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Compared with Khufu’s pyramid, the internal structure of Khafre’s is of extreme simplicity. There is again a polar entrance passage which eventually leads to a simple tomb chamber at the base of the structure and under its apex. The only complication is provided by a second entrance, emerging a little further north under the pavement outside the pyramid, but soon joining the main corridor. When Belzoni entered the tomb chamber in 1818 he found a beautiful granite sarcophagus set into the floor, with the broken lid lying beside it. It clearly had been rifled in ancient times and contained no body. The roof of the tomb chamber consists of gabled limestone blocks, similar to the construction employed in the Queen’s chamber and entrance passage of Khufu’s pyramid.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

Since the existence of upper corridors and chambers in Khufu’s pyramid was only discovered by the accidental fall of a ceiling block in the entrance passage, a similar pattern could be suspected in Khafre’s monument. It was a question to which there seemed to be no answer, except by extensive and destructive tunnelling. However, the problem was solved in a most ingenious manner by taking an X-ray picture of the building. The scheme was
undertaken at the initiative and under the direction of Professor Luis Alvarez, a Nobel Laureate of the University of California, in 1970, using cosmic rays. This radiation, whose origin is unknown, impinges upon the earth at equal strength from all directions of outer space. It is the most penetrating radiation ever discovered and it can pass through the huge mass of limestone of a pyramid, although in doing so its intensity is diminished. Just as the absorption of ordinary X-rays by different types of body tissues will provide us with information on our bones and internal organs, the cosmic rays, recorded in the central tomb chamber of a pyramid will furnish a shadow picture of the body of the building. Any hidden chamber, being a void in the masonry, must then show up as a ‘negative’ shadow. The actual experiment and its evaluation is a very complex operation, requiring a large team of workers and highly sophisticated equipment. However, the result turned out to be negative, showing conclusively that no upper chamber exists in the Khafre pyramid.

The third great pyramid on the Giza plateau is that of Menkaure, whom Herodotus called Mycerinus, and who was the son of Khafre. Compared with the gigantic twins of Khufu and Khafre the monument is a miserable runt. With a base of 108 m. square and a height of 70 m., it contains less than one-tenth of the limestone built into each of the two great pyramids. Moreover, it marks the end of the true Pyramid Age. The one remaining pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty built a quite different type of tomb at Saqqara and the pyramids of the next dynasty are small and very shoddy in comparison with the immense monuments erected by the kings of the Fourth Dynasty.

Apart from its much smaller size Menkaure’s pyramid does not differ in essential design from its predecessors. The angle of elevation is the same and there is also an entrance passage pointing at the celestial north pole. The three tomb chambers are excavated in the rock under the apex of the pyramid. A blind passage from the uppermost one has been generally interpreted as indicating a change in the building plan. When in 1837 Colonel Howard Vyse entered the second chamber he found a basalt sarcophagus, a wooden coffin lid and a mummy. The latter two are now in the British Museum. The sarcophagus is unfortunately not available for examination since it now rests at the bottom of the Mediterranean. Drawings made before it was shipped show an outer design similar to an archaic palace facade, and it is assumed to have held the body of Menkaure. The coffin lid bearing Menkaure’s 66 name, however, is of the Late Period and the mummy radiocarbon dated to the early Christian era.

The sixteen lowest courses of the casing of the pyramid are of pink granite but some of these blocks have remained undressed, indicating that the building was finished in haste. Such casing blocks of the higher courses, which were not taken away by stone robbers, show that the top was covered with Tura limestone. The hurried completion of the whole complex is also apparent in the large mortuary and valley temples, constructed of enormous limestone blocks, which were finished with the use of crude bricks and other inferior materials. An inscription found by Reisner in the mortuary temple, and another one recently discovered near the pyramid entrance, leave no doubt that the monument as a whole was completed by Menkaure’s son, Shepseskaf.

Reisner assumed that Menkaure was the son of Khameremebti i who then, in order to assure her son’s succession, must have been a sister of Khafre. On the other hand his mother may have been ths twice-widowed Hetepheres n, or even her daughter Mersankh in, both being of the royal blood. While speculation on this question depends on the relative ages of the pharaoh and these two queens, we know for certain that Hetepheres n outlived Menkaure.

Menkaure was married to his sister Khameremebti n and the magnificent double statue discovered by Reisner in the valley temple leaves no doubt as to the close facial resemblance of the royal couple. The figure of the queen is famous for the masterly treatment of the female form, and the position of her right arm, encircling the waist of her husband, is usually regarded as a gesture of wifely affection. However, it is more likely that the pose of the queen, with her left hand on the king’s arm, is one of deep ritual significance. As heiress of the royal blood she appears to protect and present her brother, on whom she has conferred the kingship by marriage. The base and back of the statue were left unfinished and this is further evidence for the haste attending the completion of the last of Egypt’s great pyramids.

