Ancient Waterworks Beneath the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt | Ancient Architects Special

Hello everybody and welcome to Ancient Architects. Please subscribe now to get the latest Ancient History news and independent research from around the world. Before starting this video I just want to say that yes, it's longer than usual and yes, my narration and audio editing skills are far from good. I really am an amateur who mainly enjoys the researching, writing and the visual side. Narrating doesn't come natural at all, it's like I have some kind of mental block. Maybe I'm trying too hard to sound clear and it often has the opposite effect. So yes, this video is long, the narration will at times sound disjointed but the information I'm presenting I feel is quite important. I have added a number of advert breaks but I really feel that this video needs them so you can take in all the information. Thank you for clicking on the video, please stick with it because it may change the way we view what experts say is the oldest pyramid in Egypt. I've been running this channel for more than two years and I've discussed the Giza Pyramids at length as well as the Red Pyramid, Bent Pyramid, Pyramid of Maidum and the so-called unfinished pyramids of Zayat el-Aryan and Abu Rawash and even lesser known structures like the Headless Pyramid of Saqqara. I've never created a dedicated video on the Step Pyramid of Djoser but that's because I've always been somewhat puzzled by it, especially the subterranean chambers and tunnels below. In the past I'd dive into a subject, make a video, do further research and then make another five or six refining my ideas and often changing my mind as new evidence came to light. For this video I've been doing the research, hypothesising and refining my ideas behind the scenes. All of this before releasing an initial video and I now have an interpretation that I believe explains the chambers and tunnels beneath the Pyramid of Djoser. I think it's a structure that somewhat bridges the gap between the unfinished pyramids and the finished traditional pyramids like those at Giza. I still hold the belief that the key to solving the mystery of these structures is by understanding their relationship to water. I've made videos in the past how I believe the unfinished pyramid pits of Zayat el-Aryan and Abu Rawash were actually dug to be large wells or reservoirs to extract water from the bedrock and then to contain it for the surrounding people. These structures I'm sure are pre-fourth dynasty in age and are likely to be early dynastic at the latest. In recent months I made a video that the Great Pyramid was built over a natural spring, a spring that was incorporated into the structure and known today as the Grotto. All of the evidence for my claims I've put into a video which I've linked below in the description. I believe that this spring held significance at Giza long before a pyramid was ever built over it and that it was incorporated into the structure for a reason, whether to help build it or for something yet unknown. The Bent Pyramid has a vertical shaft that goes down to an unknown depth and I propose it may have once acted like a well, extracting water from the bedrock and delivering it to the chambers inside the pyramid. Again, why? At this stage I just don't know. I hold the belief that every pyramid is built over an ancient now defunct water source, whether a natural spring or man-made well that was dug into the limestone bedrock to extract natural groundwater, way before the pyramid builders began their work. Therefore every pyramid is at least a two-stage construction, subterranean structures first with a focus on water and then a later pyramid built over the top. With this idea in mind, after studying the Steppe Pyramid of Gioza, all of the anomalies associated with this pyramid's chambers now seem to make sense to me. I've made the claim before for Giza, but there is even greater evidence at Saqqara that the Gioza pyramid complex was once an ancient waterworks, and I would suggest it had this role long before what is called the oldest pyramid of Egypt was built. For the next few minutes I'm going to run through some background to explain the pyramid complex for those with limited knowledge and present conventional ideas and conventional explanations, but then I will offer my own interpretations as to what we are looking at. The Pyramid of Gioza is a six-tiered steppe pyramid believed to date back to the 27th century BC, the third dynasty, built by Imhotep for Pharaoh Gioza, also known as Pharaoh Netjeriket. It is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex with a large courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures. There is evidence that the pyramid underwent a series of redevelopments, growing in size each time. Evidence suggests that it started out life as an ancient Egyptian mastaba, but others say this isn't the case, as traditionally mastabas don't have square bases, and apparently the original base of this pyramid was certainly square, meaning that it held some other function, which I'll have a go at explaining shortly. Turning the mastaba-like structure into a four-tiered steppe pyramid, the builders made a encased them with fine limestone with packing in between. This was very different to the standard mastaba building as these had horizontal courses of stone, whilst this pyramid had accretion layers that leaned inward, and blocks were bigger and higher quality. Over time this method of building turned a four-tiered structure into a