Our master builders have different goals, however.  The first, Hemienu, was determined to build the greatest pyramid ever, and the second, Jean-Pierre Houdin, was equally determined to figure out how he did it.

Jean-Pierre Houdin and Bob Brier wrote a book—The Secret of the Great Pyramid—about this very subject in 2008 and the paperback edition is due to hit bookstores October 6, 2009.  Ahead of the paperback, Em Hotep!  is providing you with a multi-part primer to Houdin’s work, to be followed with an interview with the man himself.

But first, who are these two architects?

Hemienu, son of Nefermaat—or Snefru

Hemienu: Vizier, Master of Works, and architect of the Great Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Although the Great Pyramid bears the name of Pharaoh Khufu, Hemienu was the genius behind its construction.  It was no coincidence that Hemienu should be selected for the job, and his pedigree would have well prepared him for the task.  What we don’t know from primary sources we may infer from what we do know about his probable history, and history in general.

There are two main theories regarding Hemienu’s childhood.  According to one theory he was the son of Pharaoh Snefru’s vizier, Nefermaat.  Vizier Nefermaat also bore the title “King’s Eldest Son,” which taken literally would have made Hemienu Snefru’s grandson.  As the positions of Vizier and Master of Works usually went hand-in-hand, it is believed that Nefermaat probably designed and built Snefru’s pyramids, including the Red Pyramid, the first true pyramid

If Nefermaat was Hemienu’s father, it is not difficult to imagine the two of them visiting building sites together, the youngster rapt with his father’s instructions to the workers, his discussions of geography and topography as he surveyed locations, and geological reports delivered from distant provinces.  He would have witnessed firsthand the difficult and painful lessons of the failures of the collapsed pyramid at Meidum and the second guessing that led to the oddly shaped Bent Pyramid at Dashur.

Pharaoh Snefru (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The other theory is that Hemienu was the son of Snefru, the pharaoh himself.  As a son of the pharaoh, Hemienu would have had an elite education leaving him well versed in the principles of mathematics and astronomy, and with an appreciation for the importance of architecture in religion.  His days at the court would have familiarized him with the intricacies of leadership and logistics.

While Hemienu, as the son of Pharaoh Snefru, may not have visited the building sites of the pyramids (although he very well may have), he would have been privy to the discussions of their construction.  We may safely assume this from the fact that regardless of who his father may have been, he eventually became vizier and Master of Works himself for his brother—or uncle—Khufu.  And as such, he showed clear signs of having learned from, and improved upon, the methods used by pyramid builders who preceded him.

The Pyramid Age had been ushered in by Imhotep, the vizier and master architect of Pharaoh Djoser.  Imhotep invented the pyramid, and while the form he designed may have changed, his template for pyramids and the complexes associated with them would set the standard for centuries to follow.  Before Imhotep, pharaohs and other nobles were buried under mastabas, rectangular stone buildings that contained mortuary shrines to the deceased and often symbolically mirrored the homes they occupied in life.

Imhotep conceived of a burial monument consisting of a number of mastabas stacked on top of each other, growing smaller as they rose.  His invention was the Step Pyramid, and he arrived at it through a process of modification and experimentation.  Like a Third Dynasty Einstein, Imhotep started with the idea of a pyramid and by devising, testing, and refining his idea, he achieved what had never been done before.

Hemienu, on the other hand, was more like Michelangelo.  He knew exactly what he wanted from the beginning, and by precisely executing his vision he achieved what has never been done since.  He had a plan which underwent very little modification, nor could it have.  Hemienu understood how every layer had to look and function—from the underground provisional tomb to the pyramidion—before he began digging.

Jean-Pierre Houdin, son of Henri

Jean-Pierre Houdin (center) - An architectural solution to an architectural question (courtesy of Jean-Pierre Houdin)

Jean-Pierre Houdin also grew up among the construction of great monuments.  His father, Henri Houdin, was part of the generation of French children born after WWI whose lives would be shaped by the events of WWII.  At the end of the war, he earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Paris’s presti-gious École des Arts et Metiers.  With more than 7,000 bridges to be rebuilt, young engineers were given tremendous responsibilities. Thus in 1947 24-year-old Henri Houdin was placed in charge of rebuilding the Conflans Bridge outside of Paris (Brier and Houdin, pp. 2, 38).