Apart from all other evidence, the alabaster head of Shepseskaf in the Boston Museum shows by sheer family resemblance that he was the son of Menkaure and Khameremebti IL He was the last pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty and possibly married to his sister, Khentkaues. However, Shepseskaf broke with the Fourth Dynasty tradition and, instead of erecting a pyramid, built for himself a sepulchre at Saqqara, to which the Arabs gave the name of Mastabat Fara’un. It has the shape of a large sarcophagus, but is not nearly as imposing as a pyramid. The base is only 100 m. long and 72 m. wide, with a total height of about 20 m. The burial chain-! bers are reached by a polar passage and there was a modest mortuary temple at the east with a causeway to an unexcavated valley temple.

Another similar, but rather smaller, tomb was built for Queen Khentkaues between the causeways of the Khafre and Menkaure pyramids at Giza. It seems that she carried her half of the royal blood into the Fifth Dynasty, since in her tomb she is described as ‘mother of two kings’ but there is no mention of the father who sired them. Khentkaues was venerated throughout the Fifth Dynasty as its founder, and it is clear that the father may not have been Shepseskaf.

With Menkaure a period in the history of Egypt and, we would suggest, a significant era in our civilisation, had drawn to a close. Within less than a century the four largest pyramids had been built, employing something like 100,000 people, quarrying, shaping and moving over 20 million tons of stone. Nobody knows why the Pyramid Age came to this sudden end from one reign to the next. However, before we can speculate on the reasons for the end of an era we first have to find out how, and why, this era ever came into being.

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The tomb chamber at the upper end of the Grand Gallery was further protected by three portcullises which were removed by intruders. The room itself, nowadays known as the ‘King’s chamber’, is a room of 10.5 m. by 5.3 m.; it is 5.8 m. high and completely lined with granite. It contains an unadorned, lidless, rectangular sarcophagus which must have been placed in position while the pyramid was still building since it is too large to pass through the entrance passage. The roof of the King’s chamber is made of flat granite slabs and protected from the superincumbent weight of masonry by five relieving spaces. When the tomb chamber was first entered is not known since the roof slab in the descending passage, which concealed the ascending one, only fell when the Caliph Ma’mun’s men tunnelled into the pyramid in the ninth century AD. The contemporary Arabic account is, unfortunately, too fanciful to provide useful information.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

Khufu’s pyramid is surrounded by neat rows of mastabas and three small pyramids in which his relatives and high officials were buried. It is mainly from these burials that Reisner reconstructed the family history of the Fourth Dynasty. Also around the pyramid are located a number of boat pits which had all been robbed. Great excitement was therefore caused when in 1954 clearance of the sand at the south side of the pyramid led to the discovery of a row of 41 large limestone slabs, each almost five metres long. When they were lifted they disclosed the dismantled parts of the large ship, already mentioned in the last chapter. Preservation and reconstruction of the vessel, which had one or two cabins, is still in progress.

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The next pyramid on the Giza plateau is that of Khafre, whom Herodotus calls Chephren. However, Khafre was not Khufu’s immediate successor. Possibly dissension broke out in the royal family after Khufu’s death; his true successor should have been his eldest son, Kawab, who, for this purpose, had already been married to the royal heiress Hetepheres IL Since Kawab was only buried in a mastaba, we may assume that his death preceded that of his father, and a prince named Djedefre ascended the throne. Djedefre was the son of Khufu by a secondary queen, and was married to a woman called Kenteten-ka, who was perhaps Queen Henutsen’s daughter. Djedefre must certainly be considered an usurper since at Khufu’s death a number of the latter’s sons by the royal spouse Merytyetes were still alive. Nevertheless, Djedefre attempted to legalise his kingship by marrying Kawab’s widow Hetepheres n, because she was the woman in that generation who carried the succession.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

Whether or not the true royal princes, Djedefhor and Baufre c'ied, as has sometimes been suggested, a violent death is not certain. In any case, Djedefre was evidently loyal to his father since his name was found on one of the roof slabs of Khufu’s boat pit. It may, however, be significant that Djedefre shunned the Giza necropolis and instead began building a pyramid five miles further north at Abu Roash. He chose a curiously desolate spot on a steep rock, more than 150 m. above the Nile valley. To overcome the difficulty of access an immense building ramp, a mile long, and in places rising to 12 m. above the surrounding terrain, was constructed. Whether the pyramid itself was ever finished is not known since it has been used extensively as a quarry down to modem times. Its ground plan indicates a relatively modest size of 97 m. square, smaller even than Zoser’s Step Pyramid. The present superstructure is only 12 m. high and the construction of the tomb chamber at the bottom of a wide shaft seems to be the return of a pattern used in the Third Dynasty. Altogether, the site suggests some form of break with the traditions of the Fourth Dynasty. If such a break took place it was of short duration. Djedefre ruled for only eight years and the crown then passed on to another of Khufu’s sons: Khafre.