six. But I'm less concerned about the actual pyramid in this video, that will be for another one that will come later. No, in this video I'm more interested in the and what I believe was the first phase of construction of the Djoser Pyramid complex. End to end there are roughly 6km or 3.5 miles of somewhat crude tunnels below this pyramid, most of which connect to a central shaft 7m square and 28m deep. This is known as the burial shaft, where at the bottom is what archaeologists call the King's Sarcophagus, which I'll come to later. To access the burial chamber, there is an inclined passageway that opens on the north side of the pyramid. This entrance also moved as the pyramid grew larger. A number of the underground chambers were inlaid with blue faience, some examples of which still remain today. And unlike the Giza pyramids, the walls also depict scenes of the King participating in the Heb Sed festival. Nobody can argue that Djoser wasn't associated with this pyramid once upon a time, because his name is written and his image is carved all over the structure. Sarcophagi belonging to Djoser's daughters were also apparently found inside. One of the most incredible things about this pyramid is that on the east side there are 11 vertical or near vertical shafts 32m deep that transition into short horizontal corridors. These don't link up with the central shaft or its maze of corridors. They were apparently separate tombs for Djoser's family in chambers for grave goods. Although sources vary in the detail, 5 of these 11 shafts contain human remains, while 6 of them contained an incredible 40,000 stone vessels that date to the 1st and 2nd dynasties and maybe even older. Names of pharaohs including Narmer and Den and other famous 1st dynasty kings are found on these vessels. They are a key feature and I'll discuss them later. So going back to the central shaft and there is at the base a so called burial chamber in Giant Sarcophagus, which is made up of a number of large megalithic granite slabs that are fitted together. It is an unusual sarcophagus by any stretch of the imagination with a roughly circular opening on the top that is sealed by what could only be described as a 3.5 tonne granite plug. This plug doesn't even fit properly and looks like it has been added so it can be easily removed, not to seal something for an eternity. On and around the sarcophagus were found broken limestone blocks depicting stars, which may have once formed the roof of this deep shaft. The king's body was never found inside the tomb and like with all ancient pyramids, the experts say it was robbed. A number of human remains have been found inside the Joseph pyramid and the samples have all been dated, but amazingly none of them date back to the 3rd dynasty. Most bones date to the much later, seite, late or Ptolemaic periods whilst some defleshed bones are 1-300 years older than the 3rd dynasty, placing them in the 1st or 2nd dynasties. Some Egyptologists get around this and say that Joseph was simply reburying old family members within his burial complex, which might be true but certainly isn't conclusive. The entire pyramid complex covers a massive 37 acres of land, more than twice as big as the Old Kingdom town of Hierakonplix. It had and still has to an extent an enclosure wall that was around 34 feet or 10.5 meters in height, which has a palace façade construction style very similar to the 1st dynasty mud brick tombs. The entrance is in the south corner of the eastern side and there are also 13 false doors dotted around the façade. Beyond the enclosure wall and completely surrounding the site is a very strange feature known as the Great Trench, which as the name suggests is a huge trench dug into the underlying rock. It is 2460 feet or 750 meters long and 130 feet or 40 meters wide, the largest structure of its kind in the Memphite Necropolis. It has a rectangular shape and built on the same north south axis as the pyramid complex, but it is much wider. Experts say it was simply made to stop people entering the site, some kind of safeguard or obstacle. Within the complex in southeastern corner is a colonnade entrance, with large limestone columns that lead to the South Court, a large courtyard type area between the pyramid and another tomb within the complex that is known as the South Tomb. In this video I won't be mentioning the court, the entrance and other structures in the complex, I'll save this for another video. But taking a look at the South Tomb, it has been likened to the satellite pyramids of later dynasties, and experts say it may have been made to house the organs of the king in a canopic jar, an explanation that really doesn't seem likely. The South Tomb is another giant pit, accessed via a staircase that descends 30 meters below the ground, that opens up into a pink granite burial chamber that sits at the bottom of the shaft. From here there is another maze of galleries, chambers and tunnels. Evidence suggests that the South Tomb was finished before the pyramid. There is also a northern mortuary or funerary temple within the complex, and various other structures and courts. But again, in this video I won't go into their detail, because I think a lot of these structures are later additions to the site, not the first phase of construction that I'm dealing with in this video. Because I strongly believe that this whole complex had a different original purpose, details of which I'll come to shortly. And it was transformed into a tomb complex in the third dynasty, but it was something else before. There is so much