The first pyramid built in Egypt was the Step Pyramid of Djoser.
During Egypt's third dynasty, the pharaoh that gave the pyramid its name, Djoser, sometimes spelled Zoser, ruled. The planning of the pyramid is thought to have been done by Imhotep.
"Djoser is the name given to this king by New Kingdom visitors to the site over a thousand years later" wrote Mark Lehner in his book "The Complete Pyramids: Solving The Ancient Mysteries"
The mastaba tomb, a flat-roofed structure with sloping sides, was the first expansion of the pyramid. The pyramid was made of stone and clay. There are 3.5 miles of tunnels beneath the pyramid. Most of the limestone on the pyramid is gone.
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In the past, pharaohs were buried in smaller mastaba tombs, which were easier to reach by digging in from the top. Clark wrote that the Step Pyramid of Djoser would have made it hard for a bandit to get to the burial chamber. The step pyramid may have been built to protect against grave robbers.
Most of the burial goods, including the mummy of Djoser, are long gone due to people breaking into the step pyramid.
Some mummies have been taken from the tomb. The mummies were found in the late period. The Journal of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists (opens in new tab) published a paper in which it was stated that the buried were inside the burial chamber. The king's burial chamber was broken into and more mummies were buried inside by the late period.
There is a pyramid at the center of a complex. There are fake doorways and real colonnade entrances on the southeast side of the complex.
There is a temple on the north side of the pyramid. The king's eyes can be seen through a hole in the serdab surrounding the statue. There is a great court to the south of the pyramid.
A number of facade buildings were placed in the complex, including a series of chapels in the southeast and north and south pavilion on the east side of the pyramid. The structures appeared to have been partially buried by their builders and would have served ritual purposes. The southeast side of the complex has a court where the king could perform the Heb-Sed festival.
There is a chapel at the south tomb. There are tunnels that are similar to the ones found beneath the pyramid.
The south tomb had carved limestone panels that depicted the pharaoh running the heb-sed race. The king ran around an open area during the festival. Dodson, an Egyptology professor at the University of Bristol, and Ikram, an Egyptology professor at the American University in Cairo, wrote that the south tomb may not have been used for burials.
According to a study published in 2015, the complex is surrounded by a dry "moat" of varying depth and width. The team wrote in their paper that a survey showed that it was a huge quarry for material used for the Step Pyramid.
The burial chamber of King Djoser is located at the bottom of a 90-foot deep shaft that is part of a maze of tunnels and chambers. According to Zahi Hawass, a former minister of antiquities in Egypt, there are fragments of the king's sarcophagus in the burial chamber. The king's sarcophagus was originally thought to weigh 1.76 tons.
The illusion of a star-filled sky was supposed to be created by decorating the ceiling with limestone blocks engraved with five points. Blocks from the planned ceiling were found by archaeologists, but the builders scrapped the decoration and left a plain granite ceiling.
There are two underground passages and a third underground passageway. There are three magazine galleries, a tunnel for offerings, and an uncompleted chamber that may have been used as an underground purgatory.
There are three false doors that show the king engaged in rituals. The king's real-life palace in Memphis may have inspired the blue tiles on the chamber. The chamber was finished in a matter of hours.
There are 40,000 stone vessels in a tunnel on the east side of the pyramid. The hip bone of a woman who was 18 years old at the time of her death has been found by archaeologists. Some of the female remains are old, leaving a question as to who they were.
Engineers from a British engineering company helped Egypt conserve the pyramid over the course of six years. Workers repaired the structure of the pyramid while giant airbags were used to hold it up.
Some of the blocks became loose and were put back in place.
After filling the gaps with mortar, the team was able to collect all the blocks that were loose under the sand. The mortar has the same ratio of limestone to sand as the ancient Egyptians did.
The Great Pyramid at Giza would be the culmination of a pyramid-building program that began with the step pyramid. The man who designed the step pyramid would eventually be considered a god.
King Djoser gave Imhotep a rare honor by allowing his name and titles to be carved on the base of one. He is referred to as the "chief of sculptors" because he was the one who designed the Egyptian pyramid.
After Djoser's death, officials wanted to bury him near his step pyramid. The tomb was found by the step pyramid. He lived around 4,300 years ago.
Imhotep's location is one long-standing question. Egyptologists think that Imhotep may be buried near his most famous creation. There is a chance that Imhotep was buried beneath the step pyramid.
"Securing Eternity: Ancient Egyptian Tomb Protection from Prehistory to the Pyramids" was written by Clark.
The Tomb in Ancient Egypt was published in 2008.
The Journal of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists was written by Hawass.
The Complete Pyramids: Solving The Ancient Mysteries was written by Mark Lehner.
The History of Ancient Egypt was written by Van de Mieroop.
The western section of the Dry Moat Channel surrounds the Step Pyramid Complex in Saqqara in the light of ground-penetrating radar.
The original article was published on Live Science on September 10, 2012
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