Located about 20 miles southwest of Cairo, Egypt, the structure pictured above was built as the tomb of the pharaoh Djoser over 4,500 years ago. The building was designed by the revered architect, engineer and statesman Imhotep. He began with a simple mastaba, a common funeral monument in the shape of a rectangular platform. Then he added five successively smaller mastabas one atop the other. The result was a whole new type of building and a prototype of the monuments about 15 miles away – the Giza Pyramids. The site was a necropolis for the ancient capital of Memphis for about 500 years in the 3rd millennium BCE. Even after the center of power shifted to the south, it remained an important burial site for thousands of years.
On Egypt tours, this site is often combined with a visit to the Giza Plateau, site of Egypt’s most famous pyramids and sphinx, and Dahshur, a royal necropolis with two more “practice” pyramids, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid.
The answer is: the Step Pyramid at Sakkara or Saqqara
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