Djoser (Netjerikhet)

Djoser (Horus name Netjerikhet, 'divine of body') was an Egyptian Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty during the Old Kingdom whose reign inaugurated the glorious 'Age of the Pyramids'. Reigning from the royal capital of Memphis, Djoser conducted military expeditions into Sinai to secure turquoise and copper mines and extended Egyptian authority south to the First Cataract of the Nile at Aswan.

Djoser's reign was immortalized by his collaboration with his royal chancellor and architect Imhotep. Breaking with the ancient tradition of mudbrick mastaba tombs, Imhotep stacked six progressively smaller stone mastabas atop one another to create the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. Rising 205 feet above the desert, it was the first monumental dressed-stone structure ever erected by humanity, surrounded by an enormous mortuary complex of carved limestone colonnades, courtyards, and ceremonial chapels that redefined royal funerary architecture for millennia.