Palm Column of Sahure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This massive column is one of sixteen that surrounded an open courtyard in the pyramid temple of the pharaoh Sahure, whose names and epithets are inscribed in the panel. The column is a single block of granite, originally 21 1/2 feet high (6.45 m). The stone was quarried at Aswan and ferried downstream more than five hundred miles to the pyramid site at Abusir. Many elements in pharaonic stone architecture are stylized representations of wood and reed elements that may have existed only in very early structures. The palm column seems to imitate a wooden pole with date-palm fronds lashed to the top with rope. The end of the rope, tucked under the lashings, reappears beneath as a loop. This Curatorial Interpretation explores the work in more depth.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art