In the choice of his pyramid site and in the magnificence of his monument, Khafre closely followed Khufu’s example, which strengthens the impression that Djedefre’s tenure of the throne was regarded as an unfortunate interlude. Khafre was probably the son of Khufu’s secondary queen, Henutsen, and was married to his sister, Khamerernebti 1. However, his legitimate succession was ensured when he later married not only the widow of Khufu’s original crown prince, Kawab, and of Djedefre, the heiress Hetepheres 11, but also her daughter. This lady, Meresankh in, as well as her mother, were now the first in line to confer the crown of Egypt on their husbands.

Khafre’s pyramid at Giza stands close to Khufu’s and in size is almost its twin. Its height of 140 m. is almost the same and it appears, in fact, to surpass it by virtue of having been erected on slightly higher ground. Moreover, while Khufu’s pyramid has been completely stripped of its casing of white Tura limestone, this has remained intact at the upper part of Khafre’s monument. The pyramid measures 216 m. square, which means that its angle of elevation is slightly steeper, 52 20 , and it therefore does not share with the great pyramid the accurate representation of the ratio ! / 27r. As at Djedefre’s pyramid, the lowest layer of casing blocks consists of granite.

Altogether Khafre’s pyramid is not quite so carefully constructed, as is apparent from the variation in size of its building blocks. On the other hand, its mortuary temple at the east face is more impressive and the valley building at the bottom of the causeway is the most magnificent structure that has come down to us from the Old Kingdom. It is a very massive building of large limestone blocks, completely faced inside and out with polished red granite. The central hall is T-shaped and its roof is supported by sixteen unadorned square granite pillars. It has an alabaster floor. Mariette, who excavated the valley building in 1853, found in it the exquisite diorite statue of the pharaoh, now one of the greatest treasures of the Cairo Museum. Another, immense, portrait of Khafre is the head of the Sphinx which, even today, after having served as a target for Turkish artillery practice, clearly bears the pharaoh’s features. The representation of a lion’s body with a human head seems to have been an established type even earlier, and Khafre’s architects made use of a knoll of rock for the same purpose on a gigantic scale.

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In several important respects, the Meidum pyramid differs from its predecessors. The tomb chamber is not located at the bottom of a shaft but at the base of the pyramid itself and access to it is by a low and narrow passage passing through the body of the pyramid at an angle of 28° pointing, like a telescope, to the celestial pole. It is significant that this feature was already embodied in the first building phase and well before the shape of the monument was turned into a true pyramid. The small tomb chamber has a corbelled roof to withstand the pressure of the superincumbent weight. It contained no sarcophagus. The surrounding wall, too, differs from the previous pattern, being much smaller and not enclosing any courts. Within it, and close to the main building, stands a now much ruined, small subsidiary pyramid. Attached to the east side of the pyramid is a small mortuary temple and from it a long causeway leads to the Nile. At its lower end stood a valley building which has now sunk into the silt. It permitted access to the pyramid complex by boat, at least during the inundation season. This pattern of an entrance passage directed towards the pole, a small enclosure and a mortuary temple with causeway to the river, was repeated in all the subsequent great pyramids. They also share with the Meidum structure a very accurate alignment according to the cardinal points.

Step Pyramid

The drastic change of the monument’s shape and the equally novel conception underlying the layout and character of the whole pyramid complex indicate some profound alteration in the beliefs concerning the pharaoh’s afterlife. To what extent these changes reflect some new religious and political role played by the king we can only guess at. Dr I. E. S. Edwards of the British Museum, one of the greatest authorities on the Egyptian pyramids, has suggeste13 The classical Pyramid Complex. The pyramid (i), often accompanied by a small subsidiary pyramid, stood in a court surrounded by a temenos wall (2). A funerary temple (3) was adjacent to the eastern side of the pyramid and from it led a causeway (4) to the valley building (5) which could be reached by boat from the Nile that the shape of the monuments may be connected with the striking spectacle produced by the rays of the sun when, after one of the rare rainstorms it breaks through the clouds, forming a huge celestial pyramid. Indeed, this phenomenon may be the origin of the ben-ben, the sacred conical pillar venerated in the Sun Temple at Heliopolis. The change also seems to have coincided with the ascendancy of the priests of Heliopolis as a major political force in Egypt. Their domination over the power of the pharaoh had certainly become fully established in the Fifth Dynasty. Already in the Fourth Dynasty the dead king was regarded as the companion of the sun god whom he accompanied on his daily journey across the sky. Equally, the pharaoh’s connection with the never setting circumpolar stars was emphasised by the direction of the entrance passage which linked them with his tomb chamber.

