Today was another day in the desert. Between Giza and Dahshur lies Saqqara. In chronology, the main sites at Saqqara are actually older than both of them, but not quite as old as Memphis.
When pharaoh Narmer built Memphis in the 1st Dynasty, he used mud brick. So did his successors. That explains why so little remains of these structures. But in the 3rd Dynasty, pharaoh Zoser (or Djoser, depending on the book you read), employed an architect named Imhotep. He had a revolutionary idea. Instead of using brick, why not use stone?Imhotep began building a funeral complex for Zoser. The style of the day for one's final resting place was to build a sort of plateau structure with sloped sides and a flat top. This was called a "mastaba". Imhotep started out building Zoser a mastaba. He built a courtyard surrounding it. The remaining walls are pictured here. Once past the walls, you passed through a magnificent colonnaded corridor...
Indiana Jones, I presume?
...and then passed through a broad hypostyle hall with four pair of "engaged" columns to reach the courtyard called the "Great South Court".And, when Imhotep was finished, Zoser asked for something grander. So, Imhotep took mastaba-building to a whole new level. He decided to build a mastaba on top of the mastaba. But he didn't stop there. He built another mastaba on top of another mastaba until he had created the...
...Step Pyramid. This was something that had never been done before. Not only were they working in a new material (limestone), but they had built an enormous structure, visible for miles in every direction. It was quite an accomplishment. It paved the way for later pharaohs to build real pyramids and expand the use of stone.The stones in Zoser's funery complex are small compared to Giza. At Giza, each stone weighed several tons. The stones Imhotep used in the Step Pyramid are about the size of today's cement blocks. It makes it easier to work with on-site, but it means a lot more stone-cutting back at the quarry.
The courtyard around the pyramid was being restored while we were there. They had re-erected many walls, including these in the Heb-Sed Court off to the side of the Great South Court.