Bazina

A bazina is a circular, usually domed funerary monument. Inside, in the center, is a chamber where the dead person was buried. The entrance is usually invisible. The square equivalent, found in Egypt, is called mastaba.

Archaeologists have found bazinas along the edge of the desert from Marocco in the west to Saudi-Arabia in the east (e.g., Dedan). They have also been identified in Niger, on the southern border of the Sahara.

Bazinas and mastabas were first built in the Chalcolithic. In historical times, kings ordered the construction of very large monuments of this type (e.g., the mausoleum at Madghacen or the pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara). This type of funerary monument disappeared in Late Antiquity.