1111 AM · ≈ 2650 BCE · world history
Djoser and the First Pyramid
At Saqqara rises the Step Pyramid—the first great stone building in history.
Before Djoser, kings were buried under brick platforms called mastabas. His architect Imhotep sets one mastaba upon another and raises six diminishing steps of dressed stone, surrounding them with a stone enclosure of columns and false doors. So the pyramid is born—and with it the craft of great stoneworks, without which there would be no Giza. Imhotep remained in Egyptian memory as a sage and healer, and two thousand years later he was venerated as a god. From this time on, the Old Kingdom is a state of builders.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Egyptian royal inscriptions and king lists — Djoser and Imhotep in the king lists; the later cult of Imhotep
Scholarship
- archaeology of the Nile valley — the step pyramid at Saqqara itself — the first large building in stone
Basis: documents and evidence.