the tomb of kaninisut was a mastaba tomb. the term "mastaba", which is arabic for bench, derives from the appearance of these tombs: the upper building is rectangular with slightly inclined side walls and thus looks like an oversized bench. the core structure of kaninisut's mastaba is 24 m long by 10.2 m wide, the height can no longer be determined due to its destruction. the outer walls were made of limestone blocks clad with a layer of fine white tura limestone. there are no rooms in the interior of the upper building; it is filled in with rubble. towards the end of the reign of khufu it was becoming increasingly common to place the cult rooms within the upper building, before this they were added to the east facade of the tomb. apparently in the case of kaninisut's mastaba, the basic structure of the tomb was completed towards the end of khufu's reign, but it required numerous adaptations in order to fit the new building style. rather than to hollow out the mastaba, it was apparently decided to extend the tomb to the south, in order to install the cult chamber there.