Jean-Pierre was born in 1951, the younger of two sons, and spent much of his childhood playing at construction sites with his brother, Bernard.  Henri had been assigned to the Ivory Coast, a French protectorate, where he was instrumental in the rebuilding of that country, and family outings often consisted of picnics at construction sites (Brier and Houdin, pp. 38-40). 

It was thus no surprise when Jean-Pierre decided to become an architect.  He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1970 for that purpose where, as part of his final year studies, Jean-Pierre designed a solar house that would be considered cutting edge green technology today.  The year was 1976.

Henri Houdin first became intrigued with the construction of the Great Pyramid in 1998, when he viewed a television program on the subject, The Mystery of the Pyramid.  He watched with interest as the theories of construction were spelled out, but his instinct told him that the conventional theories didn’t quite add up.  They were illogical to the trained eye of an experienced master builder and were neither based on true civil engineering techniques nor masonry processes.

The engineer immediately spotted two misconceptions. The first was that blocks were always depicted being delivered to the site from the base to the top from the outside. The second misconception was that the pyramid facing was shown being installed at the end of the process, from top to base, with no means of controlling the shape of the monument. Henri didn’t see how that could be possible.  He then had an ingenious idea: if he would have to build a pyramid, he would build it from the inside.

Henri Houdin now had a project to keep him busy in his retirement, and he tackled the quandary with relish.  How would he, as an engineer, build the pyramid?  He worked and reworked his ideas, and in 1999 went so far as to publish his theory in the journal of the French National Society of Engineers and Scientists (Brier and Houdin, p. 126).

Henri discussed his newfound passion often with Jean-Pierre, but just as the engineer had seen flaws in the approach of the non-engineers, the architect son began to notice things his engineer father had missed.  For instance, Henri had envisioned an internal ramp spiraling up the inside of the pyramid in a circular fashion.  Jean-Pierre knew that it would be impossible to move heavy blocks in a circular pattern—there is no efficient way to push or pull such weights around a constant curve. 

Jean-Pierre also knew that there was no way the internal ramp could accommodate some of the larger blocks used in the construction of the King’s Chamber (Brier and Houdin, p. 126).  Somehow Hemienu had found a way to move granite slabs, some of which weighed more than sixty tons, to a height of nearly 200 feet and maneuver them into exactly the right place. 

So the architect stepped in where the engineer left off.  How had Hemienu done it?  Or more to the point, how was Jean-Pierre going to do it?  How do you reverse engineer a five and a half million ton pyramid?

Synthesis

About a hundred feet to the east of the Great Pyramid, cut into the limestone bedrock, is a sixty-foot trench first surveyed in the 1880’s by Sir William M. Flinders Petrie.  The trench contains, rendered in 3D, an exact model of the descending and ascending passages of the pyramid, around which the rest would be designed.  Although the halls are much shorter, they are the exact dimensions of the real thing, a veritable walk-in blueprint, right down to the narrowing of the ascending passageway to allow blocks to be wedged in (Brier and Houdin, pp. 114-17).

As it turns out, Jean-Pierre Houdin would approach the problem in exactly the same way Hemienu did.  Thinking like his architect predecessor, Jean-Pierre used architectural software to produce the first true 3D model of the pyramid since Hemienu.  Other models had been made of the pyramid, to be sure, but Jean-Pierre was able to use specialized computer imagery that allowed him to turn the pyramid in any direction, to see the interior through its external skin, and to virtually travel through its passages just as Hemienu did in his 3D model.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu - Does a mile-long ramp lie hidden within? (Photo by Keith Payne)

Jean-Pierre’s life experience as the son of an engineer, his professional training and experience as an architect, and his technological savvy made him an ideal person to reexamine the question of how Khufu’s Pyramid was conceived, planned, and ultimately built.  His zeal would bring him to the attention of Dassault Systèmes, the world leader in 3D imaging, where he would assemble a dream team of modern pyramid builders and gain the resources to give his project the attention it deserves.

Hemienu to Houdin—Building a Great Pyramid

Over the next few weeks Em Hotep! will take you inside Jean-Pierre Houdin’s ideas, explore his vision, and evaluate his conclusions.  The first part will be an examination of the internal ramp theory.  What are the shortcomings of the traditional theories and how does his internal ramp resolve these issues?  Then we will go into the core of the pyramid itself and explore Houdin’s explanations of some of the pyramid’s abiding enigmas, such as the purpose of the Grand Gallery, and how those titanic granite blocks were put into place.  Finally, we will end with an exclusive interview with Jean Pierre Houdin himself to get clarification and find out where he will take us next.

