King Djoser's Step Pyramid

Ancient Egypt Report King Djoser’s Step Pyramid, Pyramid of Amenemhet II, and Valley of the Kings are all important monuments regarding burial of either royalties or both royalties and officials. These three monuments are from different time period and it is clear that ancient Egyptian tombs come in all sort of kinds. The tombs, artwork, and sculpture shows that the belief in the afterlife existed back then.
King Djoser’s Step Pyramid is located at Saqqara (Millmore, Mark). King Djoser began working on his mastaba tomb in 2667-2648 B.C. (Millmore, Mark). The construction started out with “an enormous mastaba of stone”. Then another one was built on top of that and another one on the second and so on (Millmore, Mark). This pyramid is the world’s first pyramid (Millmore, Mark). The chapels are located around the base. The pyramid also contain a vast courtyard for the king’s festivals (Millmore, Mark). Tombs located at Saqqara belongs to
minor royalty and court officials (Millmore, Mark). Images on the limestone walls depicted “all kinds of animals, fish, birds, insects, vegetation, and people hunting, herding, and farming (Millmore, Mark).
Pyramid of Amenemhet II was built by Amenemhet II around 1929-1895 BC in Dahshur (Pyramid Of Amenemhet II). The outer casing of the pyramid was made with Turah limestone (Pyramid Of Amenemhet II). A passage from the entrance descends to the main burial chamber. There are 4 niches in the pyramid; two are at both ends and the other two are at the wall on the opposing the entrance passage (Pyramid Of Amenemhet II). To prevent the pyramid from collapsing, six relief stone beams were leaned against each other right about the main chamber (Pyramid Of Amenemhet II). When Jacques De Morgan excavated the location in 1894, most of the work was devoted to the discovery of jewellery and personal items of princess Khnumet and princess Ita (Pyramid Of Amenemhet II).
Valley of the Kings is located in hills behind Dayr al-Bahri.
It is a part of the ancient city of Thebes (Dorman, Peter). The Valley of the Kings is a burial site of almost all the pharaohs from 1539-1075 BCE (Dorman, Peter). The pharaohs from that time period feared for the safety of their rich burials. They chose to conceal their tombs in a valley in the western hills behind Dayr al-Bahri (Dorman, Peter). The tombs have descending corridor with deep shafts and pillared chambers to confuse robbers (Dorman, Peter). The cases were covered with “sculptured and painted scenes” of the pharaohs with god and goddess. There were also magical texts to help the pharaohs on their journey in the afterlife (Dorman, Peter). All tombs were cleared out in the 21st dynasty to protect the mummies and to recycle the treasures back into the royal treasury. Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in 1922 under pile of rock chippings. The treasures in his tomb indicated “how rich the burial of a great pharaoh” must have been during that time (Dorman,
Peter).
These three monuments were for burial of either royalties or both royalties and officials. King Djoser’s Step Pyramid, Pyramid of Amenemhet II, and Valley of the Kings were created in different time periods. The architecture of each monuments show how much ancient Egyptian have learned. From 2,667-1,075 B.C., ancient Egyptians were able to go from stacking mastaba on top of each other to manipulating niches and beams to prevent prevent the pyramid from collapsing to using natural landscapes. The tombs, artwork, and sculptures show how strong Egyptian’s beliefs are in the afterlife.