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we travel back to egypt in the 2700 bc bish the first two dynasties of pharaohs got this ancient
civilization through growing pains known as the early domestic period which saw the unification of
the two lands of egypt through war the innovation of the hieroglyphic writing system and the
emergence of memphis as the new seat of power now was time to make way for the old kingdom a new era
that marked the beginning of egypt's first golden age and some would argue the best of the bunch
it started with the third dynasty a seven decade period that saw the emergence of
many of the elements which made egypt unique and still fascinate us today
almost five thousand years later the culture the unique art style the pantheon of gods and
of course the eternal pyramids they come from the old kingdom
in a somewhat unusual move we're starting out with the main event as it were because jose was
undoubtedly the most significant pharaoh of the third dynasty so what made him so important
well that's easy his pyramid at sakhara the necropolis outside the ancient capital of memphis
it was the first pyramid of egypt in fact it's still the oldest surviving pyramid in the world
joseph began his reign sometime around the early 2600s bc succeed in kaiser kenwi the final ruler
of the second dynasty the circumstances are a little murky but the likeliest scenario was
that jose was his son with queen consort nimathap now you might be wondering why her father and son
would be classified in separate dynasties and you can blame anetho for that one if that name sounds
vaguely familiar that's because we mentioned him in most of our other videos on ancient egypt he
was a priest and historian from the 3rd century bc who wrote the age of tiaka possibly as an egyptian
counterpart to herodotus and his chronicles although it has not survived in its entirety the
egyptia was a history of egypt that included a chronological rundown of all the pharaohs up
until that point which he grouped into 30 dynasties modern historians realized they
needed some classification system for all of these dusty mummified pharaohs so they adopted beneath
those divisions since he'd already done all the hard work even if some dividing lines between
dynasties seem just a little bit random starting with jose is the most commonly accepted version
but truth be told we are stumbling around in the dark a bit by that we mean that jose
might not have been the first pharaoh after all according to some scholars there are several
surviving artifacts such as the abardos king list the sikhara tablet and the turin king list that
egyptologists rely on to establish the timeline of the pharaohs they all name the rulers in
chronological order and literally no two are the same sometimes the order is different
sometimes the names are different some mention five pharaohs in the third dynasty others only
four it's all a big jumble that egyptologists have been trying to untangle for centuries but there
are still gaps wide enough that you could park an affordable family-sized sedan in them especially
when talking about the earliest dynasties now it seems joser inherited quite a wealthy and
thriving kingdom he was able to enact multiple ambitious and expensive projects during his reign
which lasted between two and three decades we have limited info on his military career but it
seems that his main concern was to strengthen egypt's borders although he didn't shy away
from the occasional scuffle with his neighbors during his reign jose expanded his borders both
to the east into the sinai region and to the west into libya securing egypt's position as
a dominant regional force during its early history one historian said that joseph's time as pharaoh
was defined by the construction of architectural monuments agricultural developments trade and the
rise of cities his greatest passion was to build stuff and we're not just talking about his pyramid
joseph constructed many temples including one that stopped a deadly famine that was withering away
his entire kingdom this story has survived through the ages thanks to the appropriately named famine
stella a inscription found on sahel island near the city of aswan once the main southern frontier
of egypt sure it was made during the ptolemaic dynasty which was 2500 years after jose but
well let's go with it anyway according to the stellar a severe drought caused seven years
of famine in egypt during jose's reign children cried youngsters fell the hearts of the old were
grieving courtiers were needy temples were shut shrines covered with dust everyone was in distress
some could only crumple to the ground in desperate prayer while others resorted to theft and murder
in order to get their hands on what little food was left meanwhile the pharaoh could only watch
helplessly as his people withered away and died then one night joseph had a haunting
dream where he received a visit from knum the god of fertility credited with the creation
of the nile knum revealed to the pharaoh that the famine was punishment for the people of egypt for
giving him the cold shoulder and allowing his temple on the island of elephantine to fall
into disrepair joseph vowed to correct this injustice so he sailed to the island himself
he didn't just spruce up the old temple with a shiny coat of paint instead he built a brand new
temple bigger and better than ever happy with his new place of worship kunum ended the famine
and joseph was hailed as the savior of his people some of you might be raising an eyebrow thinking
that this is clearly a legend and you're probably right however it serves as a good indication of
joseph's reputation among the ancient egyptians since even thousands of years after his death