No other great pyramid was ever built at Meidum and the next o stone pyramids are at Dahshur, several miles south of Saqqara. now known that the southern one was built first. Covering an 19° m- square, it is a good deal larger than either the pyra- 2^^ S °* Zoser or the one at Meidum, and it presents a curious ct. The lower part rises at an elevation of about 54 but when the building had reached a third of its intended height, the angle was lowered to 43£°. This rhomboidal shape, which has earned the monument the name of the ‘Bent Pyramid’, reduces the origin, ally envisaged height of about 135 m. to only 101 m. In more than one respect, the shape of the Bent Pyramid forms an essential part of our quest for the purpose of pyramid-building and we must therefore leave its explanation for the time being.

Much of the Bent Pyramid’s interior was already described by Perring, but a great deal of further work has been done in recent years by Ahmed Fakhry. His investigations on behalf of the Antiquities Service have yielded a number of valuable new discoveries. An entrance passage, pointing to the pole star, leads to two internal chambers with corbel roofs, connected by a curious system of corridors and portcullises which suggests that either of the chambers could be closed forever while the other still remained unoccupied. Moreover, in addition to the polar passage which leads into the lower chamber, a second one connects the upper chamber with an aperture high up in the western face of the pyramid. No explanation has ever been offered for this unique feature but one 14 Isometric section, showing the chambers and passages of the Bent Pyramid. From the polar entrance passage (not shown) a horizontal corridor (1) leads to a narrow and high entrance hall (2) which connects directly with the lower chamber (3). Two passages (4 and 5) lead to a blind vertical shaft (6). From the upper part of the lower chamber a curved and rising passage (7) leads to a horizontal corridor (8) which opens at one end into the upper chamber (9). The other end of this corridor, which is interrupted by two portcullises (10 and 11), turns into the western entrance passage (12). The upper chamber, whose roof like that of the entrance hall (2) has remained unfinished, contains a number of horizontal cedar- wood beams (13), which are also shown in pi. 25. See also Fig. 8

Like the Meidum pyramid, the Bent Pyramid has a small mortuary temple at its eastern face. A causeway leads to the valley building which has been excavated by Fakhry and which he found adorned with relief friezes of great beauty. They are of women offering-bearers representing the various nomes.

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The next pyramid that was built stands less than a mile north of the Bent Pyramid. Its height is roughly the same as the latter but it was erected entirely at an angle of 43^°, the same as the upper part of the Bent Pyramid. This means, of course, that the area it covers, 220 m. square, and its mass somewhat exceed that of the Bent Pyramid. It is the earliest monument which has been preserved in a complete pyramidical form, but owing to the low angle of elevation it looks rather squat and less impressive than its better-known successors at Giza. Its rather gentle slope made it more accessible to stone robbers and almost all the limestone casing has disappeared, giving it a deeper colour than its southern neighbour, which has earned it the name of the ‘Red Pyramid’. It has been given less attention by archaeologists than any other pyramid, and any subsidiary buildings which may exist, and its causeway, lie still buried under the desert sand.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

Huni may have been the builder of the Meidum pyramid, or at least of its earlier stepped form. However, his name has not been found anywhere in it. On the other hand, later graffiti in the Meidum pyramid’s mortuary temple ascribe it clearly to Snofru. Moreover, a number of Snofru’s courtiers were buried at Meidum. An inscription found near the Red Pyramid mentions ‘the two pyramids of Snofru’ and it was at first assumed that the other Snofru pyramid must be that at Meidum. More recent work at the Bent Pyramid has, however, shown that this one, too, definitely belonged to Snofru. We are therefore left with what Sir Alan Gar-, diner called the ‘unpalatable conclusion that Snofru did possess three pyramids’. All the Fourth Dynasty pyramids are distinguished by a polar entrance passage, and if we want to invoke' Huni as the builder of the early phase at Meidum, we are faced with the additional difficulty that this feature was already embodied in the first stepped structure. Whichever way we look at the problem we cannot get away from the fact that for this penoa, there exist more large pyramids than pharaohs who could have been buried in them.

The start of a new dynasty was, as can be seen from the genea logical table, evidently due to the fact that Snofru was not the son of Huni’s great queen. However, he clearly legitimised his claim to the throne by marrying the great queen’s daughter, Hetepheres. On her tomb furniture, which was discovered by Reisner, she is described as ‘daughter of the god’ and ‘mother of the king’. This king was Khufu, who is better known today by Herodotus’ Grecianised appellation of Cheops. Khufu’s right to the throne was clearly established by his marriage to his sister, Merytyetes, who was the vehicle of the royal blood and who carried the succession. He built the largest of all pyramids at Giza, 20 miles north of Memphis.

