Fodor's Expert Review Serapeum

This underground complex houses the most significant cult animals buried in Saqqara: the sacred Apis bulls, which were considered incarnations of the god Ptah. It is believed that each animal was very carefully selected, with the priests looking for special markings of divinity. In life, the bulls were as well-treated as they were revered. Upon death, they were mummified and placed in great (and extraordinarily heavy) sarcophagi. They were thought to become immortal as Osiris-Apis; over time, the name evolved to Userhapi ("Osorapis" in Greek) and was later associated with the Ptolemaic god, Serapis, resulting in the name of the site. The Serapeum, first used in the New Kingdom (1550–1077 BC), has a niche for each sacred bull; chapels and smaller temples would have been built aboveground.