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,
House of Eternity (Ancient Egypt) hill shape of the mastabas at Saqqara was also incorporated. From the third dynasty, the pyramids served as the burial ground of the King, which developed as a synthesis of the various Upper and Lower Egyptian components of the tomb and valley district. Elements of the tombs and facilities are again found at Saqqara. The large enclosure in Saqqara (Gisr el-Mudir) is said to have served as a stone equivalent of the valley districts of Abydos, as a model for the enclosure of the pyramidal district, as well as the wedge-shaped gallery graves of the second dynasty, in Saqqara. The