Pyramid of Sahure

29.8978°N, 31.2031°E.

Pyramid of Sahure at Abusir, second pharaoh of the fifth dynasty (~2487 BCE) and the first ruler buried at the new royal cemetery. Original height 47 metres on a 78.5-metre base; current height 36 metres after extensive robbery. The mortuary temple to the east of the pyramid is the most architecturally innovative of any in Egypt to that date, with elaborate columned halls, granite palmiform columns, and 10,000 m² of carved relief depicting Sahure's expeditions to Punt, Libya, and the Levant. The reliefs include the earliest known depictions of seagoing ships in Egyptian art — wooden hulls with stitched planking and lateen sails. The valley temple was connected to the mortuary temple by a 235-metre causeway. Sahure pioneered the architectural template that all later Egyptian pyramid complexes would follow.

He moved his royal cemetery to a new site, built a fleet, and carved his ships into the walls — every Egyptian king after him built temples copying his.