The Northern Court

Northwestern corner. This is the area of the mortuary temple.

Most of the northern third of the enclosure was occupied by an open space known as the northern court. The area has not been thoroughly explored and its exact function is unknown, although guesses range from a dump site for building debris to solar temple. There is a large rectangular block of stone 15 metres across with a stairway ramp at the far end of the courtyard, facing the burial chamber of the pyramid. It had been carved out of the bedrock and faced with limestone. On top is a setting 8 metres square and a few centimetres deep that has been interpreted as the setting for a benben stone, after the sacred stone at Heliopolis where the sun’s first rays fell. The

Google Earth View of the Djoser Complex

solar cult was a prominent feature of later royal tombs and this may be its origins. After all, Imhotep, the second man in the kingdom and royal builder at Saqqara, was the chief priest of Re, the sun god. No trace of any obelisk has been found but the North Court was the last part of the enclosure to be built and was never finished—probably due to the death of the king. Of course, the simplest explanation is that it was used as an altar.

Stockpiles of grain and fruit (including grapes and sycamore figs) were found in subterranean magazines nearby and two rows of dummy granaries had been built close to the northern enclosure wall. Other galleries found at deeper level appear to antedate the enclosure and may well have belonged to earlier tombs. In one of them was found a small alabaster offering table. Two lions support a tray that slopes gradually down to the back where the lion’s tails curl around a deep vessel to catch the libations or the blood of sacrificial victims.