THE STEP PYRAMID.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4796, 7 January 1925, Page 2

THE STEP PYRAMID.

STONE CHAPELS DISCOVERED. SOME INTERESTING FEATURES. Mr Firth, one of the inspectors oi the Egyptian Antiquities Department, has made an interesting discovery ar the well-known Sakkara Step pyramid. He there found two remarkable stone chapels, which back upon the pyramid structure. These are notable because they are so early as the 3rd dynasty. They also reveal fluted columns which are 2500 years older than the earliest Greek pattern. These structures may be tomb chambers, but more probably they are.chambers where offerings were made to the dead. Who were the dead? Though the Step pyramid was built for. Zozer (4947-4918 8.C.), the best authorities are doubtful whether he was buried there. The doorways of the pyramid were once covered with glazed .tiles, which are now in Berlin, and some of the writings thereon appear to show that the Step pyramid was the place of interment for several of the sacred bulls that were apparently worshiped in these early,days at Memphis.- if that is so, .there must have been bull worship nearly 2000 years before the bull burials in the vast vaults of the Serapeum. These subterranean chambers are among the wonders of Egypt. They are over 100 yards long, three or four yards wide, 17ft high, and contain many sarcophagi and burial chambers of bull mummies. The Serapeum is a great show place. The Step pyramid is also one of the most remarkable objects in Egypt. Not only is it older than the great pyramids of Gizeh, but it is differently shaped. Its total height of 200 ft rises in six stages, or terraces, each- about 6ft wide and 30ft high. If Zozer was not buried in this pyramid, some authorities believe that it was used for one of his queens,- or for some of his princes, and that the chapels lately discovered by Mr Firth were used for offerings to them. It was customary in the pyramid age to have such adjuncts, and .the system was continued when burials took place underground. Many wall paintings show the family of the dead man, and a priest, making offerings before a small funeral y chapel near the spot where the mummy is buried. In toe present instance there are no wall paintings (they came at a later period), and no remains of offerings. The actual history of these tomb chambers may be more clearly determined when woi a on the Stop pyramid is resumed next year.

There is one interesting feature connected with tlie fluted columns above referred to. They bear hieratic writings of Egyptian visitors of the period 1500 8.C., with remarks on .the beauty of the buildings and racy criticisms of previous visitors who had also written on tlie columns. The holiday trippens of to-day exhibit a similar Philistinism.

More than 30 years ago the writer of this article had an unusual experience under the shadow of this pyramid. When riding on donkey-back across .the desert with a companion and a dragoman, the party was suddenly confronted by a wild-looking man with masses of shaggy hair and wearing nothing but a scrap of loincloth. He looked like the Gerasine madman, and made hideous noises, apparently inviting the visitors to approach him. The dragoman explained that he was dumb and harmless, and was trusted by the authorities to explore for tomb treasures. Investigation showed that all the recent finds which the poor fellow could offer us were the fragments of some half-dozen mummies. There they lay upon the desert sand, a hideous group of skulls, arms, legs, and grave wrappings. They had oeen brought out of an adjoining mummy pit. It was a gruesome spectacle. As nene of the visitors cared to bring away an arm or a leg, this wild man of the tombs ran along the desert in a distinctly resentful and troublesome manner. It required a crack of the dragoman’s whip to send him back to his ghoulish stock-in-trade.