Jean-Pierre Houdin’s mind is in perpetual motion, and describing Khufu’s Pyramid as his passion is actually an understatement—it is his magnum opus, his mission.  With his and Bob Brier’s book, The Secret of the Great Pyramid, just going into paperback in October, you can rest assured his work has continued.  In addition to the coming interview, he just might provide some clarification as we explore his theory.  Who knows what new insights may arise?

Next Part: 

Hemienu to Houdin Part One: How Do You Prefer Your Ramp, Straight or With a Twist?

Work Cited:  Brier, Bob and Jean-Pierre Houdin.  The Secret of the Great Pyramid.  New York:  Smithsonian, 2008.

Photographs ”Statue-of-Hemiun.jpg” by Einsamer Schütze and “Snofru Eg Mus Kairo 2002.png” are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license.  Both photographs of Jean-Pierre Houdin are courtesy of Jean-Pierre Houdin, all rights reserved. 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright (c) 2009 by Keith Payne, all rights reserved.

Djoser’s complex is a highly integrated machine, an eternal representation of institutions, religions, and architecture culled from all corners of Egypt and incorporated into a stone microcosm intended to project the king’s world into the afterlife.

Pharaoh Djoser

Pharaoh Djoser (Photo by Keith Payne)

The pharaoh commonly referred to as Djoser was actually known by the name Netjerikhet (“Body of the Gods”) in his own time and was not known as Djoser until the New Kingdom Period.  He was the first king of the Third Dynasty and ruled from about 2667 to 2648 BC, around 20 years, although some Egyptologists argue his rule was closer to 30 years. 

Inscriptions on several jars dated to his rule indicate that he was the son of Pharaoh Khasekhemwy, the last king of the Second Dynasty.  Some Egyptologists have attested that Djoser was the second king of the Third Dynasty, with his (possible) brother Sanakhte being the first.  However, most now believe that Sanakhte’s rule followed that of Djoser.  Some of the tales in the Westcar Papyrus place Djoser before Sanakhte, and seals at the entrance of Khasekhemwy’s tomb point to Djoser as his successor

Djoser’s policies were driven by an aspiration to gain control of economically important regions and then stabilize them under a centralized government.  He annexed the Sinai, for example, securing the valuable copper and turquoise mines located there.  His rule was a stable one, with no significant expansion of borders and no particular foreign threats.  It is thus no coincidence that Egypt experienced a growth of building projects in both scope and scale under Djoser’s reign.

King Djoser moved the royal court to Memphis, which would remain the political and cultural capitol of Egypt until the center of power shifted to Alexandria under the Ptolemies of the Thirty-Second Dynasty.  His decision to eschew burial at Abydos in favor of Saqqara, previously a cemetery for lesser nobles and high court officials, would also become the norm for Egyptian rulers.

Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara (Photo by Keith Payne)

Both Djoser and his vizier, Imhotep, would become historical heroes, particularly during the New Kingdom Period, with each having their own cult.  This revived fame, however, seems to have had more to do with their architectural innovation than any political or military achievements.  Their use of stone as a building material made them, quite literally, rock stars.

Egypt in Microcosm

Vizier Imhotep (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The complex of Djoser at Saqqara was designed by his vizier and chief architect (and some say brother) Imhotep.  Imhotep, whose name means “the one who comes in, with peace,” was a Renaissance man by anyone’s standard.  Poet, priest, and politician, not to mention architect and physician, he was elevated to godhood and worshipped for more than two millennia, including a cult in Greece where he was deified as Asclepius. 

To say that the Step Pyramid Imhotep designed was the first pyramid constructed in Egypt (which it was), and that the complex he designed around it would become the prototype for pyramid complexes of the future (which it did), is an understatement.  What Imhotep built was nothing less than a symbolic representation of all Egypt, from which Djoser would continue his role as sovereign in the afterlife.  Everything that was Egypt, from culture to religion to politics, would be recreated within its enclosure wall. 

