Teti, builder of the northernmost pyramid at Saqqara, was the first king of the 6th Dynasty (ca. 2374 - 2354 BC). Like most of the pyramids from this era, the outer structure is greatly deteriorated. The entrance, at ground-level, opens into a narrow corridor that descends to an underground vestibule; to the left is a storage room, and to the right is the king’s burial chamber.

The walls of the burial chamber are inscribed with spells known as the Pyramid Texts, which were designed to ensure the survival of the monarch in his afterlife and his transformation to a divine state. The decoration is incomplete (engraved, but not painted), perhaps due to the king’s premature death. The burial chamber also contains the remains of a gray basalt sarcophagus. Teti’s mortuary complex, of which little survives, is surrounded by the mastabas of his highest officials.

Currently, Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, is directing fieldwork in the Teti complex at the tomb of Teti-ankher, his finds include new information from the complex of his queens, Khuit and Iput, a new pyramid belonging to Queen Weret-intes, New Kingdom chapels, and Late Period burials. Furthermore, archaeologists David Silverman and Joseph Wegner are excavating some important Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030 - 1660 BC) tombs in the area, and Australian archaeologist Naguib Kanawati is also exploring private tombs that lie within the complex.

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