had a mer-ahat at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.  It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy, like Usertsen’s mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at Der el-Bahari.  Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga.  Her secondary pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the “holy ground” at Abydos, though it was not an imitation bab, but a dummy pyramid of rubble.  This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two tombs, one at Nakada and the other at Abydos.  It is probable that all the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really buried elsewhere.  After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen (Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs.  Ramses III also had two tombs, both at Thebes.  The reasons for this custom were two:  first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give the ghost a pied-a-terre on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakkara.

As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be translated.  The text reads:  “It came to pass that when his Majesty the king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-Ra, Son of the Sun, Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the tjadu-hall, the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king’s daughter, the king’s sister, the god’s wife and great wife of the king, Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty.  And the one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,* which consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar, the painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the Festival of the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the going-forth of the Sem-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts of the Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the Hak-festival, the Uag-festival, the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of heaven and earth.  And his sister spake, answering him:  ’Why hath one remembered these matters, and wherefore hath this word been said?  Prithee, what hath come into thy heart?’ The king spake, saying:  ’As for me, I have remembered the mother of my mother, the mother of my father, the king’s great wife and king’s mother Teta-shera, deceased, whose tomb-chamber and mer-ahat are at this moment upon the soil of Thebes and Abydos.  I have spoken thus unto thee because my Majesty desireth to cause a pyramid and chapel to be made for her in the Sacred Land, as a