I suppose to make a claim about any area without being aware of all the evidence may indicate poor methods but sometimes the real evidence can be difficult to sort from the mass of speculations.

According to what I have read, the Great Step Pyramid Complex at Saqqara was known to the ancient Egyptians as kbhw-ntrw meaning (libation of the deities) or yet more simply put, the drink offering of the gods known as the 'neteru'

At a much later date Unas recorded in detail in his tomb that he had hunted, snared, killed, roasted, and eaten the 'neteru'. Nice fella Unas,, big appetite by his own account, and this may also explain why there were discovered so many empty tombs and sarcophagi but maybe another day.

So the Great Step Pyramid Complex was known as a drinking place of the gods.
Then it was not a really such a great coincidence that archaeologists discovered in one of the remotest parts of the labyrinthine passages under the Step Pyramid, forty thousand stone drinking vessels.

Many of these vessels were of the most excellent workmanship beautifully made of alabaster, diorite, limestone and slate, that had been polished, faceted or fluted. Also many of these vessels bore inscriptions of names painted in colours or carefully engraved into the stone of common men and god kings. There included the names of previous dynasty rulers including Nar(mer), Djer, Den, Adjib, Semerkhet, Kaa Hetepsekhemwy, Ninetjer, Sekhemib and Kasekhemwy.

Also discovered in the third of these remote shaft passages, was a seal bearing the name of Netjerikhet.
Horus Netjerikhet, better known as Djoser was a ruler of Egypt’s third dynasty who had the Great Step Pyramid Complex 'kbhw-ntrw' (libation of the deities) designed and built for him by the famous Egyptian architect Imhotep.

Of course, such a find immediately lunched a debate among scholars, why would the drinking vessels of god kings be found in a complex called the drinking place of the gods? Could it have any thing to do with drinking perhaps.

Well actually it might because recorded on the ‘The Famine Stele’ on the Island of Sehel, during the Ptolemaic Period which admittedly is sometime after the event, but could yet be relevant, is the legend that during the reign of Djoser of a terrible drought that lasted for seven years.

I was in mourning on my throne, Those of the palace were in grief….because Hapy had failed to come in time. In a period of seven years,
Grain was scant, Kernels were dried up…Every man robbed his twin…Children cried…The hearts of the old were needy…Temples were shut, Shrines covered with dust, Everyone was in distress….
I consulted one of the staff of the Ibis, the Chief lector-priest of Imhotep, son of Ptah South-of-the-Wall….
He departed, he returned to me quickly, He let me know the flow of Hapy…
Partial translation of the stele text translated by Lichtheim.

Imhotep revealed to the king that the Nile had its origins in a land consecrated to Khnum and gave an account of the building materials available at Elephantine. Khnum then appeared to Djoser in a dream with the promise to end the drought and described how a temple should be built.

I ask anyone who may have followed this line of logic thus far. Is it not unrealistic to imagine that a god king of Djoser Netjerikhet’s obvious dignity, would plan at the end of his days to allow his not so mortal remains to be stuffed ignominiously down a plug hole and then stopped up like genie in a bottle.
I just don’t see that happening.


Tour Egypt

This arrangement was made by Imhotep to contain either wood or charcoal, which could be occasionally replaced, so as to sweeten the waters of a well.


And the substantially built and maintained galley in Mr. Bodsworth’s good photographs that I am so excited to see leads to the well-head. This passage is not Saite Period and I question any provenance that says it is.
I am convinced that this gallery is the 'entrance to the hauling passages' of the 'drinking place of the gods' and was most likely inspected by the great architect Imhotep himself.

A most excellent adventure very well recorded thank you so much for sharing it Mr. Bodsworth.




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2007 11:17PM by Johnee.