段落A

The pyramids are the most famous monuments of ancient Egypt and still hold enormous interest for people in the present day. These grand, impressive tributes to the memory of the Egyptian kings have become linked with the country even though other cultures, such as the Chinese and Mayan, also built pyramids. The evolution of the pyramid form has been written and argued about for centuries. However, there is no question that, as far as Egypt is concerned, it began with one monument to one king designed by one brilliant architect: the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara.

段落B

Djoser was the first king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt and the first to build in stone. Prior to Djoser’s reign, tombs were rectangular monuments made of dried clay brick, which covered underground passages where the deceased person was buried. For reasons which remain unclear, Djoser’s main official, whose name was Imhotep, conceived of building a taller, more impressive tomb for his king by stacking stone slabs on top of one another, progressively making them smaller, to form the shape now known as the Step Pyramid. Djoser is thought to have reigned for 19 years, but some historians and scholars attribute a much longer time for his rule, owing to the number and size of the monuments he built.

段落C

The Step Pyramid has been thoroughly examined and investigated over the last century, and it is now known that the building process went through many different stages. Historian Marc Van de Mieroop comments on this, writing ‘Much experimentation was involved, which is especially clear in the construction of the pyramid in the center of the complex. It had several plans …before it became the first Step Pyramid in history, piling six levels on top of one another…The weight of the enormous mass was a challenge for the builders, who placed the stones at an inward incline in order to prevent the monument breaking up.’

段落D

When finally completed, the Step Pyramid rose 62 meters high and was the tallest structure of its time. The complex in which it was built was the size of a city in ancient Egypt and included a temple, courtyards, shrines, and living quarters for the priests. It covered a region of 16 hectares and was surrounded by a wall 10.5 meters high. The wall had 13 false doors cut into it with only one true entrance cut into the south-east corner; the entire wall was then ringed by a trench 750 meters long and 40 meters wide. The false doors and the trench were incorporated into the complex to discourage unwanted visitors. If someone wished to enter, he or she would have needed to know in advance how to find the location of the true opening in the wall. Djoser was so proud of his accomplishment that he broke the tradition of having only his own name on the monument and had Imhotep’s name carved on it as well.

段落E

The burial chamber of the tomb, where the king’s body was laid to rest, was dug beneath the base of the pyramid, surrounded by a vast maze of long tunnels that had rooms off them to discourage robbers. One of the most mysterious discoveries found inside the pyramid was a large number of stone vessels. Over 40,000 of these vessels, of various forms and shapes, were discovered in storerooms off the pyramid’s underground passages.  They are inscribed with the names of rulers from the First and Second Dynasties of Egypt and made from different kinds of stone. There is no agreement among scholars and archaeologists on why the vessels were placed in the tomb of Djoser or what they were supposed to represent. The archaeologist Jean-Philippe Lauer, who excavated most of the pyramid and complex, believes they were originally stored and then given a ‘proper burial’ by Djoser in his pyramid to honor his predecessors. There are other historians, however, who claim the vessels were dumped into the shafts as yet another attempt to prevent grave robbers from getting to the king’s burial chamber.

段落F

Unfortunately, all of the precautions and intricate design of the underground network did not prevent ancient robbers from finding a way in. Djoser’s grave goods, and even his body, were stolen at some point in the past and all archaeologists found were a small number of his valuables overlooked by the thieves. There was enough left throughout the pyramid and its complex, however, to astonish and amaze the archaeologists who excavated it.

段落G

Egyptologist Miroslav Verner writes, ‘Few monuments hold a place in human history as significant as that of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara …It can be said without exaggeration that this pyramid complex constitutes a milestone in the evolution of monumental stone architecture in Egypt and in the world as a whole.’ The Step Pyramid was a revolutionary advance in architecture and became the archetype which all the other great pyramid builders of Egypt would follow.