The most striking feature of Khufu’s monument, when compared with its predecessor, the Red Pyramid of Dahshur, is a return to an elevation of 520. It also covers an even greater area of 230 m. square and comprises roughly 6£ million tons of limestone. Rising to a height of almost 150 m. it impresses by its towering simplicity, and has always been regarded as the foremost of the Seven Wonders of the World. We will not, at this stage, estimate the work required in building it nor deal with the method of construction,which will have to be discussed later. However, we must mention here two interesting peculiarities, one concerned with the geometrical shape of the monument and the other with the unique disposition of its internal features.

A pyramid with an angle of elevation of 52° - 510 52' to be precise - has the unique geometrical property that its height stands in the same ratio to its circumference as the radius to the circumference of a circle. This ratio is 1/2IT, where TT is a transcendental number 3.141. . . Khufu’s pyramid is the most carefully built of all and accurate measurement of its foundation has shown that this ratio is correctly represented to better than one part in a thousand. This certainly is far too accurate to be dismissed as a coincidence, and a great number of theories, often involving divine inspiration, have been based on this astonishing numerical fact. A relatively simple solution, to which we shall return in the next chapter, provides something of an anticlimax and relieves us of the necessity to regard the great pyramid as an immense monument in stone, representing the revelation of a basic mathematical truth.

It appears that the arrangement of passages and tomb chambers of Khufu’s pyramid underwent three successive changes. The usual polar entrance passage in the north face of the building first runs through the masonry and then continues into the rock beneath the pyramid. Under the apex, the passage ends in a chamber hewn out of the rock, whose irregular shape and rough finish show that it was abandoned before completion. Instead, the original descending passage was interrupted about 20 m. from the entrance and a corridor ascending at the same angle was driven through the existing masonry of the pyramid. After about 40 m. the ascending corridor levels off into a horizontal passage, leading to a second tomb chamber, again under the apex, and about 30 m. above the base of the building. This room, without any justification called the ‘Queen’s chamber’, also gives the impression of being unfinished and was possibly never used. Then the ascending passage was continued beyond the levelling-off point, but in a much enlarged form. It now turns into an ascending gallery of polished limestone, 47 m. long and nearly 9 m. high. Its walls are slightly corbelled and each of the roofing slabs is held separately by notches in the walls. This impressive high passage, usually called the Grand Gallery, was for a long time believed to have served ritualistic purposes until it was discovered by Flinders Petrie that its real object was to serve as a store for a series of large limestone blocks. These blocks, when the tomb chamber was to be sealed, were let down into the ascending passage where, in fact, three of them are still in position.

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A third step pyramid was found in 1840 by Lepsius 20 miles further north at Zawiyet el Aryan. The site was first excavated in 1900 by Barsanti for the Antiquities Department and again ten years later by Reisner on behalf of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This pyramid, the construction of which was evidently abandoned at an early stage, resembles in almost every respect that of Sekhemket. However, it is smaller, measuring only 83 m. square. The builders had excavated in the rock the entrance passage, storerooms and tomb chamber, but the latter contained no sarcophagus. Evidence from surrounding mastaba tombs suggests that the pyramid belonged to a king named Khaba in the Abydos list, who succeeded Sekhemket and who also occupied the throne for only six years.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

Not much attention has been paid to the location of the individual pyramids. The pyramids of Zoser and his successor, Sekhemket, at Saqqara need no explanation; they were erected in the immediate vicinity of the capital Memphis and adorned its western consecutive building stages which were brilliantly analysed by the German Egyptologist Borchardt. The first stage was a step pyramid, similar to Zoser’s, of probably seven steps, rising to a height of about 60 m. Over this was then superimposed a second step pyramid, with possibly eight tiers, which may have brought it to 80 m. in height. Each of these stages must, for a time, have been intended as final since their external walls consist of dressed and planed Tura limestone. In a third building phase the whole structure was covered with a smooth mantle which was meant to transform the edifice into the first true pyramid. Excavation of the rubble at the foot of the building has revealed the lower part of this mantle which is still in existence. It has an angle of elevation of 520 which recurs in almost all later pyramids.

