A type of ancient Egyptian tomb with a flat roof and rectangular base with sloping sides, serving as the burial place for nobles and high officials. These structures were the architectural predecessors to the great pyramids.
From Arabic 'mastaba' meaning bench, referring to the flat-topped, bench-like appearance of these tombs. The word was adopted by archaeologists in the 19th century to distinguish these structures from pyramids and other tomb types.
Mastabas were like ancient apartment buildings for the dead! They contained multiple chambers including a chapel for offerings, storage rooms for grave goods, and a deep burial shaft leading to the actual burial chamber. The Step Pyramid of Djoser was essentially six mastabas stacked on top of each other, showing the evolution toward pyramid construction.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.