By the sides of Cheope’s pyramid except for the northern one, there are, apart from the small queens’ pyramids, many Mastaba tombs intended for members of the royal family, high state officials and cult dignitaries. The tombs date back to the 4th ,5th and 6th dynasty.

Mastaba, consisting of a deep pit hollowed into rock, which widens out into a room were the corpse would be laid, has a masonry superstructure on its surface, intended for the worship of the dead.

The superstructure, shaped as a parallelepiped, with tapered walls and firstly compact, was subject to many variations which turned it into a series of rooms. There is a chapel for the worship and the daily offers; firstly it used to be built outside, by the eastern wall of the tomb. The walls of the rooms are decorated with scenes related to the social status of the buried functionary. Hence comes the great historical value: thanks to these representations we were able to know institutions and customs of the ancient Egyptians.

Qar’s and Idu’s mastabas, dating back to the 5th and 6th dynasty and situated by the northern border of the great eastern necropolis of Cheope’s pyramid, are unusual, because it seemed their superstructure (now almost disappeared) consisted of an enclosed area with a rocky chapel reachable through a stair. The first pillared chamber before the offerings chamber, shows a series of high relief statues lined along the wall in a unique niche, having the function of protecting and substituting the corpse to assure his survival.

Idu’s mastaba shows the same abundance of sculpted decorations: in the offerings chamber, hollowed into rock, there are six statues in single niches with architraves and jambs reporting the names and the titles of the dead person, and a funerary shrine, with a niche carved out into the lower part and an unusual half-length portrait of the dead person, whose hands are outstretched towards the offerings table in front of him.

Particular from the relieves of the shrine in Idu’s mastaba.
The dead person, who was “scribe of the royal letters” and “chief of the scribes of the servants” in charge of temple properties, sits in front of the offerings table on a seat,
under which there is a small portrayal of his wife Meretites.