Pyramid of Iput I

29.8750°N, 31.2210°E.

Small Sixth-Dynasty queen's pyramid at North Saqqara, immediately north of the pyramid of Teti, built for Queen Iput I — daughter of Unas, wife of Teti, mother of Pepi I. Construction date approximately 2330 BCE. Original base 21 metres per side; original height roughly 21 metres at a 63° slope. Excavated by Cecil Firth in 1897 and re-examined by Zahi Hawass between 1991 and 2010. Iput's burial chamber yielded a limestone sarcophagus containing the partially preserved skeleton of a woman in her late twenties, a cedar-wood inner coffin, gold jewellery, and an alabaster canopic chest still sealed at its corners. The chamber walls were inscribed with a reduced set of Pyramid Texts — the earliest known instance of the spells being adapted for a non-royal occupant.

The first queen in Egyptian history to be buried under her own pyramid with her own afterlife liturgy, and her son was the next pharaoh to commission both for himself.