which Aahmes
commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and had
a _mer-ahat_ at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her
also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.
It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy,
like Usertsen's mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at Der el-Bahari.
Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. Her secondary
pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the "holy ground" at
Abydos, though it was not an imitation _bab_, but a dummy pyramid of
rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and
secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of
royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two
tombs, one at Nakada and the other at Abydos. It is probable that all
the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really
buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and
Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen
(Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and
Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs. Ramses III
also had two tombs, both at Thebes. The reasons for this custom were
two: first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give
the ghost a _pied-a-terre_ on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakkara.

As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy
pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be
translated. The text reads: "It came to pass that when his Majesty the
king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-Ra, Son of the Sun,
Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the _tjadu_-hall,
the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king's
daughter, the king's sister, the god's wife and great wife of the king,
Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty. And
the one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,*
which consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar,
the painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the
Festival of the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the
going-forth of the _Sem_-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts
of the Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the _Hak_-festival, the
_Uag_-festival, the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of
heaven