Saqqara served as capital of Egypt, Saqqara remained in use as a burial ground for nobles. Moreover, the area became an important destination for pilgrims to a number of cult centres. Activities sprang up around the Serapeum, and extensive underground galleries were cut into the rock as burial sites for large numbers of mummified ibises, baboons, cats, dogs, and falcons. Saqqara and the surrounding areas of Abusir and Dahshur suffered damage by looters during the 2011 Egyptian protests. Store rooms were broken into, but the monuments were mostly unharmed. During routine excavations in 2011 at the dog catacomb in Saqqara necropolis,
Saqqara Bird he considered an attempt to create aerodynamic lift. In spite of these claims, however, no ancient Egyptian aircraft have ever been found, nor has any other evidence suggesting their existence come to light. As a result, the theory that the Saqqara Bird is a model of a flying machine is not accepted by mainstream Egyptologists. Hallion notes that it is "far too heavy and unstable itself to fly." Aerodynamics expert Simon Sanderson tested a replica model in a wind tunnel without a tailplane and found that it produced “four times the glider’s own weight in lift.” In Liverpool University, Sanderson