While the pyramids at Giza are the most recognizable, they represent the culmination of architectural developments in Egypt occurring during the Fourth Dynasty. The progenitor of the pyramid was the mastaba, basically a mound with a subterranean chamber containing the sarcophagus of the dead elite. The mastaba also contained a small chapel, a “false door,” and burial shaft leading to the underground burial chamber (Carr, 2014). Around 2780 BCE, Djoser’s architect Imhotep became the first to stack mastabas one on top of the other to form a step pyramid located in Saqqara. The Step Pyramid of Djoser is located near Memphis, on the West Bank of the Nile River, and literally raised the bar for Egyptian regal burial sites. Whereas prior burial mounds were relatively humble in comparison, the step pyramid was a far more grandiose memorial to kings and other members of the Egyptian aristocracy. Thus setting a precedent, Imhotep left an important legacy and it took several centuries before the initial step pyramid design would be changed significantly, into the smooth-sided pyramids that have become world renown.
Between the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara and the Great Pyramid of Giza was a span of several hundred years, during which time architects and kings vied to...
The step pyramid gradually evolved into the smooth-sided pyramid, in a series of steps, so to speak. The first successors to the Djoser pyramid included the Sekhemkhet and the Layer pyramids, neither of which made any significant deviations from the Imhotep design. In 2575 BCE, Snofru, the founder of the Fourth Dynasty, commissioned the Meidum Pyramid near Fayoum. The Meidum pyramid was the first step pyramid to be “encased,” thus becoming effectually a smooth-sided pyramid (Carr, 2014). However, the Meidum pyramid was not a “true” smooth-sided pyramid. It was merely a step pyramid that was filled in with stone and then covered in limestone (“The Egyptian Pyramid,” n.d.). The first attempt at a “true” step pyramid essentially failed, leading to the name “Bent Pyramid.” The Bent Pyramid was constructed to be genuinely smooth-sided, but the architect failed to make correct calculations and the result was a mismatch of angles from the base to the top (Carr, 2014; “The Egyptian Pyramid,” n.d.). Another “true” smooth-sided pyramid is the red limestone one at Dahshur, which was more proportionally correct than the Bent Pyramid, but a visibly “squat” one…