he was still regarded as a hero but now we arrive at the highlight of his reign his pyramid during
the first two dynasties pharaohs were buried in mastabas which were rectangular tombs dug into
the ground with sloping walls and a flat roof even though some of them were pretty big with
enough room to bury the pharaoh and hundreds of his servants they lacked the complexity and
ambition that we associate with the final resting place of the pharaohs most importantly they were
made from mud bricks and wood so they didn't last very long sure every now and then the
occasional limestone was used but this was very much the exception rather than the rule but then
when it was time to begin work on jose's tomb his advisor imhotep had a light bulb moment why don't
we make it all out of stone the pharaoh liked this idea so he named imhotep his chief architect and
put him in charge of building his tomb imote being the clever guy that he was had another idea
what if we put another slightly smaller mustaber on top of the first one and then another even
smaller one on top of that one and then another one i'll tell that one six years later we had the
first egyptian pyramid and probably the first large-scale monument in history made entirely
of stone standing over 200 feet high it was the tallest structure of its time the complex which
surrounded it also included a mortary temple several courts a large trench and a thick wall
with a long colonnade that connected the entrance to the complex to the interior structures suffice
to say ancient egyptians had never seen something on this scale before and they were left completely
in awe they liked it so much in fact that they had started worshiping in hote and a couple of
thousand years later he was fully deified as the god of medicine equated to the greek god asclepius
ultimately joseph's step pyramid was overshadowed by the stature and resplendence of the pyramids
of giza but his reign was undoubtedly a landmark moment in history as are the structures that came
to define their civilization now we'll get back to today's video in just a second but first a quick
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of course the problem when you start at the top is that there is nowhere to go but down
joseph's successor didn't really live up to the high bar set at the start of his dynasty his name
was sahemket sometimes also jose tereti and we guess that he was joseph's son or
perhaps his younger brother so kemket is so obscure he's one of those pharaohs who
is basically just a name inscribed on an ancient wall and the main reason why he failed to make a
long-lasting impact was his short reign going by the various king lists he only ruled as pharaoh
for six or seven years but he did leave one thing behind which is worth talking about
his unfinished pyramid clearly jose's fancy new tomb was a big hit and the pharaohs who came
after him tried to follow in his footsteps so kem ket started construction on his own pyramid
right next to that of jose in the necropolis of sakhara but he didn't want his pyramid to be
just like joseph no no no no that wouldn't be good enough he wanted it to be bigger because
when it comes to pyramids bigger is always better according to inscriptions it was imhotep again who
designed it so unsurprisingly the construction was similar however because sekhemket reigned just for
a few years only the base was completed by the time of his death if finished sekemge's pyramid
would have been around 230 feet tall almost 30 feet taller than jose's pyramid but since only the
bottom layer was constructed sakamget's pyramid was basically just a fancier mastaba made out
of limestone instead of mud bricks unsurprisingly his successor felt no obligation to complete it so
the unfinished structure was quickly engulfed by the desert sands and wasn't even discovered
until the 1950s speaking of successes we arrive now at the most contentious part the elusive
third pharaoh of the third dynasty generally we know him by the name synacts though he sometimes
is identified as nebucha so far this isn't so confusing or controversial since pharaoh's had
multiple names but we also have some inscriptions that identify nebker as the first pharaoh of the
dynasty instead of jose so is it possible that synacte aka nebca could have been the founder
of the third dynasty as we said most historians say no but we could pour a little gasoline onto
this controversial fire by pointing out that sanak was the only pharaoh of the third dynasty
not to build a pyramid for himself or at least try to like semket instead he opted to be buried in a
traditional mastaba which would be more likely if he predated jose and his step pyramid that's about
all we know about synact except for the recent news that he may have been a giant this little tip
it comes to us courtesy of scientists who analyze the skeletal remains we think may have belonged to
some act while we cannot tell you for certain that they are his bones we can say that they belong to
a very tall man he stood six feet one inch tall at a time when the average man was almost a whole
foot shorter medical experts who inspected the bones believed that his extraordinary height was
caused by gigantism which would make senect the first diagnosed case in medical records
already we're in the final stretch for the third dynasty in surprise surprise we arrive at another
pharaoh who was a shadowy figure known mainly as a name inscribed on a few walls and a few bowls
carver like sikkemcat it seems that kaaba had a short reign of around six years but unlike
secamkett there is some evidence not a lot but it's there that the ancient egyptians might not