The Step Pyramid of Djoser from the Southern Tomb (Photo by Keith Payne)

For all his innovation, Imhotep could hardly be called trendy.  The catalyst of some of the most significant architectural conventions in human history, he seems to have had much less interest in change than preservation.  He meticulously reproduced not only the architectural styles that were traditional for his time, but mimicked the very building materials that were used, all in stone. 

Prior to Imhotep, mastabas and other structures were constructed with sun-baked mudbrick, wood, and other organic materials.  But in Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex, stone was cut to the same size and dimensions as mudbrick.  Stone pillars were designed to look as if they were fashioned of bundled stems and tree trunks. Stone beams were made to resemble wooden logs.  Stone walls were carved to have the appearance of reed mat coverings.  Stone surfaces were painted to resemble mudbrick and plant materials.

Many of the structures within Djoser’s complex were built for purely symbolic purposes.  Architectural styles and materials of different regions were rendered in facsimile, with their gods and institutions duly represented.  Even the buildings themselves were figurative in construction, having detailed facades and the occasional shallow entrance, but were otherwise of solid construction.

Artificial doors built to convey passage between this life and the afterlife, buildings whose interiors exist only in the spirit world, a false tomb that mirrors the subterranean construction of the Step Pyramid—all of these were elements in a Hollywood-style set designed to represent in stone on the mortal plane structures that would have their true existence in the afterlife.  Many of the buildings were purposely buried in order to reinforce their association with the afterlife.

The Enclosure Wall

As pyramid complexes would be in the future, Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex was entirely surrounded by an enclosure wall.  The wall originally was nearly 35 feet high and just over a mile long.  The complex was further cloistered by a trench that ran along the wall’s outer perimeter, and from which much of the building materials of the complex were likely quarried.

The enclosure wall and entrance to the colonnade (Photo by Keith Payne)

The enclosure wall was constructed of a rough-hewn core faced with limestone cut to resemble mudbrick and reed matting.  The paneled appearance of the wall is thought to be evocative of the palace walls.  Every 12-14 feet uniform bastions protrude, and at irregular intervals there are fourteen barbicans, thirteen with false doors and one with the actual entrance to the complex in the southern end of the eastern wall.

The Entrance and Colonnade

The entrance to the complex is rendered to appear to be a large open wooden door, but is actually of solid and immovable construction.  It opens into what is considered to be the first hypostyle hall in the world.  The limestone ceiling is crafted to look as if made of logs.  The 40 columns within, constructed of segmented masonry carved to resemble bundled reeds or logs, serve no actual supportive function. 

Segmented attached columns in the colonnade (Photo by Keith Payne)

Thirty-two of these columns are attached by masonry to the corridor walls, creating 24 niches in which statues may have once stood, and which are considered to be symbolic of the 24 provinces (nomes) of Djoser’s Egypt.  After the twelfth pair, the columns are situated closer together to create the illusion that the hall is longer than it actually is.  The last four pairs of columns are free-standing and lead to the Southern Court.  The exit is also meant to resemble a large open wooden door.

The Southern Court

Across the Great Southern Court to the Heb Sed Court and colonnade (Photo by Keith Payne)

The colonnade opens into the southeast corner of the Southern Court, an area bounded by the pyramid to the north and the Southern Tomb in the south.  There are the remains of two low-walled B-shaped structures, aligned with their straight sides facing inward.  Thought to represent Upper and Lower Egypt, it is thought that the king would have raced back and forth between the structures during the Heb Sed Festival.

The Heb Sed Court

Located to the East of the Southern Court and north of the colonnade, the rectangular Heb Sed Court is where the majority of the Heb Sed ritual would have been played out.  The Heb Sed Ritual was a symbolic show of vehm and vigor wherein the king would race back and forth between representations of Upper and Lower Egypt, probably the B-shaped structures in the Southern Court, to demonstrate his strength and vitality. It would be followed by great feasts and celebrations.

The Heb Sed Court (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The Heb Sed Court is thought to be the site of a ritual procession involved with the festival.  There is a symbolic representation of the king’s palace, complete with thrones of Upper and Lower Egypt, and false buildings and chapels lining both sides of the court from end to end.  The buildings were little more than solid structures with detailed facades constructed in the styles of their constituent regions.

The Heb Sed was traditionally celebrated after the king had spent thirty years in office, although there were exceptions, but it is generally thought that Djoser never had an opportunity to make use of the Heb Sed Court due to the length of his reign.

