Serapeum of Saqqara (664–610 BC) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty and later used by the Ptolemaic dynasty. The long boulevard leading to the ceremonial site, flanked by 600 sphinxes, likely was built under Nectanebo I, (379/8–361/0 BC) the founder of the thirtieth dynasty (the last native one). The temple was discovered by Auguste Mariette, who had gone to Egypt to collect Coptic-language manuscripts, but later grew interested in the remains of the Saqqara necropolis. In 1850, Mariette found the head of one sphinx sticking out of the shifting desert dunes, cleared the sand and followed the boulevard to the site. After using explosives to
Statue of Horemheb and Amenia tended to favour Saqqara, as Anastasi was more active in the Memphite than the Theban area, and a group of similar double statues (the most famous being the statue of Maya and his wife in Leiden) come from tombs in the vicinity of that ancient site. In 2009, concrete evidence was found that proved beyond reasonable doubt that the statue was that of Horemheb and his wife Amenia from their mortary tomb in Saqqara. In 1976, a multinational team of excavators from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom found a missing piece from a statue in Horemheb's burial chamber that