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 Exploring an Ancient Tomb
The Tomb of Unis-Ankh
Unis-Ankh was the son of King Unis, the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty (or ruling family) of Egypt. This privileged royal son died around 2400 BC, more than 1,000 years before King Tutankhamun was born.
As a member of the royal family, Unis-Ankh was mummified and buried in a limestone tomb of a type called a mastaba, which means “bench” in Arabic. It gets its modern name from its unusual bench-shaped structure, which includes a rectangular base, sloping sides, and a flat roof.
Typical of many noble tombs, Unis-Ankh’s mastaba was originally situated in the shadow of the pharaoh’s pyramid—in this case, the pyramid of his own father, located in the western desert near present-day Cairo.
In 1908, The Field Museum’s first president, Edward E. Ayer, purchased two chambers of Unis-Ankh’s tomb on an expedition to Egypt and brought them to the United States. These two rooms have now been reassembled, along with reconstructions of the missing chambers, so that visitors can experience a complete tomb.
To view this mysterious structure, you’ll enter the tomb on the Museum’s main floor, then climb to the mastaba’s roof and descend into recreated lower chambers where Unis-Ankh’s mummy would have originally been buried. During your journey, you’ll view 5,000-year-old carvings with prayers and descriptions of provisions for Unis-Ankh in the afterlife, as well as many objects from other tombs.
To learn more about Unis-Ankh’s tomb, continue to the Tomb Photo Gallery. >>
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