Word: zoser
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...Step Pyramid itself is a monument to Imhotep. It was built as the tomb of Pharaoh Zoser, who reigned about 2980 B.C., but Imhotep was its architect. And because it is the oldest stone pyramid, the Egyptians have credited Imhotep with inventing the art of building with cut stone. He was also Zoser's prime minister, a magician, sage, proverb maker, and patron of the scribes who ran the Egyptian bureaucracy. Century by century through Egypt's long history his reputation grew. During the Ptolemaic dynasty (323-30 B.C.), when Greeks ruled Egypt, he was identified with Asclepius...
...only means of asserting himself in a meaningless universe. He equates sacred and profane works of art by arguing that both aim at "defeating the tyranny of Time": though Vermeer "had no intention of imparting to his Maidservant that morsel of eternity which the Egyptian sculptor imparted to his Zoser, he may well have wished his picture of this girl to enter into a world akin to that of the Pharaoh's statue...
...years Dr. Ghoneim has been digging laboriously into a shapeless hill near the "step pyramid" of Zoser, 15 miles south of the Pyramid of Cheops. Prompted by ancient lore, he suspected that it might be more interesting than it looked. Under the sand, he found the corner of a low wall. As his laborers shoveled the sand away, he found another corner. "I've got a pyramid!" cried Dr. Ghoneim. The hill was indeed the base of a pyramid that was never finished...
...Egyptologists are not so sure that Ghoneim will find the mummy of Sanakht or of any Pharaoh. If the sarcophagus does prove to be royal, said Dr. William C. Hayes of New York's Metropolitan Museum, it is likely to contain a Pharaoh earlier than Zoser. builder of the step pyramid. Sanakht was probably a son of Zoser, and no prideful Pharaoh was likely to place his tomb, as the new found one was placed, behind that of his father...
Perhaps, admitted the diggers, the tomb had been a temporary one for King Zoser, used pending Im-Hotep's completion of the nearby Step Pyramid, under the wall of which it lay. Or perhaps it was Zoser's queen's tomb. The sarcophagus, still hidden, would tell. Meantime the diggers marveled at a maze of deep tunnels, at remains of blue tiling, at a dozen alabaster wine jars...