NARRATOR: 10 miles south of
the Great Pyramids of Giza
lies the Necropolis of Saqqara.
Today, Egyptologist
Chris Naunton travels here
to investigate what
triggered over a thousand
years of pyramid building.
He's been granted rare access
to explore restricted areas
of this necropolis.
This is a pretty
exciting moment for me
because I've never
been inside before.
NARRATOR: This ancient
cemetery is home to 11
pyramids and hundreds of tombs.
But one structure
dominates all others,
the first pyramid ever built.
This is where it all began.
It is the first
monumental building
in stone anywhere in the world.
NARRATOR: Constructed
more than 4,500 years ago,
this is the step pyramid tomb
of Pharaoh Djoser, a King
of Egypt's third dynasty.
It's a revolutionary
masterpiece designed by Egypt's
pioneer architect, Imhotep.
His achievement was massive
not just for the Egyptians,
but for humankind.
[grandiose music]
NARRATOR: Born as
a commoner, Imhotep
rose to become Pharaoh Djoser's
trusted advisor and eventually
his chief architect.
He invented the
stepped pyramid using
stone blocks instead
of mud bricks,
allowing him to
build ever bigger.
More than 2,000 years
after Imhotep's death,
he was worshipped
as a god all the way
up to Greek and Roman times.
Chris wants to
discover for himself
what inspired Imhotep to
design his groundbreaking step
pyramid.
He climbs to higher
ground to examine
the shape of older burial
structures that surrounded.
They're called mastabas.
And they are these sort of
squat, square platforms,
slightly sloping,
inwardly inclining walls.
NARRATOR: Chris
can make out traces
of these simple structures
within Imhotep's design.
Now that we're getting
closer to the pyramid,
you can really see this
series of platforms, one
on top of another.
So the bottom one, in
some sense, is a mastaba.
It's just the addition of
these successive layers
that make it into a pyramid.
And it's an incredible
achievement, architecturally.
NARRATOR: Built from over
500,000 tons of limestone,
constructed in the
mastaba-style layers,
the step pyramid stands
over 200 feet high,
then the tallest
building in the world.
Its impact on the ancient
Egyptian landscape was huge.
10 more kings replicated
Imhotep's design,
determined to attain the
same status as the pharaoh
of the first pyramid.
Their tombs became some of the
most iconic sacred buildings
on the planet, each growing the
necropolis until it stretched
5 miles across the
desert to create
a sprawling city of the dead.
Today, Imhotep's
masterpiece still
dominates the Egyptian desert.
But while his structures
survive, no trace of the man
himself has ever been found.
