These pyramids took place in the Third Dynasty during 2630-2575 BC. King Djoser commissioned this monumental architecture in Egypt. The designer was Djoser’s prime minister, Ihotep, whose name is inscribed on a statue at the site. The purpose was to hold his mummified body. The Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser’s at Saqqara arose as a traditional, flat-roofed mastaba, although in 2611 B. C. , by the end of his nineteen-year reign, it had risen to six stepped layers and stood two hundred and four feet or sixty-two meters high, making it the largest building at this time.
The Funerary Complex of Djoser is a large pyramid structure that looks like steps with six structures stacked on top of one another, each one decreasing in size. The material used was limestone. These pyramids were usually eighteen hundred feet long by nine hundred feet wide; overall in size they were very large. Below the structure was the underground burial area, which consisted of a small room that held a statue of the deceased and there was a chapel for family to gather. A shaft then led down to the burial area that was sealed after the burial. This structure was west facing towards the setting sun.
Under certain under specific conditions, optical illusions were made, giving the suns dick a form of a step pyramid rising with the sun in the morning and setting in the evening. The sun god that the Egyptians worshipped was known by the name of Aten. The Egyptian people’s connection to the gods was very important because they believed in polytheism, which is known as the belief in one religion or God. Alternatively, Egyptians in ancient times tend to believe that a persons soul lived on for eternity after death ka, was known as the life force, or soul, which was regarded to live on after the death of the body.
This soul would be forever engaged in the certain activities it had following the death of the body. They believed the dead needed a place to live “either the mummified body of the deceased or, as a substitute, a sculpted likeness in the form or a statue. ” These ceremonies were a way to make sure that their loved ones journeyed to the afterlife as peacefully and safely as they could. The commonly used structure for burial by the upper class such as kings in early Egyptian times was a one level building with a flat top and slanted walls built above an underground burial area, called a mastaba.
As in earlier mastaba tombs, the Step Pyramid’s burial chambers are underground, hidden in a maze of tunnels, assumed to discourage grave robbers. The tomb was nevertheless plundered, and all that remains of Djoser, the third king of Egypt’s 3rd dynasty, is his mummified left foot. “Egyptian burial structure for kings and members of the royal court began as low, solid, rectangular mastabas with an external niche that served as the focus of offerings. This began as a gateway to the after life but later on, mastabas had either in internal serdab or a chapel.
An internal serdab is the room where the ka statue was placed. Over time, mastabas forms were piled over an underground burial chamber as they decreased in size. Eventually, the completion of this fine advancement formed the Step Pyramid. In this case the burial site was found to actually be within the pyramid as opposed to below ground. The underground tombs were almost always accompanied by false chambers, doors, and confusing passageways to confuse potential tomb raiders. They worshipped in temples along a central axis known as pylons across the altar, and all the rooms were also arranged on a central axis.
The pyramids were especially significant because they buried the dead in a hierarchy form. Hierarchic scale refers to the use of differences in size to indicate relative importance, the tallest or largest figures being the most important such as Gods, and Pharaohs, leading down to lesser and smaller importance with average citizens and workers. The higher up to the gods showed grand status; the Pharaohs were believed to be gods on earth, which was the closest tangible representation to a God itself.
They richly believed in afterlife and brought belongings to be buried with the dead as offerings to the gods. Today these archeological remains are in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the city of Memphis. The designation of heritage for this particular monument is North of the area known as Saqqara lies Abusir; south lies Dahshur. The area running from Giza to Dahshur has been used as a necropolis by the inhabitants of Memphis at different times, and it has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.
The similarities are that they both are sites of ceremonies related to death and burial and spiritual beliefs. These two pieces are described as megalithic, meaning large stone architecture. Both of these monuments are made of out stone. The main similarity is that the same materials are used; that being stone made from rock from the mountains. Both the pyramids and Stonehenge represent the religious beliefs of the people at that time period in that specific region.
One of the primary differences between Stonehenge and the pyramids is the length of time they took to build. Stonehenge took over a millennium to build where the pyramids took twenty years. The Egyptians brought stone from hundreds of kilometres away and the stone was not large in comparison to Stonehenge. Egypt had more manpower for the task of building these megalithic structures, as the people were concentrated in a closer area. Whereas in Britain, the population was largely scattered and labor to help build Stonehenge was less concentrated.
Stonehenge was used only for religious ceremony, whereas the pyramids were used for ceremonies and burials for numerous amounts of important Egyptian people. Stonehenge was an above ground structure whereas the pyramids had an underground burial area. Stonehenge and the pyramids are similar in the fact that they are both large stone structures built thousands of years ago and which magnificently remain standing even today. The structures were both built with significant consideration to the universe and the direction of the sun.
Both of these structures were a place of worship to the culture of the people who lived there which were considerably different. Stonehenge is made from a small amount of very large blocks compared to the Great Pyramids which were made with up to 2. 4 million small blocks. The Pyramids are in Egypt and Stonehenge is in England. The Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphics, which was a language of their own whereas the English did not. Hieroglyphics can be described as picture writing because they were words and ideas rendered in the form of pictorial symbols.
Stonehenge is one of the most famous structures that are still standing today. A variety of stone megaliths were built in different parts of the world during the same period and by different cultures. Both of these monuments took great effort to build, the complex design of the pyramids and the massive stones of Stonehenge are each so unique in themselves. It is evident that both cultures were skilled in architecture as well as astrology. The post and lintel monument of Stonehenge aligned with the summer and winter solstice.
On the other hand, looking at the Great Pyramid one can see that its construction was mathematically precise. The differences between the Stonehenge and the Step Pyramids are evidently shown through the Stonehenge’s circle of stones that relied on the human compass. In conclusion, Stonehenge and Step Pyramid were both megalithic architecture built in a similar time period but in different parts of the world. Although these two ancient monuments are strikingly similar in their spiritual beliefs they differ in other aspects of form.
While many connections are made to relate these two enchantingly bold works their individual design speaks for itself in the uniqueness of each of these, Stonehenge with its gigantic formations and the step Pyramid with its precise geometric measurements. Consequently, as one can now clearly see the stories of the people, their spiritual and religious practices, and the landscapes during the time of these two monumental pieces were of most importance these aspects differ greatly having a direct impact on the similarities and differences of both the Stonehenge and the Step Pyramid.