金字塔是古埃及最著名的古迹，至今仍然引起人们极大的兴趣。这些宏伟而令人印象深刻的纪念物是对埃及国王的记忆的庄严致敬，尽管其他文化，如中国和玛雅文化，也建造了金字塔。金字塔形式的演变已经被人们写作和争论了几个世纪。然而，毫无疑问，就埃及而言，它始于一个国王的一个纪念物，由一个杰出的建筑师设计：萨卡拉的佐塞尔阶梯金字塔。

佐塞尔是古埃及第三王朝的第一位国王，也是第一位使用石头建造的国王。在佐塞尔统治之前，坟墓是用干燥的黏土砖制成的矩形纪念物，覆盖着埋葬死者的地下通道。出于尚不清楚的原因，佐塞尔的主要官员，名叫伊莫提普，构想出了通过将石板堆叠在一起，逐渐变小，形成现在所知的阶梯金字塔形状，为国王建造一座更高更令人印象深刻的墓。佐塞尔被认为统治了19年，但一些历史学家和学者由于他建造的纪念物的数量和规模，将他的统治时间归于更长的时间。

在过去一个世纪里，佐塞尔阶梯金字塔经过了彻底的研究和调查，现在已经知道建造过程经历了许多不同的阶段。历史学家马克·范·德·米罗普在评论中写道：“涉及到很多实验，这在复杂建筑物的中心金字塔的建造中尤为明显。它有几个计划…在成为历史上第一座阶梯金字塔之前，将六层堆叠在一起…巨大的质量重量对建筑师来说是一个挑战，他们将石头内倾放置，以防止金字塔破裂。”

最终完成时，佐塞尔阶梯金字塔高62米，是当时最高的建筑物。它所在的建筑群在古埃及是一个城市的规模，包括一个神庙、庭院、神龛和祭司的住所。它占地16公顷，被一堵高10.5米的墙围绕。这堵墙上切割了13个虚假门，只有一个真正的入口切割在东南角；整堵墙被一条长750米、宽40米的壕沟环绕。虚假门和壕沟被纳入建筑群中，以阻止不受欢迎的访客。如果有人想进入，他或她必须事先知道如何找到墙上的真正入口位置。佐塞尔对他的成就感到非常自豪，打破了只在纪念物上刻上自己名字的传统，还在上面刻上了伊莫提普的名字。

陵墓的埋葬室，也就是国王的尸体被安葬的地方，挖在金字塔的基座下面，周围是一个庞大的长廊迷宫，廊道旁边还有房间，以阻止盗墓者。金字塔内最神秘的发现之一是大量的石器。在金字塔的地下通道的储藏室中发现了40,000多个不同形状和形式的石器。它们上面刻有来自古埃及第一和第二王朝统治者的名字，由不同种类的石头制成。学者和考古学家对为什么将这些器皿放置在佐塞尔的陵墓中以及它们应该代表什么意义没有达成一致。考古学家让-菲利普·劳埃德曾挖掘过大部分金字塔和建筑群，他认为它们最初是存放的，然后由佐塞尔在他的金字塔中给予“适当的埋葬”来纪念他的前任。然而，还有其他历史学家声称这些器皿被丢进井下，作为阻止盗墓者进入国王埋葬室的又一次尝试。

不幸的是，所有的预防措施和精巧的地下网络设计都没有阻止古代盗墓者找到入口。佐塞尔的财宝甚至他的尸体在过去某个时候被盗，考古学家只找到了一小部分被盗宝物。然而，整座金字塔及其建筑群中仍然有足够的遗留物，令挖掘出来的考古学家们感到惊讶和惊奇。

埃及学家米洛斯拉夫·弗纳写道：“很少有纪念物像萨卡拉的阶梯金字塔一样在人类历史中占据如此重要的地位…可以毫不夸张地说，这座金字塔建筑群在埃及和整个世界的宏伟石头建筑演变中标志着一个里程碑。”阶梯金字塔是建筑上的一次革命性进步，成为了埃及其他伟大的金字塔建筑师所效仿的典范。