Located on the west bank of the Nile, 8 km northeast of Giza, the site of Abu Rawash lies at the northern edge of the vast Egyptian necropolis of Memphis. The area is currently dominated by the remains of the pyramid of Radjedef, the son and immediate successor of King Khufu (4th Dynasty). However, the site's history is much older than that, as the region is home to a series of cemeteries dating from the Predynastic period (c. 3200 BCE) to Roman times (1st century AD).
This presentation will focus on the period from the 1st to the 4th Dynasty (2900–2500 BCE), and the work carried out by the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO) over the past thirty years on the 1st Dynasty elite cemetery M, the pyramid complex of Radjedef and Necropolis F, where the king's sons were buried.It will demonstrate that the long-underexplored region of Abu Rawash is one of the most significant funerary sites within the vast necropolis of ancient Memphis, and continues to provide valuable insights into the early history of Egypt.