Djoser’s Step Pyramid : Innovation Designed by Imhotep
Photograph by Ed Yourdon. Visit his Flickr Photostream and read about his photo.
I’ve decided to write about Imhotep’s creation, because I believe it is one of the greatest things to ever have happened to architecture as a whole. He was the master of innovation and pushed the limits beyond anything of his time. I first heard about this pyramid while watching Engineering an Empire from the History Channel, which also includes topics about Senusret’s Nubian Superfortresses, Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple at Dier el-Bahri, Akhenaten’s city at Amarna, and the temples of Ramesses the Great at Abu Simbel.
When Imhotep set out to build Djoser’s Burial Complex, working with stone was very very new. In fact, he was the first architect to use it on a grand scale, much like other surrounding nations were doing with mud bricks. No one else in the world was making buildings out of stone yet.
The surprise about this pyramid if you aren’t familiar with it, is that a pyramid was not initially what the plan was. It was meant to be the grandest Mastaba ever. Imhotep began with the underground, building a vertical shaft under the ground and making the room where the Pharaoh would be buried, another shaft for how he’d be brought down to the chamber, and then a series of rooms was made for his home in the afterlife. A secondary portion of underground rooms was created as well. The northern one housed the mummified body of the Pharaoh, and the south housed the mummified organs of the Pharoah.
Over 10,000 men and women were hired to work on the funeral complex. Paid with food, beer, clothing and tax breaks.
Imhotep revolutionized the entire idea of architecture as it was known. When Djoser’s Mastaba was completed and the Pharaoh still wasn’t dead (they had to build until the Pharaoh died), he continued building upwards, adding a total of 5 extra Mastabas on top of the first, and building further outwards to add to the complex. The result was the first pyramid to ever be made in Egypt. Not the perfection that was obtained with the pyramid of Khufu, but the very first, which made it even greater.
I could go into further detail but you really should watch it yourself in Engineering an Empire, I can’t possibly do the documentary any justice with my description.
Enjoy!
Here are some resources :
Wikipedia : Pyramid of Djoser
Wikipedia : Imhotep
Tour Egypt dot Net : Imhotep, Doctor, Architect, High Priest, Scribe and Vizier to King Djoser
National Geographic : Step Pyramid of Djoser
