The Pyramid of Djoser is connected to the beginning of the evolution of the pyramid form in Egypt. Located in Saqqara, the Pyramid marks the tomb of Djoser, the first king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt. King Djoser was considered an ambitious builder of monuments and temples. While not much is known about his reign, Djoser is attributed to have reigned for a long time due to the number and size of the monuments in the region. Usually, mastaba tombs were the customary form of graves before the reign of Djoser. Once Djoser died, Imhotep, Egyptian polymath, designed a more impressive tomb for the king. Imhotep’s new design incorporated stacked mastabas on top one another, making them smaller, to form the shape now known as the Step Pyramid. After years of investigation, it is known that the building process went through numerous stages. It is believed that Imhotep started to build a simple mastaba tomb, but it was eventually changed to a pyramid. The Pyramid of Djoser contains a complex that encompasses the pyramid, itself, and various houses and temples. The first systematic exploration of the pyramid complex was undertaken by Napoleon’s Egypt campaign 1798-1801 CE. However, the major discoveries at the comlex that contribute to our modern understanding of the pyramid was partaken by Cecil Mallaby Firth and Jean-Phillippe Lauer in 1926.
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