Saqqara & the Step Pyramid

Before Djoser, kings were buried under flat-topped mud-brick tombs called mastabas. His architect Imhotep stacked six stone mastabas of shrinking size on top of each other, creating the Step Pyramid around 2670 BC. It stood inside a walled complex of courtyards and dummy buildings imitating reed and wood in stone.

Imhotep was remembered for thousands of years; by the Late Period he was worshipped as a god of wisdom and healing.

Saqqara was used as a burial ground for more than 3,000 years. Highlights include the mastabas of officials such as Ti and Mereruka, with lively scenes of farming, fishing and crafts; the Pyramid of Unas, the first to carry the Pyramid Texts inside; and the Serapeum, underground galleries holding giant granite coffins for the sacred Apis bulls. New discoveries are still announced here almost every year.

Nearby Memphis was Egypt's capital for much of the Old Kingdom. Little of the city survives above ground, but the open-air museum at Mit Rahina displays a colossal limestone statue of Ramses II and an alabaster sphinx.

Saqqara is one of the most active excavation sites in Egypt. In 2018 the untouched, brightly painted tomb of the priest Wahtye was opened, and since 2020 Egyptian teams have announced well over a hundred sealed, painted wooden coffins from the Late Period, together with statues, amulets and mummified animals from the sacred animal cemeteries.

A short drive south, at Dahshur, stand two pyramids of Sneferu, Khufu's father, which show the Egyptians learning how to build a smooth-sided pyramid. The Bent Pyramid changes angle halfway up, probably because the builders feared it would collapse; the Red Pyramid beside it is the first successful true pyramid. Both are far quieter than Giza, and visitors can climb down into the Red Pyramid's chambers.