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All the buildings of the pyramid complex are constructed of local limestone, quarried nearby. The outer covering, however, consists of fine white limestone from Tura on the opposite bank of t e Nile. The casing blocks of limestone not only had to be planed but also fitted very carefully, an impressive task considering that the surface to be treated in this manner amounted to about 70,000 square metres. Much of this ancient glory has been restored in the last few decades by C. M. Firth, J. E. Quibell and, above all, by J.-P. Lauer who, on behalf of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities have investigated and reconstructed much of the Step Pyramid complex of Zoser.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

It has been known for many years, mainly through aerial photography, that another walled enclosure, similar in size to Zoser’s, lay buried under the sand close to the Step Pyramid. In 1951 the Antiquities Service entrusted their Curator at Saqqara, Zakaria Ghoneim, with the excavation of this area. His work not only established the existence of an enclosure wall of the panelled pattern but also the remains of a step pyramid in its centre. Not only stone robbers but also later builders of the Pyramid Age seem to have made heavy inroads into these structures. On the other hand, Egyptologists have tended to overestimate the damage that has been done to massive monuments by depredations of this kind. A simple numerical estimate shows that it is quite impossible to steal a whole pyramid in order to re-use its stones. For a pyramid such as that discovered by Ghoneim, it would mean the removal of more than half a million tons of stone. Unless another big structure for which these stones could have been used is found nearby, theft becomes an unconvincing explanation, and it is more likely that the pyramid was never finished.

This is certainly true in the present case. When the pyramid site was cleared of sand, a structure, 120 m. square but only 7 m. high, was discovered. It seems, in fact, unlikely that the pyramid was ever raised to a very much greater height. On the other hand, the unfinished state of the building allows much insight into its design and method of construction. There is no sign of a central mastaba and the whole building was laid out from the beginning as a step pyramid with concentric buttress walls, similar to the later phases of Zoser’s monument. The fact that even in this early state of erection all the buttress walls are present, shows that pyramids were built up from the outset by gradually raising the level of the whole structure at the same time and not by a successive accretion of buttress walls. In other words, during construction the site must always have presented the aspect of a truncated pyramid with a level top. The excavators also found large building ramps leading to the working area. The size of its foundation suggests that a pyramid of probably seven steps, rising to a height of roughly II Section (a) and plan (b) of the unfinished pyramid of Sekhemket at Saqqara. The broken lines in (a) indicate the probable design of the planned structure. The tomb chamber (i), containing the sealed but empty alabaster sarcophagus (pi. n), was excavated from the living rock, as were also the large magazines (2). The base was about 120 metres square, and the height about 7 metres (after Edwards) 70 m., was intended. The substructure differs from that of Zoser’s by the absence of a shaft. Instead, the tomb chamber, which lies about 30 m. deep under the centre of the pyramid, is carved out of the rock. Access is by a sloping tunnel with the entrance north of the pyramid.

From jar sealings found in the substructure, Ghoneim determined the name of the pharaoh as Sekhemket, who was evidently Zoser’s successor and may be identical with a king called Zoser-teti to whom the Abydos hieroglyphic king-list allots a reign of six years. There was no sign of a portcullis block which was meant to be lowered into the tunnel by a vertical shaft but Ghoneim found the tunnel blocked with ancient masonry which appeared undisturbed. When this was removed, the roughly worked tomb chamber was found to contain a sarcophagus of unusual design. It consists of a single hollow block of alabaster, which instead of a lid has an opening at one end. This aperture was closed with a sliding door, also of alabaster, and sealed with cement that was unbroken. The excitement was great when in May 1954 this trap door was raised, only to give way to disappointment, since the sarcophagus turned out to be completely empty.

From the tomb chamber led a number of passages, also unfinished and empty, but a small quantity of gold jewellery was found in the entrance passage. Halfway along the sloping tunnel, a passage leads to a long U-shaped gallery into which open 132 small storerooms. Some of these contained stone vases.

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The central feature of the pyramid complex, the mastaba, underwent no less than five alterations, each extending the original plan, and culminating eventually in the pyramid of six steps as we o Isometric section of Zoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara. It shows the three building stages of the original mastaba (1,2,3), The shafts leading to the subsidiary tombs (4) and the internal buttress walls (5) of the superimposed pyramid structure. The initial pyramid with four steps (6) was first extended to the north and west (7) and then further enlarged and raised to a height of six steps (8)