have been big fans of kaaba they tried to erase his name from a few places and as we know by now
this practice of damnatio memoria or condemnation of memory was reserved only for the naughtiest
rulers the ones who cut up two shenanigans that the people really didn't like such as trying to
abolish all of the old gods and institute a new monotheistic religion we're looking at
you akhenaten when you also take into account that kaaba had a short reign it could suggest that
whatever he did may have angered the egyptians enough to overthrow him also like cecamket kaaba
left behind an unfinished pyramid although for reasons known only to him he didn't consider
sakara a suitable place for his tomb maybe he simply didn't want to be overshadowed by jokes or
maybe this was part of whatever he did to ruffle everyone's feathers but kaaba selected
a new spot for his eternal slumber at zawayet el ion necropolis across the nile from memphis
their construction began on a new step pyramid using almost the same architecture as cecamked's
unfinished pyramid today the structure is known simply as the layer pyramid and it lies in ruins
with only the base till standing today scholars still can't decide whether the pyramid was ever
finished or not some believe that work on it was simply abandoned once carber died others
think that the pyramid was completed and later torn apart so that the stone could be
reused in other projects both scenarios suggest a pharaoh who was not very popular with the people
and so we reached the end of the line for the third dynasty if until this point the order of
the pharaohs has been a best guess scenario we're fairly certain who the last ruler was
hoony possibly also known as quaharjet he is mentioned several times as the immediate
predecessor of sneferu the first pharaoh of the fourth dynasty and he may have been his father
as we saw earlier it doesn't really make sense to group huni and his son into different dynasties
but we just do as manetho commands apparently he even gives nice symmetry in relation to jose
as we begin and in the third dynasty with its most prolific pyramid builder while jose
was a pioneer and innovator who clearly had the most majestic pyramid in his era
it seems that huni was a quantity over quality kind of guy also like jose he had a long reign
around two and a half decades that allowed him to dedicate himself to multiple construction
projects honey broke from tradition and built multiple smaller step pyramids all over egypt
instead of one big one at zakara however none of them were exactly show stealers and today they
mainly lion ruins they puzzle historians as to their true purpose pyramids were built to serve
as royal tombs but since none of them fit the bill huni's true motivation for them remains a
mystery unfortunately for honey modern scholars have stripped him of his greatest achievement
the maiden pyramid possibly the most bizarre structure in ancient egypt the maiden pyramid was
a hybrid it started out as a step pyramid but then someone thought that it would look better with
smooth angled sides it was encased in a limestone outer layer and turned into a true pyramid
perhaps even the first true pyramid in egypt's history however because it was a prototype there
were still some bugs to work out so the outer layer partially collapsed it was a valuable
learning experience for the egyptians as they perfected their pyramid building techniques in the
centuries that followed and today we're left with a strange sight half the step pyramid core exposed
the other half encased in limestone the maiden pyramid was a grand ambitious project not just
due to the innovative and complex design but also in its size in its finished state
it would have stood at an imposing height of 300 feet almost 100 feet taller than jose's pyramid
it completely dwarfed anything that came before it so obviously honey would have earned some serious
bragging rights if he was the one responsible for it for a while egyptologists generally credited
him with the colossal structure they didn't find his name inscribed anywhere inside the pyramid
but they found it on a few artifacts and some nearby moustabas that plus the long reign and
the lack of other suitable candidates all seemed to suggest that huni was the likeliest culprit
alas scholarly consensus has moved away and today people usually credit his successor sneferu as the
man behind the maiden pyramid even so some still think that credit should be shared and see it as
perhaps a father-son project where honey built the original step pyramid as deferred decided to add
the smooth outer layer it is feasible although it doesn't explain why oni was never buried there and
why his name doesn't appear on any inscriptions inside it there is the possibility that sneferu
wanted all the glory for himself and removed all mentions of his predecessor's efforts but
it seems unlikely the mortary cult dedicated honey survived for centuries after his death
indicating that he remained a popular pharaoh among the egyptians and speaking of his death
it ended the 70-year period known as the third dynasty and ushered in the fourth dynasty the
true age of the pyramids this new era saw the construction of ancient marvels unlike any that
have come before or after the marbles that still stand today which is not something that could be
said about a lot of the other monuments from that time however none of that might have been possible
without the efforts and ambition of pharaohs like jose or huni the vision and creativity
of men like imhotep the third dynasty walked so the fourth one could run and we'll get to
that fourth one soon no doubt but for now i do hope you enjoyed today's video if you did
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