>Dead cats are taken away to sacred buildings in the town of Bubastis, where they are embalmed and buried; female dogs are buried by the townsfolk in their own towns in sacred coffins; and the like is done with mongooses. Shrewmice and hawks are take

Interesting. Never knew about Bubastis when I visited Egypt. Thought that Serapeum of Saqqara was the largets animal tomb,.
Did Herodotus mention why this was done?

I was building my summer house next to the step pyramids. While the foundation work was going on we ended up discovering this!!

Well described as Hauntingly beautiful

The early kingdom mummies were also buried in the sand and burial pits (without tombs).

The preservation of skulls over 2000 plus years could be hard if not mummified

Yes. That right. One such large animal tomb is called the Serapeum and it is located 40kilometers south of Cairo. It's near the Step pyramid.

There is recent funding to excavate more places, like it was not available before.

Egypt is full of mystery and history, and as long as the projects are well funded new discoveries will be happening.

Yep. I'm a fan of toby wilkinson. But the numbers there are ridiculous

It is possible, but the same pace over 20 years is unbelievable? Inspite of Rains, battles, summers, droughts... Too difficult to believe.

But 20 years is still a very short period to have built the great pyramid. The math tells that 1 stone should have been put in place for every 1 hour.

Great Pyramid of Giza - How on earth did they build that massive structure? (too many stories but none backed evidence)

Saqqara is very underrated historic site (overshadowed by the Great pyramid). It is the first stepping stone for large scale pyramid building.

Would always recommend to visit Saqqara to any history lover who travels to Egypt. Glad to see the site is making breakthroughs.