The Southern Tomb and Chapel

As you enter the Southern Court you are facing a chapel wall with a protective frieze of cobras.  The chapel wall extends from the southern enclosure wall and forms the eastern wall of a mastaba known as the southern tomb.  Although it is called a tomb, it is too small for a sarcophagus, and like much of the rest of the complex, appears to have served a symbolic function.

Looking up at the cobra frieze of the Southern Tomb (Photo by Keith Payne)

The shaft within the mastaba leads 92 feet down to a subterranean complex that serves as a small scale model of the tunnels under Djoser’s pyramid.  The complex contains rooms for storage and offerings, along with other areas that mimic the passages under the pyramid itself, although there are differences as well. 

The complex beneath the pyramid is oriented along a north south axis, while the south tomb has an east west axis.  The adornments and reliefs within the South Tomb are of higher detail and quality than those beneath the Step Pyramid, leading to speculation that it was completed earlier and at more leisure than the pyramid.  It is believed that the South Tomb may have been one of the resting places of the king’s Ka, and may be the forerunner of the small scale cult pyramids that would become standard to pyramid complexes that follow.

The House of the North and the House of the South

North of the Heb Sed Court are two large shrines, each with its own courtyard, called the House of the North and the House of the South.  Again we find representation of Upper and Lower Egypt, not only in the style of architecture, but in the actual buildings they recreate.  And again, the structures are purely symbolic and almost entirely solid.

 The House of the South has the appearance of a mudbrick structure with four faux columns.  It appears to be a representation of the Shrine of Nekhbet in the southern city of Hierakonpolis, and in its courtyard is a faux column with a lotus capital, the symbol of Upper (southern) Egypt.

The House of the South (Photo by Keith Payne)

The House of the North is likewise rendered to appear as if constructed of mudbrick, with four engaged columns.  The House of the North has been compared to the Shrine of Wadjet located in the northern delta city of Buto.  There are three faux columns in its courtyard topped with papyrus capitals, the symbol of Lower (northern) Egypt.

The Mortuary Temple

One of the few buildings in the complex that was fully functional rather than symbolic, Djoser’s mortuary temple would have been the center of his cult after his death.  This is where priests, penitents, and family members would come to make offerings and perform rituals to honor the king in his afterlife. 

The mortuary temple is another aspect of Djoser’s complex that would become a standard element in pyramid complexes of the future, although future mortuary temples would be located to the east of the pyramid, whereas Djoser’s is located to the north.

Although a functioning building, the mortuary is still replete with symbolic representations of traditional architecture and building materials.  The building would have had an traditional appearance, along with stone doors that don’t actually close, pillars that don’t actually support anything, and blocks cut to approximate the appearance of mudbricks. 

The "original" entrance to the Step Pyramid from the Mortuary Temple (Photo by Keith Payne)

The original entrance to the pyramid is located within the mortuary temple, although calling it original may be a misnomer.  When the first stage of the step pyramid (which was actually a mastaba at this point) was expanded, the original mortuary temple and entrance were moved further north and the Northern Court area was extended to maintain symmetry.  But original not, the temple entrance to the pyramid is no longer functional—like many other pyramids, access today is gained through an entrance dug out long ago by plunderers.

The Serdab

The serdab is a small sealed structure that once held the statue of King Djoser that became the earthly vessel of his Ka after his death.  The original statue, which is the earliest example of life-sized human statuary recovered from Egypt so far, is in the Cairo Museum.  The statue that sits in the serdab now is a replica.

Looking into the serdab at King Djoser (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Located on the northeastern corner of the pyramid, to the east of the mortuary temple, the serdab is another place where offerings for King Djoser would have been made.  Although the serdab is closed all around, there are two holes through which the king’s Ka statue would have been able to see the northern constellations to guide him in the afterlife. 

The location of the serdab is in alignment with a section in the Step Pyramid’s subterranean complex that was symbolic of Djoser’s personal chambers in his earthly palace.  Again, the form, location, and symbolism of the serdab make it a part of a vast finely tuned machine whose purpose was to extend the material world into the afterlife, and vice versa.

