ed with the ancient dwarf-god, and it is the latter who was
afterwards chiefly revered as Phtah-Socharis-Osiris, the protector of
the necropolis, the mummied Phtah being the generally recognized ruler
of the City of the White Wall.

It is from the name of Seker that the modern Sak-kara takes its title.
Sakkara marks the central point of the great Memphite necropolis, as it
is the nearest point of the western desert to Memphis. Northwards the
necropolis extended to Griza and Abu Roash, southwards, to Daslmr;
even the necropoles of Lisht and Medum may be regarded as appanages of
Sakkara. At Sakkara itself Tjeser of the IIId Dynasty had a pyramid,
which, as we have seen, was probably not his real tomb (which was
the great mastaba at Bet Khallaf), but a secondary or sham tomb
corresponding to the "tombs" of the earliest kings at Umm el-Ga'ab in
the necropolis of Abydos. Many later kings, however, especially of the
Vith Dynasty, were actually buried at Sakkara. Their tombs have all been
thoroughly described by their discoverer, Prof. Maspero, in his history.
The last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, was buried away down south at
Medum, in splendid isolation, but he may also have had a second pyramid
at Sakkara or Abu Roash.

The kings of the IVth Dynasty were the greatest of the pyramid builders,
and to them belong the huge edifices of Griza. The Vth Dynasty favoured
Abusir, between Ciza and Sakkara; the Vith, as we have said, preferred
Sakkara itself. With them the end of the Old Kingdom and of Memphite
dominion was reached; the sceptre fell from the hands of the Memphite
kings and was taken up by the princes of Herakleopolis (Ahnasyet
el-Medina, near Beni Suef, south of the Eayyum) and Thebes. Where the
Herakleopolite kings were buried we do not know; probably somewhere in
the local necropolis of the Gebel es-Sedment, between Ahnasya and the
Fayyum. The first Thebans (the XIth Dynasty) were certainly buried at
Thebes, but when the Herakleopolites had finally disappeared, and all
Egypt was again united under one strong sceptre, the Theban kings seem
to have been drawn northwards. They removed to the seat of the dominion
of those whom they had supplanted, and they settled in the neighbourhood
of Herakleopolis, near the fertile province of the Fayyum, and between
it and Memphis. Here, in the royal fortress-palace of Itht-taui,
"Controlling the Two Lands," the kings of the XIIth Dynasty lived,
and they were buried in the necr