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February 14, 2004
Mastaba
Guenter Dreyer, director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, suggests a reason for the architectural leap from mastabas to pyramids with the step-pyramid of Djoser. The plan at Saqqara followed an earlier example at Abydos where the pharaoh's burial place was covered by a flat mound, or mastaba (Arabic for "bench"), and the complex enclosed by a wall. The surrounding was at Saqqara was too high and too close to the mastaba for the burial mound to be seen...
"This was a problem, because this mound I think represented the primeval mound of creation and guaranteed the resurrection of the king," said Dreyer. The architects of the Saqqara complex solved the problem by building another smaller flat mound on top of the first and then decided to extend it upwards by adding more mounds.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 14, 2004 08:51 AM