The Step Pyramid

Djoser’s Step Pyramid was originally about 197 feet tall, and like the rest of the structures in the complex, is made of stone brick cut to approximate the size and scale of mudbrick.  Built of a rough-cut core surrounded by dressed limestone with a layer of filler in between, the step-shape is thought to be representative of King Djoser’s ascension to the afterlife. 

Looking across the Southern Court to the Step Pyramid (Photo by Keith Payne)

Long considered the earliest large-scale stone construction, this honor actually may go to the “Great Enclosure” (Arabic: Gisr el-Mudir) west of the Pyramid of Sekhemkhet, which predates the Step Pyramid. 

Imhotep’s idea for the design of Djoser’s pyramid may not have come quite out of the blue.  Mastaba 3038, constructed some 200 years earlier during the reign of King Anedjib, was situated on a mud-brick step mound which looks remarkably like the beginnings of a step pyramid, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Mastaba 3038--The inspiration for the Step Pyramid?

The first stage was a square mastaba with a core of locally quarried stone, faced with dressed limestone and surrounded by its own enclosure wall.  The mastaba was then extended about 13 feet in all directions by a slightly lower addition, resulting in a square mastaba with a single low step.  It was again resurfaced with limestone.  A third extension was added, this time to the east side alone, resulting in a rectangular mastaba with two steps on the eastern side.

The entire structure was again encased within a single square level, to which three more square layers were added, growing smaller as they rose.  The result was Pyramid 1, a square four-tiered step pyramid.  In the final stage, these first four layers were again extended, this time into rectangular layers oriented east to west, and two more layers were added to the top resulting in Pyramid 2, a six-tiered step pyramid, which was then cased in dressed limestone.

Djoser's Step Pyramid--the first pyramid in Egypt (Photo by Keith Payne)

The Subterranean Network of the Step Pyramid

Although it lies completely out of sight, Djoser’s burial chamber and associated tunnels and galleries are at least as impressive as any other part of the complex at Saqqara.  Djoser was buried in a red granite sarcophagus at the bottom of a 92-foot shaft under the pyramid.  His mummy was not found, and what few remains have been recovered from the burial chamber date to a later period.

There is evidence that the burial chamber may have originally been lined with limestone and alabaster and may have had a ceiling painted with the sort starry canopy seen in later pyramids in the Saqqara region, but was later stripped and relined with granite.  Fragments of what may have been the original limestone, and a section of the starry ceiling, have been recovered nearby.

Miles of tunnels under Djoser's pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Branching off from the burial chamber is a maze of more than three miles of tunnels, shafts, storerooms, and tombs.  Many of the walls are sided with faience-covered limestone or blue tiling.  There are scenes of the king performing the Heb Sed festival and wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. 

Parts of the subterranean halls and galleries seem to be symbolic of the king’s living chambers in the palace, while others are thought to have been burial chambers for Djoser’s immediate family.  Some of his worldly possessions were recovered in these passages, including what appear to be “antiques” belonging to Djoser’s ancestors. 

There have been human remains recovered from Djoser’s underworld, and at least one mummy was, oddly enough, older than Djoser by several generations.  It is possible that, along with family heirlooms, Djoser may have had some of his ancestor relocated to his pyramid complex.  Another explanation is that the builders accidentally tunneled into older pre-existing tombs.

The Step Pyramid Complex Today

Djoser’s pyramid complex remains one of the primary heritage sites in Egypt, and the main reason why visitors come to Saqqara.  In 2008 the Supreme Council of Antiquities began a sweeping conservation project to address the environmental issues that threaten Djoser’s complex.  Some of the problems are natural attrition inherent to a structure that has stood for 5,000 years.  Others are man-made and more recent. 

Efforts continue to reconstruct collapsed sections of Djoser's Pyramid (Photo by Keith Payne)

Beneath the pyramid the problem is water buildup.  Water tables have been rising all over Egypt since the building of the Aswan Dam, which occurred in several phases beginning in the early 20th century.  The Step Pyramid is not alone in this respect.  Rising water is a ubiquitous problem all along the Nile River as the environmental effects of the dam threaten Egyptian communities and heritage sites alike.

On the external surface, wind erosion and the occasional torrential rain have taken a gradual toll.  Large sections of brick have fallen away over the centuries leaving weak spots.  Archaeologists are making their way through the rubble around the base of the pyramid identifying blocks that are then used to repair the structure.

