The document summarizes everyday life and structures at the ancient Egyptian city of Sais based on accounts from Herodotus and excavation findings by Champollion. It describes how kings were buried within the temple precinct of Athene, including the tombs of Amasis and Apries. It also mentions an unnamed tomb presumed to be of Osiris-Hemag located behind the temple wall. Further, it outlines buildings and structures at Sais including great stone obelisks, a circular lake, and a magnificent outer court built by Amasis with large statues and sphinxes using stones from Memphis and a single chamber shrine transported from Elephantine over three years. Champollion's excavations at Sais

1. Everyday Life at Sais

2. Sa el-Hagar

3. Herodotus 2.169–70, 175
… in the temple of Athene [i.e. Neith], very near to the sanctuary, on the left of the entrance. The people of
Sais buried within the temple precinct all kings who were natives of their province. The tomb of Amasis is
further from the sanctuary than the tomb of Apries and his ancestors, yet it is also within the temple court; it is
a great colonnade of stone, richly adorned, the pillars whereof are wrought in the form of palm trees. In this
colonnade are two portals, and the place where the coffin lies is within their doors.
There is also at Sais the burial-place of him whose name I deem it forbidden to utter in speaking of such a
matter [presumably the tomb of Osiris-Hemag]; it is in the temple of Athene, behind and close to the whole
length of the wall of the shrine. Moreover, great stone obelisks stand in the precinct, and there is a lake hard
by, adorned with a stone margin and well worked on all sides, circular in shape.
Amasis made a marvellous outer court for Athene at Sais, surpassing in height and grandeur, and in the size
and splendour of the stones, all who had erected such buildings; moreover he set up huge images and vast
man-headed sphinxes, and brought enormous blocks of stone for the building. Some of these he brought from
the stone quarries of Memphis; those of greatest size came from the city of Elephantine, distant twenty days’
journey by river from Sais. But let me now tell you of what I hold the most marvellous of all his works. He
brought from Elephantine a shrine made of one block of stone; three years it was in the bringing, and two
thousand men were charged with the carriage of it, pilots all of them. This chamber measures in outer length
21 cubits, in breadth 14, in height 8.

4. Champollion (1828)
When we went to the middle of this debris, we came
across the remains of an extensive building, divided
up in to many small rooms, in different stages –
joining and separated by very thick walls. All of this
building, of an equal height at least to the enclosure
wall (24.5 m), was built of unbaked bricks, but whose
dimensions were less than those used to build the
enclosure. The whole ruin field was covered in
pottery sherds, amongst which my Barabra
Mohammad collected at my feet, an Egyptian figure
of glazed pottery, representing the aegis of Neith, that
is, the head of a lioness-headed goddess with the disk
upon a collar, and some glazed Egyptian pottery
sherds. All these pieces of pots came out, being the
pieces used in beds, mixed with bricks in the bulk of
the rooms (cloisons), being the great jars set in the
walls of each chamber; I noticed seven or eight in
pace in the small rooms.
Lettres écrites d'Égypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829
pp. 61-62

5. Remains of monuments

6. Brickworks

7. Villa

8. Caananite amphorae & stand

10. Small finds

11. NK Cemetery