According to a report in the International Business Times, activists in Egypt are angry with the Minister of Antiquities for re-hiring a company to restore the Step Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara. The group says the firm “caused damage and major deterioration to the structure while trying to repair it.” The report may be read here.
Saqqara is significant because it is the location of the oldest freestanding stone building in the world. The architect of this structure was the vizier and physician Imhotep. Zoser reigned about 2600 B.C.
Hachette World Guide on Cairo, Alexandria and Environs, describes the pyramid in these terms:
The Step Pyramid is formed of six unequal sections and is not, in the strict sense, a pyramid tat all. The plan is not square, but oblong in the S-W sense, and the summit is formed by a terrace (also oblong) and not by a Pyramidion. The dimensions of the base are approximately 397 feet by 357 feet. The present height of the Pyramid is 193 feet. It would originally have been some 196 feet. The verticle slope of the steps is on an average of some 16°, the horizontal [slope is] 22°.
On my last visit to Egypt in January, 2011, I noticed scaffolding on all sides of the step pyramid.
The Step Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.
This pyramid, as well as the great pyramids of Giza, was built long before the time of the biblical characters who visited Egypt — Abraham, Joseph, Jacob, et al.
HT: Jack Sasson
Ferrell's Travel Blog 
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