Editing Apis (deity) (section)

==Burial==
{{Main|Serapeum of Saqqara}}
Details of the [[mummification]] ritual of the sacred bull are written within the [[Apis papyrus]].<ref name="Vos R.L.">{{cite book|url=http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz.asp?nr=2797|author=Vos R.L.|title=The Apis Embalming Ritual - P. Vindob. 3873|year=1993|publisher=Peeters publishers 1992|isbn=978-90-6831-438-0|access-date=2015-07-02|archive-date=2015-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702030349/http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz.asp?nr=2797|url-status=dead}}</ref> Sometimes the body of the bull was [[mummy|mummified]] and fixed in a standing position on a foundation made of wooden planks.

By the New Kingdom period, the remains of the sacred bulls were interred at the cemetery of [[Saqqara]]. The earliest known burial in Saqqara was performed in the reign of [[Amenhotep III]] by his son [[Thutmose (prince)|Thutmose]]; afterward, seven more bulls were buried nearby. [[Ramesses II]] initiated Apis burials in what now is known as the [[Serapeum of Saqqara|Serapeum]], an underground complex of burial chambers at Saqqara for the sacred bulls, a site used throughout the rest of Ancient Egyptian history into the reign of [[Cleopatra]].

[[File:Stele dedicated to Apis-Louvre N 5417-mp3h8842.jpg|thumb|220px|Stele dedicated to an Apis, dating to Year 21 of [[Psamtik I]] ({{Circa|644 BCE}})]]

[[Khaemweset]], the priestly son of [[Ramesses II]] ({{Circa|1300 BCE}}), excavated a great gallery to be lined with the tomb chambers; another similar gallery was added by [[Psamtik I]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Price |first=Campbell |date=12 August 2022 |title=The Legacy of Prince Khaemwaset at Saqqara |url=https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/5/3/115/pdf |journal=Heritage |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=2196–2209|doi=10.3390/heritage5030115 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The careful documentation of the ages of the animals in the later instances, with the regnal dates for their birth, enthronement, and death have thrown much light on the chronology from the [[Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt|Twenty-second Dynasty]] onward. The name of the mother cow and the place of the calf's birth are often recorded. The [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] are of immense size and the burial must have entailed enormous expense. It is remarkable, therefore, that the ancient religious leaders contrived to bury one of the animals in the fourth year of [[Cambyses II]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

The Apis was a protector of the deceased and linked to the pharaoh. Horns embellish some of the tombs of ancient pharaohs and Apis often was depicted on private coffins as a powerful protector. As a form of Osiris, ruler of the underworld, it was believed that to be under the protection of Apis would give the person control over the four winds in the afterlife.