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. . . . .Imhotep's plans would
incorporate many new ideas. The building material of the
time was mud brick, but this would not suit a pharaoh as
mighty as Djoser-Netcherikhe. Imhotep had a radical idea, he
would use stone, a material never used before in large scale
building projects. Originally the plan called for a mastaba
tomb, a design the Egyptians had used for centuries. Imhotep
had a better idea, he began stacking mastaba on top of
mastaba until he realized the design of the Step Pyramid. It
was a shape the ancient Egyptians recognized as the
legendary mound
of creation that had risen out of
the primordial ocean of chaos. It was also the shape of
things to come. For almost 1000 years the pharaohs built
pyramids as their eternal resting places. Abandoning them
when they realized that under these giant monuments of
extravagant wealth, they could no longer protect their
afterlives from plunder. |