evidence that this is a pre or early dynastic site, and I believe that it was once very similar to the so-called unfinished pyramids of Zayet el-Aryan and Abu Rawash. Charles Koss made similar comparisons in a video on his channel a few months ago, due to the two pits in the Xhosa complex, and his video contains a very good description of the South Tomb in particular. I have linked this video in the description below. At this point I must add that I certainly don't believe that the unfinished pyramids were ever pyramids at all, and also they were never intended to be. The pyramid complex of Xhosa is, what I believe, to be the structure and complex that bridges the gap between the unfinished pyramids and the more traditional pyramids that we see across Northern Egypt. As stated already, there is a strong association between water and the unfinished and traditional pyramids, and I honestly think that water is the key to understanding the earliest phases of the Xhosa complex. Strip away the work that was done by Xhosa, take away the temples, the courts and five of the six tiers of the pyramid, and you're left with what I believe was once the original site, that was made in pre-dynastic times of the first dynasty. You have a deep pit in the centre, with a single tiered mastaba-like structure over the top, but it is important to note that the pit actually cuts through the mastaba, it didn't act like a roof. You then had another deep pit within the complex to the south, and the complex is also surrounded by a deep trench or moat. The trench really interested me a great deal, because it's unusual to find at a pyramid complex. I found out a little more about this on the website torreegip.net, and the first thing I noticed was that it was a different shape to the actual Xhosa complex. The fifth dynasty, Pyramid of Yusakath has also been built inside it, but outside of the walls of the Xhosa complex. So, if Imhotep and Xhosa built this trench, why doesn't it follow the outline of the complex? Why is there a large gap on the eastern and western sides? Why not build the trench tightly around the wall? That would surely be a better defence, like the ancient ramparts and ditches, as seen on the ancient British hillforts of the Iron Age. And then there is another thing. Contrary to many diagrams, the great trench doesn't even line up on its southern side, as shown here. Like I've always said in my videos, it is the anomalies that we have to analyse and explain to actually understand the pyramid sites of ancient Egypt. So what happened here? Did the so-called genius we know as Imhotep make a huge mistake in calculation? Or is it, as I suspect, that the trench was always meant to be this way, and that, in actual fact, it was already there way before Xhosa claimed the site as his own? The southern section of the trench that is clearly mismatched was analysed by various people, including eminent Egyptologist Selim Hassan. Nothing like this has been found anywhere else in Saqqara. And although experts say it was built to be an obstacle, to make it difficult for people to enter the site, I think it is obvious that what we are looking at is a canal, a huge channel for water. And the reason the trench doesn't match up in the south is because it contained running water. It wasn't built to be a simple moat to surround the site. Interestingly, if you extend the trench, it runs into the 5th Dynasty Pyramid of King Eunas. Using Google Earth to pinpoint the Great Trench is difficult to say the least, and the shifting sands mean we have no real tools available to us, us being independent researchers, to see where the Great Trench leads to. The fact that the Pyramid of Eunas was built on its path in the 5th Dynasty means it is highly unlikely that we can trace it any further, but I would suggest that it did continue on before the 5th Dynasty. Looking at Google Earth and looking for changing shapes in the sand, and this is one possibility. But of course I have nothing to back this up. But the fact that the trench doesn't match up on its southern side says to me that this trench continued on away from the Xhosa complex. If it doesn't continue on, it may have been this shape to flood the surrounding land. So how did this canal actually fill with water? Well, close to the southern end of the trench, which is the beginning of the canal, is none other than the South Tomb, or what I believe is an ancient well dug into the bedrock. It is 28 metres deep and 7 metres square. Going down the ancient staircase to reach the bottom of the Southern Tomb, which from now on I'll call the Southern Well, and you pass by a 30 metre long gallery that contained stone jars, as well as a wooden box, a wooden stretcher and a set of carrying poles. This picture I found on odysseyadventures.ca. Because the opening of these jars is so narrow, I believe that these vessels were for carrying water. Having a small opening to avoid spillages, but a bulbous shape to carry a large volume of water. I would suggest that over time, as the level of the water went down, people would walk down these stairs to access the water. If nothing else, these vessels may be telling us that this certainly was the site of an ancient well. Before the steps were built and people had to walk down to fill their water vessels, I think that this southern well filled in its entirety and then fed the great trench to the south, in what I believe is evidence of an ancient waterworks. The pit itself is pretty much vertical and cuts straight down through the limestone bedrock, and although some of