Pharaohs of Egypt - Djoser

Djoser

Djoser was an ancient Egyptian King, who is known to belong to the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom in Egypt. As per the English pronunciation, his name is also spelled as Djeser or Zoser. But his Hellenized names were stated as Tosorthros and Sesorthos, as per the records of the Greek and Roman historians Manetho and Eusebius respectively. The main proof of the existence of Djoser is his life size painted statue of limestone, which was discovered during the excavations in Saqqara in 1925 and it is now preserved in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. According to the information found from some inscriptions of that time, Djoser was also named as ‘Netjerikhet’, which meant “divine of body” and some modern Egyptologists hold the idea that he was the actual founder ruler of the Third Dynasty of Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt, though it is not totally confirmed yet.

The Family Life of Djoser

It is believed by many historians that Djoser was the son of King Khasekhemwy and his wife, Queen Nimaethap, though it is not sure whether he directly succeeded his father to the throne. The fact that Nimaethap was the mother of Djoser is supported by the discovery of the inscriptions of two jar sealings, where Nimaethap is mentioned with the title of “Mother of the King’s Children” and “Mother of the King of the Two Lands”.

Hetephernebti has been proved as the name of one of the queens of Djoser, which is established from the numbers of boundary stelae, found in his Step Pyramid site and also from a broken piece of a relic, which was discovered from an old building that is located in Hermopolis, an ancient Egyptian city.

Though it is unknown about the exact number of the children of Djoser, Inetkawes was known to be one of his daughters, as per the inscriptions made during his rule. He was succeeded by Sekhemkhet, who was assumed to be either his younger brother or his son, as any proof of the exact relationship between them is not yet found

The features of the reign of Djoser

According to the record of Manetho, Djoser ruled Egypt for twenty nine years, but the Turin King List states that his reign lasted for nineteen years only, though the exact period of his reign is nowhere mentioned. As per the ancient inscriptions, his reign was marked by several war expeditions to Sinai Peninsula, for overpowering the people of that land and also to extract precious minerals from the mines there. But he is most famous for the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, which he built to be his tomb and it is the precursor of the later pyramids of Egypt.

This pyramid was built as a series of mastabas, arranged one above another in a conical shape. Djoser is also known to build several buildings in Heliopolis and Gebelein, the ancient Egyptian towns of that era. An inscription discovered from the First Cataract states that Djoser reconstructed a temple of Khnum on the island of Elephantine, in this southern border area of Egypt, to bring an end to the seven year long terrible famine in the country. He relied completely on his faithful minister Imhotep, who carried all the responsibilities of planning and completing all these structures