The conservation work has also proven that much remains to be discovered at Djoser’s complex.  A deep shaft tunneling beneath the pyramid and later tombs dug into the surface of the pyramid itself are just two of these recent discoveries.  Even more is likely to be revealed as efforts continue in the subterranean portion of the Step Pyramid.

Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex remains a testament to the rule of a king who was able to provide enough social stability and economic prosperity to conceive and carryout such a project.  It is likewise proof of the genius of Imhotep, certainly one of the most brilliant human beings ever to live.  This giant stone device may or may not have succeeded in projecting Djoser’s reign into the afterlife, but it has undeniably preserved his legacy across time and into our lives.

The future on the horizon--Dashur Pyramids from Djoser's Complex (Photo by Keith Payne)

Further Reading

The Ancient Egypt Site

Netjerikhet

Discovering Ancient Egypt

The Step Pyramid at Saqqara

Egyptian Monuments

Pyramid and Mortuary Complex of Djoser

LookLex Egypt

Zoser’s Step Pyramid

Talking Pyramids

Pyramid of Djoser

Tour Egypt

The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara in Egypt

 Zahi Hawass’ Blog

Saving the Step Pyramid

Photographs ”Imhotep-Louvre.jpg” by Wiki user Hu Totya, “Saqqara – Pyramid of Djoser complex – Heb-sed Court – view 1.jpg” by Wiki user Daniel Mayer, “Saqqarah Djeser 10.jpg” by Wiki user Sebi, and “Djoser-tombe-sud-firth.jpg” by Cecil M. Firth are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright 2009, all rights reserved.

There are three of them, they are located in the middle of the Egyptian desert, they were built by slaves, and they have mummies in them.

Right?  Well…

They are large and they do have four sides.  They are wide at the bottom and come to a point, although you could park a large SUV on some of those points, and still have room for a picnic.  They are triangular in shape, but some of them have a step-shaped contour, others look like a few different sized boxes stacked on top of one another, and at least one sharply changes the angle of its slope two thirds of the way up.  Many of them look like piles of rubble. 

So far more than 130 pyramids have been found in Egypt, and more have been discovered in Sudan.  They are located in the desert,  but the most famous pyramids are within walking distance of a city with twice as many people as Los Angeles.  They were not built by slaves, and until very recently, no mummies had been found in any of them.  

The Giza Pyramids

Built during the Old Kingdom Period, particularly during the Third and Fourth Dynasties, the pyramids represent a time when power was absolutely centered in the person of the Pharaoh.  They required a huge workforce ranging from general labor to artists and engineers, and the notion that they were built by slaves, Hebrew or otherwise, has been widely discredited.  There are many theories regarding their construction, each of which has its own set of unanswered questions.

Guarding the Giza Pyramids

Mastabas

The early forerunner of the pyramid is the mastaba, the Arabic word for bench, so-called for their bench-like shape.  In the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods, the mummified bodies of the dead were buried in shafts cut into the stone ground, and mastabas were built over the grave.  Mastabas were rectangular structures with sloping sides and a flat top.  They were generally made of mud brick, but in later times royalty and more important court officials might have mastabas constructed of dressed limestone.  Cemeteries of mastabas often mirrored the social strata of the living, with more grandiose tombs being set apart on larger plots of land while those of lesser personages were lined up in avenues like city streets.

An avenue of mastabas at Saqqara

The mastabas included a small shrine where offerings of food and incense could be made for the deceased, and a concealed a room called a serdab, where a statue of the deceased was housed.  The walls inside the mastabas typically had detailed murals and friezes depicting the everyday life of the deceased, and in fact, these paintings provide much of what we know of Egyptian life during that period.  The mastaba was not just the tomb of the deceased, it was a representation of their home in the afterlife, and so great care was taken in its construction and preservation.  Although not built until the Sixth Dynasty, the mastaba par excellence is that of Vizier Mereruka, at Saqqara.

