What is the significance of the step pyramid

It constitutes a significant historical turning point in ancient Egyptian funerary monuments, revolutionizing stone architecture and royal burials. In addition to its beauty and monumental scale, it is not only the very first pyramid that the ancient Egyptians ever built, but also the oldest known ancient Egyptian stone structure.

The sheer age of the Step Pyramid is astounding. Below ground, the Egyptians created an underground structure on a scale previously unknown, quarrying out more than 3. A central corridor and two parallel ones extend over 1, feet meters , connecting rooms. Old Kingdom Monuments. Previously, temples were made of perishable materials, while royal tombs were usually underground rooms topped with a mudbrick mastaba a structure in the shape of a bench. However, Imhotep developed the mastaba into a pyramid and built it in hewn stone.

The pyramid was transformed from mastaba through six stages of construction, the builders gaining confidence in their use of the new medium and mastering techniques required to move, place and secure the huge blocks. This first pyramid rose in six steps to a height of 60m, and was encased in fine white limestone. You enter the complex at the southeastern corner via a colonnaded corridor and a broad hypostyle hall.

This complex is surrounded by a recessed limestone wall that contains 13 fake doorways as well as the real colonnade entrance on the southeast side. A temple lies on the north side of the pyramid along with a statue of the king. To the south of the pyramid lies a great court, with an altar and stones identified as boundary markers. These structures would have served ritual purposes and, curiously, they appear to have been partly buried by their builders, notes Egyptologist Mark Lehner in his book "The Complete Pyramids.

In the southeast side of the complex, next to the dummy chapels, is a court that would have allowed the king to enact the Heb-Sed jubilee festival, presumably in the afterlife. It contains a series of tunnels that mimic those found beneath the pyramid itself.