Mastaba S3503 Mastaba S3503 Mastaba S3503 (Saqqara Tomb No. 3503) is a large mastaba tomb at the Saqqara necropolis in Lower Egypt. The burial was constructed around 3000 BC during the 1st Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. The structure was excavated by Walter Bryan Emery and his team at Saqqara. The superstructure of the mastaba is 42 metres long and 16 metres wide and was made from sun-dried mudbricks. The exterior was decorated with a palace facade, with nine niches on the long sides and three on each of the short sides. Within the structure were 23 chambers. Below the ground level was
Saqqara inspired the monumental enclosure wall around the Step Pyramid complex. Djoser's funerary complex, built by the royal architect Imhotep, further comprises a large number of dummy buildings and a secondary mastaba (the so-called 'Southern Tomb'). French architect and Egyptologist Jean-Philippe Lauer spent the greater part of his life excavating and restoring Djoser's funerary complex. Nearly all Fourth Dynasty kings chose a different location for their pyramids. During the second half of the Old Kingdom, under the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, Saqqara was again the royal burial ground. The Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids are not built wholly of massive stone