The Complex of the Step Pyramid of Djoser.
Although there are finds which can be dated to an earlier period than the 3rd Dynasty, the Step Pyramid, towering over the remnants of its enclosure wall, seems to gather all the attention at first. The map shows the various structures, some of which were planned already from the beginning: the enclosure wall, the tomb itself, the mortuary temple on its northern side, the south tomb at the south end with the chapel with the cobra frieze and the Heb Sed court.

King Netjerikhet Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty, made a break with tradition when he decided to have his burial place at Saqqara, near the capital city, instead of at Abydos, as most of his ancestors from Dynasty 1 and 2 had. He may have done it as a statement of his authority over the northern parts of the country. He also made a break with architectural tradition in that it was first planned as a mastaba and then went through several changes before the structure was finalised.

The Enclosure Wall
The first thing that meets the eye is the enclosure wall, 10.5 m high, built in Palace-facade style, which is the same as the facade panelling from the funerary enclosure of King Khasekhemwy at Abydos (Dyn.2). It can also be seen in serekhs from this period. It was built with fifteen false porches, only the one at the southeast corner was real and still serves as entrance to the compound. Through an entrance hallway, 54 m long and with the roof supported with half columns in the form of reed bunches, you come out into the main court. This is the first 'hypostyle hall' and the first colonnade to be built in history. The ground in the Great Court is covered by fine sand and there´s a gangway made of wood laid out for the tourists to walk on, reaching all the way across the court up to the pyramid and beyond.

The Step Pyramid
The pyramid itself is an example of the development of tomb building, it was not the result of sudden innovation which sometimes is said. An enclosed courtyard with one permanent structure and several temporary ones made of wood was already used by King Djer in the early 1st Dynasty. In the Step Pyramid such lightweight structures are built for eternity that is, in stone. From the beginning the tomb was covered by a square mastaba, which in itself is unusual as most mastabas are rectangular. Later, the mastaba was enlarged in two different stages. First a pyramid of two steps was built around it, and in a second step, it was enlarged to the north and west, and six 'steps' were added to it. These changes took some twenty years to realize, with several changes along the way.

Under the structure are galleries which open into shafts above. There were also rooms which could be entered via a staircase or a sloping corridor, intended for other Royal family members. The tomb itself is 28 m deep and the layout of the rooms are supposed to depict Djoser´s palace in the Afterlife. These rooms have been called the Blue Chambers as they are covered with fayence tiles in blue nuances. The decorations are meant to imitate mats and tapestries covering the walls of the palace. Finds were made in these first shafts: an empty alabaster sarcophagus, a small wooden coffin with the body of a boy who died between the age of eight and ten years of age - and a hipbone of a girl. There were also two vessels decorated with gold leaf and carnelian coral. Fragments of alabaster sarcophagi and a seal imprint bearing the name of Netjerikhet were also discovered. In the sixth and seventh shafts some forty thousand stone vessels of varied forms and materials were found, many of them made of alabaster, slate, diorite and limestone. Several of them bore inscriptions by Royal names of 1st and 2nd Dynasty rulers like Narmer, Djer, Den, Adjib, Semerkhet, Kaa, Hetepsekhemwy, Ninetjer, Sekhemib and Khasekhemwy. Also non-royal names were inscribed. A sufficient explanation for this has not yet been reached. Did Djoser take hold of his predecessors´ tombs and what was in them?

The South Tomb
The South Tomb is a miniature tomb the purpose of which has caused discussions but it is mostly thought to have housed the King´s Ka statue. Another theory is that it was here that the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt was kept. The same system of rooms and hallways covered with bluish-green tiles, as under the main pyramid was built here but the size of the 'burial chamber' is too small to have housed a coffin. Close by is a cult chapel, now mostly destroyed but for the frieze of cobras on top of a wall.

The Heb Sed Court and Dummy Chapels
The Heb Sed is a Royal Jubilee held every thirtieth year of a King´s reign. The purpose was to manifest the King´s agility and strength, and to prove that he was still fit to rule the country. It happened that the Jubilee was held with shorter time intervals than thirty years.

To the east side of the Great Courtyard lies the rectangular Heb Sed Court with dummy chapels on both sides. In the south of this court is a throne platform with double staircases, which from First Dynasty inscriptions and temple reliefs is known to play a part in the Heb Sed festival. The platform also became the hieroglyph for hb-sd, 'Sed-festival'. But as the chapels are dummies, it is not thought that there was ever a Sed festival celebrated here whihlte the King was alive. Instead the thought might have been that they were put there to ensure Djoser to celebrate his Heb Sed forever in the Afterlife.

The North and South Palaces
These two structures, separate from each other, are situated north of the Heb Sed Court. Sometimes they are called Houses or Pavillions. It is however believed that they are the shrines of Upper and Lower Egypt at Hierakonpolis and Buto as there are depictions of the ensigns of the papyrus (Lower Egypt) and lotus (Upper Egypt)carved on their columns. They are dummie structures, filled with rubble and therefore believed to have been only symbolic and without practical function.

The Serdab
Just to the west of the North Palace is another courtyard for the Serdab, ('cellar' in Arabic) which is a small chamber with two holes in its walls, facing out over the courtyard. If you peer through these, there´s a statue of King Djoser who sits overloooking the rituals and offerings which were made in his honor. The statue is a replica, the original is kept in the Cairo Msueum.

The Mortuary Temple
This is where the mortuary cult of Djoser was celebrated and it is also here that the entrance to the lower galleries are located. The temple has two courtyards to the west and to the east, to which you arrive by a long corridor from the entrance. In the western court is a staircase leading down to the rooms and corridors under the pyramid. There were two more chambers with stone basins in their floors, to the west of the open courts. The inner part of the temple was adjacent to the pyramid to which two double-columned porticos led. There were false doors inside so that the King could reach his offerings, and there was probably also a cult statue of the king. The finds from the mortuary temple includes clay sealings belonging to a priest of the goddess Neith, bearing the name of Sanakht.

The North Court
The North Court is rather large, covering about a third of the whole complex but is yet not thoroughly investigated. Some think that it served the purpose of being a dump place for the refuse from the ongoing constructions. At the northern end were found symbolic storehouses which had round openings in their roofs through which grain was poured. Some chapels which were reminding of the ones in the Sed Festival courtyard were also found here. A raised platform on the northern side, accessed by a stairway ramp and with a depression about eight meters square and a few centimeters deep has caused much speculation among egyptologists as to its purpose. Some belive there might have been a sun temple on the spot, others think an obelisk was erected there, and yet others say it´s a podium with place for two thrones for Djoser to watch rituals from or maybe an altar on which offerings were placed. The last word is not said yet by far.

The Western Massif
To the west of the complex, finally, is something called the Western Massif. This consists of three sections, which are joined. The central structure is arched and the surrounding two are flat-topped. They have similiarites with mastaba and there are also underground galleries in them from which access was at the northern end. It is uncertain if there ever was a burial chamber. No seal impressins have been found there, but a large quantity of stone vessels. The Western Massif is not fully excavated due to its ruinous state.

Other articles for Saqqara may reflect the Pyramid of Unas, the Sekhemkhet Enclosure, the tomb of Niankhkhmun and Khnumhotep and many other features.

Sources:
Early Dynastic Egypt - Toby A. Wilkinson
Royal Tombs from the Pyramid Period, article in Ägypten Die Welt Der Pharaonen by Rainer Stadelmann
The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt - Richard H. Wilkinson
Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt - John Baines & Jaromir Malek