Serapeum of Saqqara Serapeum of Saqqara The Serapeum of Saqqara is a serapeum located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, a necropolis near Memphis in Lower Egypt. It was a burial place of Apis bulls, sacred bulls that were incarnations of the ancient Egyptian deity Ptah. It was believed that the bulls became immortal after death as "Osiris Apis", a name that appears in Coptic as , "Userhapi", which was borrowed in Greek as , "Serapis", in the Hellenistic period. The most ancient burials found at this site date back to the reign of Amenhotep III, the ninth pharaoh of
Serapeum of Saqqara clear rocks blocking the entrance to the catacomb, he excavated most of the complex. Unfortunately, his notes of the excavation were lost, which has complicated the use of these burials in establishing an Egyptian chronology. Mariette found one undisturbed burial, which is now at the Agricultural Museum in Cairo. The other 24 sarcophagi of the bulls, had been robbed. A controversial aspect of the Saqqara find is that for the period between the reign of Ramesses XI and the twenty-third year of the reign of Osorkon II – about 250 years – only nine burials have been discovered, including three