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Shepseskaf
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===Architecture=== [[File:Mastaba-faraoun-4.jpg|thumb|right|alt=entrance of a stone lined corridor filed with desert sand amidst stone rubble|Entrance to the [[mastaba]]'s subterranean chambers]] The mastaba, oriented on a north–south axis, is rectangular in shape with a base of {{cvt|99.6|x|74.4|m|ft}} and a height of {{cvt|18|m|ft}}.{{sfn|Tyldesley|2005|p=222}} The outer slope of its wall is 65°{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=120}} or 70° and it may have risen in two steps.{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=139}} The tomb dimensions are deemed very small and modest by Verner as compared with the great pyramids of Shepseskaf's fourth dynasty predecessors.{{sfn|Verner|Zemina|1994|p=50}} Indeed, the total volume of the mastaba masonry represents no more than a third that of Menkaure's pyramid. For Verner and Egyptologist Abeer El-Shahawy, this could be explained by the decline in the economic prosperity of Egypt at the time as well as a decline in the king's power.{{sfn|El-Shahawy|Atiya|2005|p=33}}{{sfn|Verner|2001c|p=588}} At the opposite, for Stadelmann one should not conclude that political instability or economic difficulties prevented Menkaure, Shepseskaf and their successors from emulating the great pyramids of their forebears. Instead he proposes that the main impetus behind Menkaure's smaller pyramid and for Shepseskaf's decision to have a mastaba made for himself is a cultic change, where the pyramid is replaced as the centre of appearance and importance by the mortuary temple as the centre of the funerary ritual.{{sfn|Stadelmann|2001|p=597}} In spite of its reduced size, Shepseskaf's tomb and funerary complex were probably unfinished at the death of the king, something which is taken to confirm a short reign. Excavations have shown that parts of the associated mortuary temple as well as the entirety of the causeway leading to it from the Nile valley have been "hastily"{{snf|Verner|2001a|p=384}} completed in mudbrick, probably by one of his successors.{{snf|Verner|2001a|p=384}}{{sfn|Maragioglio|Rinaldi|1967|p=144}} The narrow ends of the mastaba were deliberately raised unlike the traditional fashion, making the tomb look like a great [[sarcophagus]]{{sfn|Chauvet|2001|p=176}}{{sfn|Verner|Zemina|1994|p=50}} or the hieroglyphic determinative for a shrine.{{efn|group=note|That is, the mastaba took the shape of a Buto shrine with a rounded vaulted top between vertical ends.{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=139}}}}{{sfn|Baker|2008|p=426}} The mastaba was originally clad with white Turah limestone except for its lower course, which was clad in red granite.{{sfn|Tyldesley|2005|p=222}}{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=139}} The entrance to the substructures is on the mastaba's northern face, from where a nearly {{cvt|20.95|m|ft|adj=on}} long rock-cut passageway descends at 23°30'{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=139}} to an antechamber, the access to which was to be protected by three [[portcullis]]es. To the southeast of the antechamber is a room with six niches, possibly storerooms, while west of the antechamber lies the burial chamber. Measuring {{cvt|7.79|x|3.85|m|ft}} it is lined with granite and has a {{cvt|4.9|m|ft}} high arched ceiling sculpted into a false vault.{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=139}} Remnants of a decorated dark basalt sarcophagus were uncovered there although the burial chamber was never finished and in all probability never used.{{sfn|Tyldesley|2005|p=222}} The mastaba was surrounded by a double enclosure wall of mudbricks. On the eastern face of the tomb was a mortuary temple with an offering hall, [[false door]] and five storerooms, the layout of which later served as template for [[Pyramid of Neferirkare#Mortuary temple|Neferirkare Kakai's temple]].{{sfn|Nuzzolo|2007|p=235}}{{sfn|Ricke|1950|pp=75–78}} No niches meant to house statues of the king were found, although fragments of a statue of Shepseskaf in the style of those of Khafre and Menkaure were uncovered in the temple.{{sfn|Jéquier|1925|pp=254–255}} To the east lay a small inner court and a larger outer one. Remnants of a causeway have been found; it is supposed to have led to a valley temple which has yet to be located.{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=139}}
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