egypt Third Dynasty

Egypt: History - Pharaonic Dynasty IIV (Third Dynasty)

Third Dynasty

The Third Dynasty, which with the next three dynasties constitutes the Old Kingdom, is characterized by the grand line of pyramids running along the western desert from near the level of modern Cairo. The second king of Dynasty III was the monarch whom later generations knew by the name of Djoser, and whose importance as the founder of a new epoch, even though it was his brother Nebka who founded the dynasty, is marked in the Turin Canon by the exceptional use of red ink. Djoser's outstanding achievement was the Step Pyramid at Saqqara overlooking the great city of Memphis. This is a massive structure rising in six unequal stages to a height of 204 feet. Egypt has no more remarkable spectacle to offer than the comparatively recently excavated and restored complex of buildings of which that earliest of the pyramids forms the center. The credit for this is, however, probably due less to Djoser himself than to his famous architect Imhotep (Gk. Imouthes), whose later reputation as a writer and healer ultimately led to his deification and identification with the Greek demigod Asclepios. It is not without reason that Manetho ascribes to Imhotep the invention of building in stone, since Djoser's great funerary monument was in fact the first to be constructed wholly in that material. The royal tombs of the previous dynasties had been mastabas of brick, with little employment of granite and limestone except for flooring and the like. The Step Pyramid too was originally conceived of as a mastaba, though square and not oblong, but later obtained its present unique appearance by successive changes of plan. Investigation of the maze of underground galleries revealed a few walls lined with blue faience tiles to imitate matting, and elsewhere thousands of splendidly shaped vases and dishes of alabaster, breccia, schist, and other fine stones were found thrown about. Some low reliefs depict the king in ceremonial poses, and their exquisite delicacy shows that the sculptors of the time had mastered this technique no less well than that of the noble seated statue of Djoser that was also among the finds. The vast area outside brought to light edifices of the most unexpected types. Apart from the temple chambers on the north side which were needed for the daily service of offerings and other ceremonial, as well as a row of shrines apparently for the celebration of the Sed-festival or royal Jubilee, various imposing structures were uncovered of which the purpose in unknown or only guessed. These everywhere employed small blocks of limestone contrasting markedly with the cyclopean masonry favored by the next dynasty. Evidently the brick buildings of the foregoing age still largely influenced the architect's mind, the possibilities of stonework being as yet only dimly perceived. Particularly strange are the half-open stone doors copied from earlier ones of wood, and here for the first time are seen fluted or ribbed columns, some of them with pendent leaves apparently copied from a now extinct plant. These columns are, however, still engaged in the adjacent walls as if lacking confidence in their own strength as supports. The entire site is enclosed within a magnificent paneled and bastioned wall of the finest limestone no less than a third of a mile long from north to south and about half that length from east to west.

Dynasty III pharaohs

Horus-name	Personal Name	Regnal years	Burial	Consort(s)
Netjerikhet	Djoser	19	Saqqara	Hetephernebti
Sekhemkhet	Djoserty	6	Saqqara: Buried Pyramid	Djeseretnebti
Sanakht	Nebka	9	Abydos ?
Khaba	Teti	6	Zawyet el'Aryan: Layer Pyramid
Uncertain, Qahedjet ?	Huni	24	Meidum ?	Djefatnebti Meresankh I

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