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

However, before the stones of the new extension could be dressed, a further change was instituted. The elongated mastaba was first extended in all directions by another 3 m. and then an entirely novel type of structure was erected on the new foundation. It was a pyramid made up of four steps and reaching to a height of about 40 m. This was a most imposing edifice, looking out above the enclosure wall and towering over the whole of Memphis. However, more was still to come. The next move was to enlarge the pyramid of four steps towards the north and west until it covered an area of 125 x 110 m. This enlargement was merely an intermediate building phase, preparatory for the final achievement of a pyramid of six steps, rising to a height of 60 m. By transforming the pyramid of four steps into one of six steps, the quantity of stone used was raised from 200,000 tons to 850,000 tons. In fact, after the first minor alterations, each of Imhotep’s projects became more ambitious than the last one. It seems that, as the work progressed, far from exhausting his resources, he was able to command an ever increasing labour force. Zoser’s Step Pyramid looks as if six mastabas, each smaller than the lower one, had been piled up on top of each other, and this is the manner in which it is usually described. While admittedly the aspect of the Step Pyramid conveys just this impression, its construction is based on a completely different architectural principle. Whereas the original mastaba was made up of horizontal courses of masonry, the Step Pyramid consists of an accretion of steep buttress walls which slope inwards at an angle of about 75 °. The height of these buttress walls successively decreases towards the outside of the pyramid, giving the whole structure its step-like appearance. The basic design, which was evidently repeated in every later pyramid, was first noted by Perring who investigated the Step Pyramid in 1837. Climbing it, he discovered this pattern of construction, but in his and all later drawings the obvious conclusion was not drawn that the inner core of the edifice, too, had to be built up in the same manner. The stabilising effect of this design will be discussed in greater detail later, and it bears testimony to Imhotep’s genius in erecting a tall and, at the same time, safe building.

The surrounding court contains a number of large buildings which, however, are all solid dummies, probably replicas of the palaces which the pharaoh had inhabited in his lifetime. They 10 The Pyramid Complex of Zoser at Saqqara. The Step Pyramid (I) stands in the centre, with the dummy buildings of the palace (2) and the Heb-sed Court (3) on the east side. The southern tomb (4) adjoins the temenos wall (5) whose gates, except for one (6), are also dummiesclearly follow the practice established, as we have seen, much earlier by Hor-aha. Other structures in the enclosure appear to be the replica of a ceremonial court, used by the king for celebrating his jubilee, the Heb-sed festival. Adjoining the pyramid at its northern side is a mortuary temple, now much ruined, in the serdab of which was found the famous limestone statue of Zoser. The king is shown seated in a shroud-like garment which leaves only the hands and feet free and which may have been the apparel worn for his ritual death at the Heb-sed ceremony. However, the most mysterious feature is a large mastaba at the southern end of the enclosure. It covers a second tomb at the bottom of a shaft sunk into the rock to a depth of over 30 m. In design, including the access by a sloping tunnel, it is very similar to the tomb underneath the pyramid. Here, too, galleries were attached to the tomb chamber and they also contained reliefs showing Zoser, and walls covered with blue tiles. Although this southern tomb had also been entered in ancient times, the robbers had done less damage than in the main shaft. In particular, the room above the burial chamber was found intact and it also contained a large granite plug with which the entrance to the tomb underneath could be stopped up. This tomb, again a chamber of rose granite and empty, provided a surprise. It is only 1.6 m. long and could not have accommodated an outstretched human body which, moreover, would have had to be introduced through a channel width of 80 cm by 40 cm. What, if anything, was buried in this chamber is a matter of conjecture, but it may possibly have contained the king’s viscera.

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The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Age Facts P2

In the memory of the Egyptian people Imhotep lived on as a mathematician, a physician and the inventor of building in stone. This last statement is essentially true, although stone had been occasionally employed in the tombs of the first two dynasties, mainly for portcullises and for some flooring. This shows that methods for quarrying and working stone had been developed some time earlier. However, the degree to which stone was quarried, transported and dressed for a royal tomb of the Second Dynasty bears no relation to the effort required for Zoser’s funeral monument. In the first case it amounted to a few tons of limestone, whereas the Step Pyramid complex contains at least one million tons. It is almost impossible to conceive how this increase of production could have been achieved in just one generation. Whereas the labour force required to construct one, or even two, mud brick tombs for each pharaoh would have been readily available, this can certainly not be said of the immense number of men required to build a pyramid. In fact, the size, organisation and, above all, the economic aspects of the employment of the gigantic army of workers is one of the crucial problems for understanding the meaning of pyramid building, to which we shall return in a later chapter. However, before we can discuss these problems, we first must give a description of the pyramids themselves.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid

Here we will have to consider two aspects: first the pyramid structures and secondly the tomb chambers and passages which they contain. As will become apparent later, these two features may not be as intimately connected as has generally been assumed, and they may, in fact, have served very different purposes. However, no two of the pyramids and their internal systems are identical and, for simplicity’s sake, we will give for each pyramid a complete description of external and internal features, in the historical order in which they were built.

Zoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara, although vastly different in size and conception still retains a few vestiges of the royal tombs of the two preceding dynasties. The tomb chamber is a subterranean structure, sunk at the bottom of a square shaft of 7 TO. diameter and 28 m. deep. This chamber consisted of two separate parts arranged one on top of the other and constructed of pink granite. Access to the lower cavity is by a circular hole of less than1 m. diameter in its ceiling. This hole was closed by a granite plug which is shaped like a bottle stopper and which weighs three tons. The cavity itself is about 3 m. long, 1.7 m. wide and of the same height. It was evidently robbed in antiquity but may have contained the body of the king; a mummified human foot was found in it. Nothing is left today of the upper chamber in which the plug was stored. Above its roof the shaft was originally filled with rubble. This rubble, together with the roof of the upper chamber, was removed, possibly during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty in the sixth century BC. Access to the tomb chamber was through a sloping passage which had been tunnelled through the rock north of the shaft. Outward from the bottom of the shaft radiate a maze of passages and galleries which originally may have contained funeral equipment and tomb furniture. Some of the galleries have remained unfinished while the walls of others were covered with blue tiles and sculptures in low relief. A few of the latter show Zoser evidently performing ritualistic acts.

The top of the shaft, after it had been filled with rubble, was originally covered by a solid stone structure, 63 m. square and 8 m. high, which possibly had a slightly curved roof. This type of superstructure is similar to the brick buildings covering the tombs of nobles of this period. They are usually called ‘mastabas’, a term used by the Arabs for the bench in front of their houses. Zoser’s mastaba, the first sizable stone structure ever erected, stood in the centre of a large, oblong court, 545 x 277 m., with its long axis oriented roughly in a north-south direction. This court was surrounded by a wall of dressed limestone 10.5 m. high with recessed panelling, similar to the facades of the funeral palaces in the preceding dynasties. Thus there exists a certain similarity to the layout of the earlier royal tombs, with Zoser’s mastaba taking the place of the ancient burial mound, and the enclosure being possibly a reminder of the panelled tomb walls.

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The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Age
The Princess Nemathap was evidently a daughter of the Delta and not a member of the southern royal family whose blood ran through the Second Dynasty. By her marriage to Kha-Sekhemui she must have supplanted the southern heiress but there is no doubt that she became the great queen. Her official seal bore the title ‘king-bearing mother’ and she was venerated as the acknowledged founder of the Third Dynasty. The king whom she bore was styled by Manetho as Zoser and he was generally referred to by this name in later times. Contemporary monuments list him under his Horus name ‘Neterkhet’, a fact which confused scholars for a considerable time.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Age

It is not quite certain that Zoser was indeed the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, since some sources give priority to a ‘Horus Zanakht’ who may have been Zoser’s elder brother. If so, he evidently died early, leaving no monuments at Saqqara. It certainly was under Zoser’s reign that the great architectural achievements of the Third Dynasty were ushered in, giving evidence of a new unity of purpose in Egypt which was conspicuously lacking under his predecessors. Through the union of Kha-Sekhemui and Nemathap and with the conciliation of the gods Horus and Seth, the country was suddenly released from the ravages of civil war and became free to turn its creative power to peaceful activities.

One last reminder of the past disorders was found only in recent years. When exploring the foundations of the Step Pyramid, the archaeologists broke into a 33-metre deep shaft which had been left undisturbed since Zoser’s time. It ended in a long gallery filled with the fragments of about 35,000 jars and dishes made of alabaster and hard stone, of which 8,000 have since been restored. On these, seals of all pharaohs of the two preceding dynasties were found, with the notable exception of those of the heretic Peribsen. The fragments may have been rescued from the royal tombs that were sacked and burnt by the rebels, to be piously reburied. The entrance to the shaft was covered up by an enlargement of Zoser’s tomb, which set the Step Pyramid like a gigantic seal upon the buried unhappy past.

Although very little is known about Zoser’s life, he became one of the most famous pharaohs in the history of Egypt. This fame is based on the magnificent funeral complex at Saqqara and, above all on the grandiose Step Pyramid which forms its centre. Nothing even faintly approaching these monuments in size and splendour had ever been created by man and, when beholding it, we cannot but realise that, almost 5,000 years ago, the human race had suddenly moved into a new age. The most astonishing feature of this development was the lack of any preparatory phase; it seems that within one generation Egypt had stepped from a semi- tribal state into a highly organized society, capable of an astounding communal effort.

Even more surprising is the realisation that the immense technological advance required for pyramid building was not due to a technical revolution. The methods of using stone as a building material and the metal and stone tools employed had been well- known in the Second Dynasty. What was new in Zoser’s time was the degree to which all these activities were suddenly escalated. Pyramid-building was a milestone in the history of man because it was his first true application of large-scale technology. Like all later technological efforts, down to our day, pyramid construction relied on tools and methods which were already well-known but the potentialities of which had not as yet been recognised. The keys to the problem were manpower and organisation. The first was provided by a pacified and unified country while for the second a unique human genius was required. His name, which the Egyptians cherished and later venerated for more than 3,000 years, was Imhotep.

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