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 showing those boats are found in the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak and date to the late New Kingdom. Some have suggested that the Saqqara Bird may represent evidence that knowledge of the principles of aviation existed many centuries before such are generally believed to have first been discovered. Egyptian physician, archaeologist, parapsychologist and dowser Khalil Messiha has speculated that the ancient Egyptians developed the first aircraft. He wrote that it "represents a diminutive of an original monoplane still present in Saqqara." He also claimed that the Saqqara Bird could function as a glider if it had a horizontal tailplane,