Talking Pyramids

It appears that the burial vault of the oldest pyramid in the world may have finally been opened for the first time since it was built, almost 4900 years ago.

“Maybe this is the most impressive place on earth!”
- Dr Zahi Hawass

It’s really quite amazing to think that Djoser’s sarcophagus had not yet been opened. It lies deep beneath the step pyramid at the bottom of a huge central shaft 7 meters square and about 28 meters deep. The granite beams that house his wooden coffin are so big that each one weighs several tons.

The top of Djoser's granite burial vault after having been cleared

In a previous video recorded two months ago Zahi Hawass described his team’s recent clearing of the top of this massive burial vault. Sitting on the burial vault’s three and a half ton granite plug Hawass explains:

“I use to say that we would never see the sarcophagus in our life. I never thought that we’d be able to do conservation and restoration and clean this sarcophagus.

About two months ago we found a tunnel underneath the sarcophagus and that tunnel goes for about 60 feet, or maybe 90 feet. But going in this tunnel crawling and see yourself under the base of this sarcophagus that maybe weighs 60 tons…

The Egyptian team that (is) working inside the step pyramid was able to remove the stone rubble limestone blocks and be able in two months to be able to clean the sarcophagus for the first time.

And now actually I don’t think that any archaeologist in the past or anyone in modern times saw this sarcophagus. It is the first time that you can actually see it.

So me and my assistant, he said:

‘We have huge blocks underneath. That we cannot move it, we have to break it.’

I said ‘Break it’.

Sometimes a surgeon can’t make surgery, he has to sacrifice for things to save the patient.

We are saving the Step pyramid!”

Hawass continues:

“Something that I will be proud of all my life, restoring the Step pyramid. No one can do it. Many foreign expeditions tried and they came and they failed. We did very impressive project – completely done by an Egyptian team of engineering architects, archaeologists, and restorators they work together

I gave them the authority to make a decision even if the decision could be wrong.
But make a decision for the safety of the monument and this is why we are inside the burial chamber it is something incredible I am sitting above the granite sarcophagus for the first time that people can see the sarcophagus.”

Yesterday on his website Zahi Hawass revealed that during restoration work thirty granite blocks were discovered, each weighing as much as five tons and that these “belonged to the granite sarcophagus that once housed Djoser’s wooden sarcophagus – the final resting place of the king’s mummy.”

So it would seem that this rather vague reference at the bottom of this news release may be the announcement that the granite burial vault of the owner of Egypt’s first pyramid, built by the great architect Imhotep, has been opened. Or perhaps it is rehash of the previous announcement.

Oddly, the Egypt State Information Service stated:

“Hawass said that the SCA group unearthed 30 granite blocs that, put together, “

I assume there will be a more news on this in the near future.

Also found during the cleaning of the corridors of the pyramid were limestone blocks with the names of Djoser’s daughters and it is thought that he had eleven of his daughters buried inside the pyramid.

Wooden instruments, remains of wooden statues, bone fragments, the remains of a mummy, and clay vessels were also found inside the three and a half miles of the pyramid’s corridors.

Sources:
The website of Dr Hawass
Egypt State Information Service
eTurbo News

Previously on Talking Pyramids:
Underneath the Step Pyramid with Dr Hawass
New Shaft Found in World’s Oldest Pyramid
World’s Oldest Pyramid Crumbles
Photo of the Week – Inside Djoser’s Pyramid

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Tags: djoser, sarcophagus

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 9:43 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.