In the period between his death and mummification, an improvised, north-south oriented limestone mortuary temple was built on a strip of platform originally intended for the casing of the pyramid.

It is unclear who constructed this initial phase of the temple, though clay sealings found in its vicinity suggest that it may have been the ephemeral ruler Shepseskare who commissioned it.

[20] It is seated on the Abusir diagonal,[7] a figurative line touching the north-western corners of the pyramids of Sahure, Neferirkare, and Neferefre, and pointing towards Heliopolis (Iunu).

[21] A limestone block, discovered by Édouard Ghazouli in the village of Abusir in the 1930s, depicts Neferirkare with his consort, Khentkaus II, and eldest son, Neferefre, further substantiating the chronology.

John Shae Perring (1835–1837),[23] Karl Richard Lepsius (1842–1846),[23] who catalogued the ruins as XXVI in his pyramid list,[24] Jacques de Morgan, and Ludwig Borchardt each gave limited attention to the building.

[1] Borchardt carried out a trial excavation at the site, digging a trench into the open ditch that spanned from the north face of the monument to its center.

Substructure passages had north-south orientations pointing to the pole star, where Ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh would join Re in the sky and remain in the "heavenly ocean" for all eternity.

By contrast the burial- and ante- chambers were oriented east-west, and the mummy itself was placed against the western wall with its head pointed north, but facing east.

It was speculatively attributed to Neferefre, or the ephemeral Shepseskare, and it was believed that the structure was abandoned before its completion, excluding the possibility of a burial and, consequently, a mortuary cult.

[30] Neferefre's complex consisted of an unfinished pyramid, comprising a single step that was hastily converted into a mound,[5] and a mortuary temple built in three stages during the reigns of Nyuserre and, possibly, Shepseskare.

[36] Lepsius justified his hypothesis with the idea that it allowed the pharaoh to expand his tomb gradually over the course of his reign, but if this was the case, then there should be a correlation between regnal duration and pyramid size, yet no such relationship exists.

[3] The pyramid core, between the two frames, was then packed with rubble fill composed of limestone chips, sand, pottery shards, and clay.

[38][36] Only the lowest step of Neferefre's pyramid was completed,[9] before a hasty conversion into a square mastaba or primeval mound – as suggested by its name, iat (hill), found in the Abusir Papyri[5] – was made to accommodate his funeral.

[39][28] The single step, about 7 m (23 ft; 13 cu) tall, was enclosed by roughly dressed fine white Tura limestone blocks sloped at ~78°.

[42] Stripped of their valuable casing, their cores were exposed to further human destruction and natural erosion, leaving the Abusir pyramids as ruinous, formless mounds.

These have been severely damaged by stone thieves quarrying inside the pyramid who had easy access to the chambers from the roof terrace where they dug a ditch and set up a workshop.

[48] At the end of the 1970s, with written evidence supporting its existence and a working hypothesis that the tomb was functional, a search was conducted for the mortuary temple of Neferefre's unfinished pyramid by the Czech team.

[43] It is unclear who finished the temple after Neferefre's death, but two clay seals bearing the Horus name of Shepseskare, Sekhemkau, were discovered in the vicinity suggesting that it may have been commissioned by him.

[66] He retained the north-south orientation,[65] but moved the entrance to the centre of the eastern façade, underneath a portico adorned with two white limestone lotus stalk columns.

[66][67] The northern sector of the temple contained ten two-story storage magazines, arranged in two rows of five rooms opposite each other, all accessed from a single passage.

[69] Besides the papyri, frit tablets – depicting gods and the king, alongside gold leaf covered hieroglyphic inscriptions –, faience ornaments, stone vessels – variously of diorite, alabaster, gabro, limestone and basalt – flint knives and other remains were also discovered.

[66][67] Particularly significant to Egyptologists is the recovery of a vast quantity of clay sealings bearing the names of kings, officials, temples, palaces, gods and other details, which provide a plethora of information on administrative and economic organisation in the Old Kingdom.

[65] Inside the hall, numerous fragments of statues – diorite, basalt, limestone, red quartzite and wood – of Neferefre, and six complete portraits were recovered.

[72] One such statue represented Neferefre seated upon his throne with a hedj mace grasped against his chest, a uraeus (originally) on his head, and with the outstretched wings of Horus protecting him from behind.

[80][75] Temple archive papyri and vessel inscriptions identify it as "the Sanctuary of the Knife", and preserve an event in which 130 bulls were slaughtered at the abattoir during a ten-day festival.

[78] A Middle Kingdom burial was unearthed in the abattoir, belonging to a hunchbacked – caused by severe tuberculosis of the bone – man called Khuiankh, who had served as one of the last priests of the mortuary cult.

[78] The unfinished pyramid and mortuary temple were surrounded by a massive brick perimeter wall, reinforced with limestone monoliths at its corners.

[78] In the hypostyle hall, a mudbrick ramp had been built by stone thieves who left behind vessels and chromatic glass, all dating to the New Kingdom period.

[90] Around the same time, a necropolis formed around the Abusir monuments containing the crude wooden coffins of common people, who had seemingly concluded that the shadow of the pyramids was the best final resting place.

[92] To the benefit of Neferefre's monument, its condition discouraged tomb robbers from looting the pyramid, allowing it to remain one of the best preserved complexes of the Old Kingdom.