these lines are planes, I think that some of them could be watermarks. I don't know, I'd have to look at it first hand. If they are watermarks, which I suspect some are, then that means it has been flooded since it was cut, and therefore originally it could never have been a tomb. So, in my own humble opinion, the southern tomb is a well, dug into the bedrock, which filled up and then fed the great trench that transported water around the site and then away from the complex. This was all done long before Xhosa had anything to do with the site, and archaeologists even say that the southern tomb was built before the Xhosa pyramid, but I think much earlier. And this isn't me just merely guessing, because we do have 1st or 2nd dynasty bones within the complex, and 40,000 stone vessels that date back to the same time. We also have a pyramid with 4 or 5 phases of development, all of which couldn't have been done within Xhosa's reign. So, what about the so-called Xhosa tomb itself? Well, if this is an old kingdom sarcophagus, then I'm the Queen of Sheba, because I'm sorry, this is certainly not a tomb, or at least it wasn't originally. Look at this crude plug for a start. Is this any way to seal the tomb of an important king? Of course not. Furthermore, the body of an adult male is larger than the plug. So when, hypothetically, they laid Xhosa's body to rest, a team of people would have had to remove some of the larger granite blocks first of all, then lay the body down, then put the blocks back, and then stick the crude plug in the hole that remained. And the plug doesn't even perfectly fit. The official interpretation makes no sense. As well as the nature of the shafts or pits within the pyramid complex, this granite sarcophagus or plugged box, which is a more accurate description, is what also bridges the gap between the unfinished pyramids and traditional pyramids. Because, if you recall my videos on Zayet el-Arian and Abu Ruwash, made well over a year ago, each of these unfinished pyramids had a floor that was lined with granite blocks and also contained an oval tub with a lid. Inside these spherical tubs, no human remains were ever discovered, just a mysterious and unexplainable black substance. I always thought they looked plugs, and now, here under the pyramid of Xhosa, we have yet another plug, oval in shape, surrounded by granite, just as is seen in the two unfinished pyramids. Both the Xhosa and South tombs or wells have bottoms lined with granite, maybe because it is a stronger stone and weathers less, the perfect material to line the bottom of a well, or maybe it was far easier to clean and maintain. But why the plugs? I strongly believe that the Xhosa tomb is another well, but it is separated from the Southern well for a reason, because it held a different function, and the key to understanding this function is the plugged granite box. As stated, the Southern well feeds the trench, and I suggest that this water could have been used by local people for everything from irrigation to more domestic jobs. The central well that today sits beneath the pyramid was built up, rising conically above the ground thanks to the mastaba-like structure, and remember, diagrams show that this well actually cut through the mastaba, it wasn't covered by it. Therefore, this water from the central well was clearly meant to be separate from the trench water of the Southern well, and in my opinion, there is only one reason to do this. This was drinking water. So the plug? Well, it wasn't to plug the water, which I once proposed for the unfinished pyramids, because in hindsight this doesn't work. Water pressure is too powerful to be plugged by a block of stone, and the limestone is weak enough that a buildup of pressure would certainly create a new opening for the water to escape. The last thing you want is to build a well that would soon become redundant. No, the plug and the granite box below must have been there to contain something. Looking through some geological papers on the Egyptian limestone, and I noted that it is rich in magnesium. So although the calcium in the limestone does make the water taste milky and smooth, magnesium can leave a very bitter taste. Taking this further, and I actually stumbled across a website called myjewishlearning.com, and an article titled, where the wood meets water. Not my usual source of information, but it certainly provided a eureka moment. It mentions a passage from Exodus, where God instructs Moses to take some wood and throw it in the water, so that the waters are sweetened. Whether this is to be taken literally or not, I don't know, but it did get me thinking. Can you add wood or something else to the water to remove the bitterness of the magnesium, and to sweeten the taste? I did a little more digging, and discovered that in Japanese culture, since the 17th century, charcoal has been added to water, used as a purifier. Apparently the ions of contaminants are attracted to the surface of the carbon where they are held. So if you were to create a well for drinking water, and you have a box or tub at the base, and you fill it with charcoal, you could effectively sweeten the taste. And furthermore, we also have an explanation for the black gooey substance that was found inside the tubs in the granite-lined chambers of the unfinished pyramids of Zayet el-Arian and Abu Rawash. Again, being made of granite, these boxes and containers at the base of these wells would be easier to clean, to remove any sediment and build up of contaminants. As this diagram shows, the central shaft under the