South Pavilion Graffiti

The necropolis of Saqqara is home to the Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest pyramid in the world. Interestingly, its identification is said to have been helped by tourist graffiti left in the complex over 3,000 years ago.

The graffiti can be found inside the Pavilion of the South, an unassuming structure drawing few visitors. It’s a dummy building that contains nothing but a narrow passage inside, built purely as a symbol of the pharaoh’s authority, perhaps modeled after a shrine or a government palace.

Left by a traveler who visited the necropolis during the New Kingdom period, about a thousand years after the tombs were completed, the ancient graffiti is not unlike its modern equivalent. Even in antiquity, tourist graffiti was typically the equivalent of “I was here” or a snarky Google Maps review.

The significance of this particular Hieratic inscription, however, is that it refers to the owner of the pyramid as Djoser. Now protected under glass panels, the 3,000-year-old vandalism remains an integral part of the Saqqara complex.