Saqqara has been in continuous use as a burial site since at least the 1st Dynasty (c. 3100 BCE), when the earliest mastaba tombs were constructed for high officials and members of the royal family. The site reached its first architectural peak under Pharaoh Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty, whose architect Imhotep designed the Step Pyramid complex around 2630 BCE — the first time large-scale dressed limestone was used in construction anywhere on earth.
During the 5th and 6th Dynasties, Saqqara became the preferred royal burial ground again after Abu Sir’s use in the 5th Dynasty, with the pyramids of Unas, Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, and Pepi II all built here. These later pyramids introduced the Pyramid Texts — the world’s oldest known religious corpus — onto the interior walls of their burial chambers.
In the 19th century BCE, the site was used for the Serapeum, the underground burial vaults of the Apis bulls, sacred animals associated with the god Ptah and later Osiris. Auguste Mariette rediscovered the Serapeum in 1851, finding granite sarcophagi weighing up to 70 tonnes still sealed inside the subterranean galleries.
