We were now given time to wander the vast complex.

Janice and I were really taken by the heb-sed chapel.

The first tombs were large, unimpressive, sun dried mud brick bunkers called mastabas.

Most have long since crumbled to dust.

This all changed around 2630 BC with the erection of Djoser’s step pyramid.

It began as a normal mastaba, but was subsequently enlarged by adding one mastaba on top of another until it consisted of six terraces some 200ft high.

The surface was originally encased in smooth white Tura limestone which must have caught the sun light and reflected its rays.

The royal tomb is 90 feet underground with a vertical shaft leading to it.

The entrance was sealed with a 3 ton piece of granite.

Much of the decoration and construction echo the appearance of earlier structures, which would have been built of wood, reeds or mud-brick.