Saqqara is located near the entrance of the Delta, at the point where the river starts dividing into several arms, on the west bank of the Nile. Its first tombs, dated to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty, were built on the ridge of the desert plateau, probably immediately to the west of the new capital of Memphis.
On a clear day, its most prominent monument, Djoser's Step Pyramid, can be seen from Giza, which lies some 17 kilometres to the North, and from Dashur, about 10 kilometres to the South. From Egypt's modern-day capital, Cairo, Saqqara is some 40 kilometres away.
Throughout its almost 3.000 year long history, Saqqara expanded to cover an area of 6 kilometers from north to south by 1,5 kilometers from east to west. As such, it is one of the largest and most important areas of the Memphite necropolis.
Its northern most monuments, the so-called Archaic Tombs, are located slightly to the south of the 5th Dynasty necropolis of Abusir. It is believed by some that the oldest remains of Memphis are to be found underneath the modern-day village of Abusir, immediately to the east of the Archaic Tombs.
To the south, Saqqara borders on Dashur, which some Egyptologists consider only to have been an extension of Saqqara. Against this view, however, it must be noted that when the first pyramids were built at Dashur, in the beginning of the 4th Dynasty, there was a large area of unexploited desert between the two sites. The southern-most royal monument at Saqqara was built by Shepseskaf, the last king of the 4th Dynasty.
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