Pyramid of Djoser

On the plateau of Saqqara, above the ruins of ancient Memphis, stands the building where Egyptian monumental architecture begins. The Step Pyramid was raised in the 27th century BC for Djoser, a king of the Third Dynasty known in his own time by his Horus name Netjerikhet. Its six stacked tiers of limestone rise to about 62 m over a rectangular base of roughly 121 by 109 m, and it is usually counted the earliest colossal structure in Egypt built entirely of cut stone. Tradition and most Egyptologists credit the design to Imhotep, Djoser's high official, whose statue with his titles was found in the complex and who was later deified; the Greeks identified him with Asclepius.

The pyramid was not planned as one. It began as a square mastaba, the flat-topped tomb of earlier kings and nobles, and was enlarged several times before its builders turned it into a four-step and finally a six-step pyramid. The phases can still be read on the south and east faces, where later casings have fallen away. Instead of laying the pyramid courses flat, the masons tilted the stone layers inward for stability, a step on the road to the true pyramids of Giza. Beneath lies a 28-metre shaft leading to a burial chamber of granite blocks, once sealed with a plug weighing some 3.5 tonnes, and a maze of galleries several kilometres long. Some rooms were lined with blue faience tiles imitating reed matting and carry reliefs of the king running the ritual course of the Sed festival; tens of thousands of stone vessels, many bearing names of earlier kings, were found in the eastern galleries.

The pyramid is the centrepiece of a complex covering about 15 hectares, enclosed by a limestone wall carved with 1,680 recessed niches, a pattern that earlier builders had made with timber, rope and reed mats. Inside, a colonnaded entrance, courts, pavilions and the ceremonial court of the Sed festival translate into permanent stone the forms of older architecture in perishable materials. A small closed chamber on the north side, the serdab, held the seated statue of Djoser that is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The French architect Jean-Philippe Lauer spent much of his life from the late 1920s on excavating and partly rebuilding the complex. Saqqara is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Memphis and its Necropolis, inscribed in 1979.

Getting there

Saqqara lies on the desert edge west of the Nile, about 4.5 km from the town of Al Hawamidiyah; most visitors come by car or on a tour from Cairo. Cairo International Airport (CAI) is about 32 km away in a straight line, though the drive across greater Cairo takes much longer.