Unas (Wenis)
2375 BCE–2345 BCE · Old-Kingdom · Saqqara
Unas was the last king of Dynasty 5, reigning around 2375-2345 BCE (Shaw's conventional dates). Though his pyramid at Saqqara is comparatively small, its inner chambers carry the earliest surviving copy of the Pyramid Texts, the oldest known corpus of religious literature in the world, a body of spells carved on the burial-chamber walls and intended to secure the king's passage into the afterlife and his union with the gods. The composition of these texts predates this earliest inscribed copy, so the manuscript marks their first attestation rather than their origin; the distinction between when a text was composed and when it was first written down matters throughout Egyptian sources. Their appearance here is a landmark in the history of religious writing, and the dynastic transition to Dynasty 6 follows his reign.
Did you know?
The oldest long religious text carved in stone
Around 2350 BCE the walls inside the pyramid of King Unas at Saqqara were carved with the Pyramid Texts — hundreds of inscribed spells that, Egyptians believed, would protect and guide the king after death. Cut some 4,400 years ago, they are the oldest large body of religious writing known from anywhere in the world.
How we know
Pyramid Texts first attested in the pyramid of Unas (Wenis), last king of the 5th Dynasty, reign c. 2375–2345 BCE (Shaw); texts carved c. 2350 BCE; widely described as the oldest known large corpus of religious literature. Age today: 2350 + 2026 = 4,376 ≈ 4,400 years.
Egypt's first restorer, working on a thousand-year-old ruin
Prince Khaemwaset, a son of Ramesses II, sought out decaying Old Kingdom monuments and re-inscribed them with the names of their original builders, including the pyramid of Unas, already more than a thousand years old in his day. For this work he is sometimes called the earliest known "Egyptologist."
Meet Ramesses II →How we know
Unas (last king, 5th Dyn.) reigned c.2375-2345 BCE; Khaemwaset (son of Ramesses II, c.1281-1225 BCE) restored his pyramid c.1250 BCE — a gap of ~1,095 years (2345-1250).
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Saqqara
What they did here
Site of his pyramid bearing the earliest copy of the Pyramid Texts.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.