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,
Southern South Saqqara pyramid Southern South Saqqara pyramid The Southern South Saqqara Pyramid (also Unfinished Pyramid at South Saqqara; Lepsius XLVI; SAK S 6) is an ancient Egyptian royal tomb which was built during the 13th Dynasty in South Saqqara, and is renowned for having the most elaborate hypogeum since the late 12th Dynasty pyramids. The building remained unfinished and is still unknown which pharaoh was really intended to be buried here since no appropriate inscription has been found. The pyramid was rediscovered in the 1910-11 campaign by Ernest Mackay and Flinders Petrie; in 1929-30 Gustave Jéquier performed a detailed exploration of the complex.<br>