The Step Pyramid

Post-mortem accommodations would take a quantum leap forward in the Third Dynasty when Imhotep, chief engineer and architect of King Djoser, conceived of a way to symbolize the king’s ascension to divinity.  Imhotep started with a basic mastaba, but constructed it in a square rather than the traditional rectangular shape.  He then added another smaller mastaba to the flat surface of the first, and continued to build upward until he had six square mastabas, each smaller than the previous, stacked one on top of the other.  The result was the original Stairway to Heaven—the Step Pyramid of Djoser.  Pharaoh was greatly pleased…

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

Although the mastaba would remain in use for thousands of years, Imhotep started a craze that would earn him deification, a rare honor for a commoner.  The evolution of the pyramid form may be observed in the region of Dashur, where attempts were made—and in some cases failed—at making a true smooth-sided pyramid.  But the procedure would be perfected during the reign of Snefru, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty.

Evolution of the “Modern” Pyramid

Meidum Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Snefru’s first contribution to pyramid building was his completion of the pyramid begun by his father, King Huni, at Meidum.  The Meidum Pyramid began as a step pyramid, but in completing it Snefru attempted to smooth its sides, resulting in a large blocky structure.  It would mostly collapse later, during the New Kingdom Period. 

Snefru's Bent Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Snefru built his second pyramid intending to attempt a smooth-sided pyramid from the outset.  This attempt is called the Bent Pyramid because the top third was constructed at a radically different angle than the bottom two thirds.  It is believed that the angle of the bottom part, a 55-degree grade, was too steep and when the construction began to show signs of stress, the angle for the remaining part was changed to a much more stable 43-degrees.

Snefru's Red Pyramid (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

They say the third time is the charm, and King Snefru would agree.  His third contribution to the Pyramid Fields of the Memphis Necropolis was the Red Pyramid, the first true smooth-sided pyramid.  Having learned from his mistakes, such as they were, the Red Pyramid was constructed at a 43-degree gradient from the first block, and is the third largest pyramid in Egypt, being just barely exceeded by those of Khufu and Khafre at Giza.

Snefru’s Red Pyramid would be surpassed by that of his son, Khufu, on the Giza Plateau.  Others would follow, including the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, but the Great Pyramid was the pinnacle, literally, of pyramid building.  Khafre’s Pyramid looks larger because of its location on higher ground, but Khufu’s Pyramid is the undisputed champion.

The pyramids of Khafre and Khufu

The Pyramid Complex

Pyramids are actually just the centerpiece of a larger complex.  Each pyramid contains a number of elements, all associated with the afterlife.  There is typically a valley temple, a pavilion where the body of the king was received, which was connected to the Nile.  From the valley temple there would be a causeway leading to the mortuary temple, which was dedicated to the worship of the deceased king. 

Mortuary temples had their own priests who not only performed the funerary rites but who assured that the cult of that particular king would be sustained in the future.  There was often a smaller “cult pyramid” which was built to honor the king’s Ka (his spirit or soul).  Pyramid complexes often also included cemeteries, or even additional pyramids, for the king’s family and chosen servants.

Khufu's Queens' Pyramids

It goes without saying that pyramids were associated with the afterlife, and are the center of the king’s funerary complex, but some controversy remains regarding exactly what function they served.  It seems obvious they were intended to hold the body of the dead king—including the presence of burial chambers and sarcophagi.  However, out of the nearly 140 pyramids discovered, not a single king’s mummy has ever been recovered from a pyramid.  The only mummy found in a pyramid thus far is that of Queen Seshseshet, discovered in her pyramid in November, 2008.

Some speculate that the king’s pyramids may have served a ceremonial function, possibly as a location for the initiation of the king into divinity and preparation for the afterlife.  Others speculate that the kings were indeed interred in their pyramids, but that their bodies were later removed for various reasons.  It is possible that the pyramids served as both tombs and places of initiation.  All that is certain is that we can’t be certain, which is a large part of the pyramids’ appeal.

Backside of the Giza Pyramids

Further Reading

Egyptian Monuments:

Archive for the ‘Pyramid Fields’ Category

(Probably the best online resource on pyramids, hands down)

LookLex:

Giza – The Pyramids

National Geographic:

Introduction to Pyramids

Queen’s Mummy Found In 4,300-Year-Old Pyramid

Tour Egypt:

Overview of Pyramid Construction

Photographs ”WIKIpyr01 – Meidoum_pyramide_006.jpg” by Wiki user Neithsabes, “WIKIpyr02 – Snofru’s_Bent_Pyramid_in_Dahshur.jpg” by Wiki user Ivrienen, and “WIKIpyr03 – RedPyramid.jpg” by Wiki user Chipdawes are provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

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