In which country can the 'Mastabat al-Fir’aun' monument be found?

The 'Mastabat al-Fir’aun' ("Bench of the Pharaoh") is the grave monument of the ancient Egyptian king Shepseskaf, the last king of the Fourth Dynasty documented to date. It is located in South Saqqara halfway between the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara and the pyramids of Sneferu at Dahshur. The structure is located close to the pyramid of Pepi II, a ruler of the Sixth Dynasty. The stone quarry for the structure is located west of the Red Pyramid of Sneferu.

The mastaba is 99.6 metres long and 74.4 metres wide. It is about 18 metres high and the sides have an incline of about 70°. For the core structure, the same red sandstone was used as in the nearby Red Pyramid of Sneferu. Only very sparse traces of the outer cladding remain today, but from these it can be concluded that the lowest layer was clad in pink granite and all other layers were clad in Tura limestone. It is readily apparent that the structure consists of two levels. In this respect, the Mastabat al-Fir’aun was modelled on the stepped mastabas of the early dynastic kings in north Saqqara.

The Mastabat al-Fir’aun was described for the first time by John Perring in the middle of the 19th century. A proper excavation of the whole tomb complex was first undertaken by Gustave Jéquier in 1924/5. He was also the first to assign the structure to Shepseskaf, as a result of the discovery of a fragment of a stele. Before this, the tomb had errneously been assigned to Unas, the last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty.