Netjeraperef

Netjeraperef was buried in mastaba I/1 at Dahshur, which was excavated by the German Archaeological Institut, Cairo.[5] The tomb was made of mudbricks and measured once around 35.10m x 18.90m. The inner structure comprised a stairway with a few steps leading into a straight corridor. The corridor in turn led into a hallway stretching left and right, forming a T-shaped chamber arrangement. It is noteworthy to mention that the terrain of Dahshur provided a rather soft and loose ground, a circumstance that forbade any deeper underground chamber building and thus forced the tomb builders to create chambers inside the mastaba and over ground level. A similar case happened during the construction of the Bent Pyramid, when the walls and ceilings of chambers under ground level started to form cracks. At the central chamber of Netjeraperef's tomb, an altar was placed in an offering chapel. A special feature of Netjeraperef's offering chapel are the two stelae (once set each left and right of the altar), of which one is nearly completely preserved. This arrangement was a clear copy of Sneferu's stele sanctuaries at his pyramids at Meidum and Dahshur.[3] The stelae both once bore the names and titles of Netjeraperef. One of the stelae, however, was stolen during restoration work in Middle Kingdom period and re-used as a door frame for Sneferu's valley temple at Meidum.[6]