stood.

 

The partially ruined wall opposite the central, recessed doorway is slightly stepped and inclined. It represents the outside enclosure of another monument: the tomb of the vizier Shepsesre, who may have been Perneb's father. Perneb's builders attached his tomb to that of Shepsesre.

 

While all other walls surrounding the courtyard are original, the Shepsesre wall was reconstructed by the Museum, using stone from a quarry located close to the one from which Perneb's building material was extracted. The reconstruction serves to convey to visitors the intimacy of Perneb's court, which was both a private and a sacred space.

 

The original entry into the tomb and the courtyard is from the door here to the right.

ProvenanceSaqqara, purchased from the Egyptian government , 1912.