What was the stepped pyramid made of

A central corridor and two parallel ones extend over 1, feet meters , connecting rooms. Old Kingdom Monuments. Step Pyramid Built ca. Licence : CC0 Conditions. This pyramid is fantastic in its design. Initially simple mastaba, his builder made several modifications. First, he added a second mastaba over the first one.

Then, he enlarged the whole on one side and had to dig auxiliary funeral rooms. Then he made several steps rise above the mastabas, forming a step pyramid. He then had the pyramid enlarged twice, the amount to 62m in height. The funerary complex of Djoser is far more important than the pyramid.

It is a large rectangular ensemble surrounded by a high stepped wall with tombs, underground chambers, chapels, temples, courtyards, etc. It is the architect Imhotep who was the builder of the funerary complex of Giza. This well-known character is linked to the collective imagination as soon as we speak of ancient Egypt.

He appears in many movies and books. Djoser's successor was Pharaoh Sekhemkhet. He built a funeral complex similar to his father's at Saqqara , in the Southwest. Unfortunately it remained unfinished, probably because of the premature death of the pharaoh who reigned only 6 or 7 years, which is insufficient to build the entire funeral complex It is estimated at 20 years the duration of such a construction site. The pyramid of Sekhemkhet should have been 7 degrees for a height of 70m, so 8m higher than that of its predecessor.

To the south of the pyramid lies a great court, with an altar and stones identified as boundary markers. These structures would have served ritual purposes and, curiously, they appear to have been partly buried by their builders, notes Egyptologist Mark Lehner in his book "The Complete Pyramids.

In the southeast side of the complex, next to the dummy chapels, is a court that would have allowed the king to enact the Heb-Sed jubilee festival, presumably in the afterlife. It contains a series of tunnels that mimic those found beneath the pyramid itself.

What was buried there is a mystery. Beneath the step pyramid is a bewildering array of tunnels and chambers, the center of which is a foot-deep 28 meters shaft that, at its bottom, contains the burial chamber of king Djoser. The two courts in front of the pyramid recreate the setting of the Sed Festival, a royal ceremony aimed at rejuvenating the king and regenerating his power. The structures on the side of the eastern court emulate in stone the ephemeral shrines that were used in this festival, thus ensuring that the king could continue being rejuvenated forever.

From AM.