The Step Pyramid at Saqqara was built by the architect Imhotep at the instigation of King Djoser sometime between 2630 and 2611 BCE. The pyramid was the first large building to be made entirely of cut stone blocks, and it was far larger than anything that had gone before.
The Step Pyramid paved the way for the great pyramids of the following century.
Imhotep chose a site where his building would dominate the area. There he built a six-stepped pyramid that was 200 feet (61 m) tall and symbolized the hill on which creation began. The pyramid was surrounded by other large buildings. The whole complex was bounded by a wall that was more than 1 mile (1.6 km) long.
Enclosed within the wall were buildings such as a temple and storage rooms for provisions and grave goods that had also been provided in earlier royal tombs. What was new, however, was a court where the king could celebrate his jubilees— ceremonies through which the power of the king was believed to be ritually renewed.
All the buildings were lavishly furnished and decorated. In the underground rooms, for example, the walls were hung with panels of blue-glazed tiles, while in another location, there were low-relief carvings that showed the king performing the running ceremony that was part of his coronation. A life-size statue of Djoser seated on his throne was installed in a special room close to the temple, and many other statues of gods and of members of the royal family were dotted around the enclosure. The storage rooms contained more than 40,000 stone vessels, which probably contained wine, oil, and foodstuffs.
The temple in the complex had an important role to play in the cult of dead kings. Priests in the temple carried out ceremonies and rituals that were designed to serve the dead kings in the same way as they had when the kings were alive. In this way, the present king's ancestors were venerated, and the continuity that was essential to Egyptian civilization was preserved.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser stands in the desert at Saqqara. In the foreground are stone replicas of the kiosks that would have been in use during festivals to celebrate the royal jubilee.
World History
