Pyramids Of Sakkara

Sakkara is one section of the great necropolis of Memphis, the Old Kingdom capital and the kings of the 1st Dynasty as well as that of the 2nd Dynasty. are mostly buried in this section of the Memphis necropolis. It has been of constant interest to Egyptologists.
Sakkara is the city of the dead. The name Sakkara is derived from the word sakr - hawk. The Sakkara is made up of over 14 pyramids, hundreds of mastabas and tombs, art objects and engravings dating from the first dynasty. The oldest mummy and papyrus were found here.
Sakkara is also famous for its private Old Kingdom tombs, which contain beautiful and revealing scenes: men force- feeding geese, cattle crossing a canal, men dragging a statue on a sled to the tomb. The best-known tombs are those of Ti, Kagemni, the `Two Brothers`, and Ptahhotep; the most famous is that of Meruruka.
The pyramid structure rises above the plateau in a series of six stepped ‘mastabas’ and was surrounded by a complex of dummy buildings enclosed within a niched limestone wall over 10m high. Beyond the wall was a rectangular trench measuring 750m by 40m and although it is now filled by sand, it can be clearly seen on aerial photographs. The high limestone walls of the enclosure were decorated with niches and false doors which were carved into the wall after it was built – quite an enormous task! Some archaeologists believe that the enclosure wall may have represented the earthly residence of the King and so the term ‘palace façade’ became used for this type of decoration. It is thought that the design imitates the wooden framework covered by woven reed mats which would have been used in earlier structures although it has also been suggested that the motif may originate in Mesopotamia. The wall has been reconstructed on the southern rampart and near the entrance and this is the best place to examine the construction.
Imhotep, who may have been a son of Djoser, is credited with the invention of building in dressed stone and the design and construction of the Step Pyramid complex. He was deified as a god of wisdom in the Ptolemaic Period and worshipped as Asklepios, god of medicine, by the Greeks. Netjerikhet’s name is directly linked to his predecessor Khasekhemy because mud sealings bearing his name were found in 1996 in Khasekhemy’s Abydos tomb.
The Step Pyramid itself was thought to have been built in several stages, beginning with an initial square mastaba and that its plan was changed several times during construction. Scholars now doubt this theory and suggest that the whole structure was planned as a pyramid from the outset. Earlier mastaba tombs were always rectangular. Recent excavations at Abydos have shown that earlier enclosures contained a ‘mound’ of sand covered with mudbricks (possibly symbolising the ‘mound of creation’) and perhaps acting as a prototype for Djoser’s structure. It would seem from recent study that the Step Pyramid was first constructed as a square mastaba which was enlarged and expanded in six stages, eventually becoming a 4-step mastaba and then a 6-step structure which was no longer square, but had become a rectangle oriented east-west. The limestone blocks were laid in courses which were inclined towards the centre of the pyramid.
Djoser’s complex was first investigated by Napoleon’s expedition but the entrance tunnel and underground galleries were not found until the early part of the 19th century. Many archaeologists have excavated at the Step Pyramid since that time, most notably Cecil Firth and Jean-Philippe Lauer who began a systematic investigation in the 1920s which lasted throughout the 20th century. For Jean-Philippe Lauer, who died in 2001 at the age of 96, Saqqara became a life-long commitment and he returned year after year with the French Archaeological Mission to excavate and study the complex. It is primarily to Monsieur Lauer that the Egyptological world owes its knowledge of the history and architecture of the site.