Djoser pyramid is surrounded by a maze of tunnels that certainly look very much like ancient pipework. I propose that these may have come later, maybe if the well ran dry, the water table lowered, or the groundwater flow changed. People may have been looking for the moving source to refill the ancient well. Either that, or they were simply created by Djoser for funerary purposes. I propose that the 11 shafts on the eastern flank of the pyramid were yet more wells that were dug. Maybe again the water was diminishing, maybe the main well finally ran dry, or maybe these 11 wells were always there or were dug later, and their water served a different function, or were designated for different people or families. But the fact that six of these shafts contain 40,000 stone vessels, bearing the names of first and second dynasty kings, may give us an indication of when these wells were active, and also when the waterworks finally went out of use. Experts say that these 40,000 stone pots were symbolic grave goods for royal ancestors of the first and second dynasties, but I don't understand how this makes any sense. It makes more sense that these wells were out of use, and the water collection vessels were thrown in thereafter, like a later third dynasty rubbish dump, maybe by Djoser's people to tidy up the already ancient site. What we have at the Djoser pyramid complex is an ancient Egyptian pre or early dynastic waterworks, for drinking, for agriculture and for everyday use. This was a site with a square platform with a well in the middle, a platform that extended eastwards with time as 11 new wells were dug. The site had a second well that was dug to feed a canal or trench, which I think fed the surrounding area with water for irrigation purposes. King Menes or Nama, the first dynastic king, was the man believed to have brought irrigation to northern Egypt, and maybe the Djoser complex is an example of his early dynastic work, mastering water. What I am calling the early phase 1 use of the site is backed up by carbon-14 dating from material in the so-called central burial chamber or well. The results from tests in 1984 gave a date 200-300 years earlier than the reign of Djoser, whilst those in 1995 gave a date 200 years earlier. This places the original date of the Djoser complex to around 3000 or 2900 BC, aka the first dynasty. Yes, Djoser could have reused older material in this complex and also reburied the remains of his family, but maybe the site is just a lot older. By the time Djoser reached this site, the wells may have already been dry, or maybe they weren't, I'm not sure and I guess we can never know for sure. But I strongly believe that the Pyramid of Djoser, like the Great Pyramid and Unfinished Pyramids of Zayed el-Aryan and Abu Rawash, maybe even the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid, was built over a source of water. After finishing this script and recording it, today I came across the writings of John Blake on Graham Hancock's forum, and amazingly he says that the ancient Egyptians knew the Step Pyramid complex by the name shown on screen, which means or as he says, the drink offering of the gods. I was amazed. He concludes that the Step Pyramid complex was known as the drinking place of the gods, and amazingly he has reached many of the same conclusions as me, although he does add greater detail and he also made them 7 years ago. Where has this information been hiding? Although I believe the central well was originally just source of drinking water, Blake states that this water may have been combined with grains, fruit, honey and herbs to make a true drink of the gods. He states that for people to have a jug of this drink of the gods, maybe they paved Djoser with a stone block, and with these blocks the pyramid grew over time. Blake also offers this image of the south well and shows yet more watermarks and even states that the granite box was to contain charcoal. Hopefully my link to black gooey substance in the unfinished pyramid cements this idea. Blake's idea of the holy drink in return for a block of stone could well be how the pyramid grew in size in the 3rd dynasty, because I do think it started out life in the 1st dynasty, as a simple site for irrigation and access to clean drinking water. Maybe on rediscovering it, Djoser linked it to the Egyptian gods, making it some kind of holy well as opposed to just being a normal well for clean water. I don't know. I will have to delve through his work in more detail as I have only just stumbled on it today, and little did I know that he presented these ideas on the internet 7 years ago, whilst I've spent the last 4 weeks trying to make sense of this complicated pyramid complex. If nothing else, it shows that research is pointing in the same direction, but I feel that these ideas certainly need to be heard by a large audience. With all the information I've presented in mind, although people always ask the question, why were the pyramids built? I think the question we need to start asking, is why were the pyramids built over a more ancient source of water? Answer that question, and you may solve the riddle of the pyramids. There is a lot more I can say about this hypothesis, but I'll be looking into this further in due course, and I'm sure a second video will be made in the near future. In fact, I've already started writing it. Thank you very much for watching this episode of Ancient Architects. If you enjoyed the video, please subscribe to the channel, please like the video and please leave a comment below. Thank you very much.