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Unas in hieroglyphs: the king whose pyramid first spoke
25 October 2026
Unas wrote one name in his cartouche: a hare, a water ripple, a reed leaf and a folded cloth, read wnis, "Wenis". Unas is the usual modern spelling. The name has no agreed meaning.
He was the last king of the 5th Dynasty, around 2375 to 2345 BC. His pyramid at Saqqara is the smallest royal pyramid of the Old Kingdom, and the first with writing inside: the Pyramid Texts, spells carved in columns over the walls of his burial rooms, with his cartouche in spell after spell.
A hare opens the name
The hare (E34) is wn, a sign for two sounds. The water ripple (N35) repeats the n, a habit of Egyptian spelling, so wn is written hare plus n. The reed leaf (M17) is i and the folded cloth (S29) is s. Read together: wnis. Greek writers turned it into Onnos.
His Horus name, written in a serekh under the falcon, was wꜣḏ-tꜣwj, Wadjtawy, "flourishing of the Two Lands". Most of his monuments use the cartouche.
The Pyramid Texts begin with Unas
Earlier pyramids were silent inside. Unas had the walls of his antechamber and burial chamber covered with spells to help the king rise to the sky, join the sun god Ra and the stars, and rule among the gods with Osiris. Scholars count between about 230 and 280 of them. The signs were cut into the stone and filled with blue paint, under a ceiling of carved stars.
Gaston Maspero entered the burial rooms in 1881 and published the texts. Kings and queens after Unas carved their own versions, and the spells lived on in coffins and in the Book of the Dead for two thousand years. One of them, the Cannibal Hymn, has the king hunt and eat the gods to take their power.
His causeway shows granite columns on the Nile
A covered causeway about 750 metres long ran from his valley temple up to the pyramid. Its walls were carved and painted. Surviving blocks show boats bringing granite columns from Aswan, ships returning from the Levant, markets, craftsmen, a fight with desert nomads and a giraffe.
One scene shows starving, skeletal people. It was once read as proof of a famine in his reign. Most Egyptologists now see it as a stock image of desert nomads in need, there to show the generosity of the king. Parts of the causeway have been rebuilt on site.
Unas left no son to follow him
Unas followed Djedkare Isesi, who may have been his father. His queens were Nebet and Khenut, buried in mastabas beside his pyramid. He had at least five daughters. A son, Unas-ankh, seems to have died before him. The next king, Teti, began the 6th Dynasty, and may have married a daughter of Unas.
Ancient king lists give Unas a reign of 30 years or more. Some modern scholars argue for as few as 15. Manetho ended a dynasty with him, but the break may have been less sharp than that suggests.
Khaemwaset restored his name a thousand years later
Unas's cult went on to the end of the Old Kingdom. Kings of the 12th Dynasty took stone from his complex for their own pyramids. Then, in the 13th century BC, Prince Khaemwaset, a son of Ramesses II, restored the pyramid and carved a text on its south face recording that he had renewed the name of King Unas. He did the same on other old pyramids around Memphis.
Look for that inscription on the outside of the pyramid, and for Unas's cartouche in the New Kingdom signs, much later in style than the spells inside.
Questions
What are the Pyramid Texts of Unas?
Spells carved on the walls of his burial rooms at Saqqara, around 2350 BC, to help the king live forever among the gods. They are the oldest large body of religious writing from Egypt.
Can you visit the Pyramid of Unas?
It has opened and closed to visitors over the years, sometimes needing a separate ticket. Check at Saqqara on the day.
Was there a famine under Unas?
The starving people on his causeway were once read that way. Most Egyptologists now think the scene shows desert nomads, a stock theme of royal generosity.
Glossary
- ankh
- The sign of life, ꜥnḫ, a cross with a loop on top. Gods hold it out to kings in temple scenes.
- Book of the Dead
- A collection of spells written on papyrus and placed in burials from the New Kingdom on, to guide the dead through the afterlife. Egyptians called it the Spells for Coming Forth by Day.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- coffin
- A box for the body, of wood or stone, often shaped like a person and painted with spells, names and gods. Rich burials nested several coffins inside a sarcophagus.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- Horus name
- The oldest of a king's names, written in a serekh under the Horus falcon. It names the king as the god Horus on earth.
- mastaba
- A flat-topped tomb of mud brick or stone with sloping sides, built over a burial shaft. The name is the Arabic word for a bench.
- Old Kingdom
- The age of the pyramid builders, about 2686 to 2181 BC, from the 3rd to the 6th Dynasty.
- pyramid
- A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
- Pyramid Texts
- The oldest religious spells of Egypt, carved in the burial rooms of pyramids from the reign of Unas, around 2350 BC, on.
- serekh
- A frame showing the front of a palace, with a king's Horus name written above it and the Horus falcon on top. The oldest royal names are written in serekhs.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Pyramid of Unas monument
- Saqqara site
Sources
More to read
- Mentuhotep II in hieroglyphs: Nebhepetre, the king who reunited Egypt Mentuhotep II in hieroglyphics: Nebhepetre and Mentuhotep read sign by sign, the Theban king who reunited Egypt, and his temple at Deir el-Bahari.
- Djedefre in hieroglyphs: Khufu's son and the first son of Ra Djedefre in hieroglyphics: his cartouche read sign by sign, the first king called "son of Ra", his pyramid at Abu Rawash and his name over Khufu's boat.
- Hemiunu in hieroglyphs: how to read the name and where to see them Hemiunu in hieroglyphics: read the signs in his name and learn about his tomb at Giza and seated statue in Hildesheim.