As the students entered the classroom, Professor Montgomery “Gummy” Vance motioned for them to stand against the walls. The usual Egyptian-style desks and benches were missing and in their place stood a three dimensional replica of an Egyptian stepped pyramid. The tan stone of the structure almost blended in with the surrounding desert, but the five levels above ground were all visible. It looked like a dusty cake, with each of layer a bit smaller than the one below.
”Excellent camouflage,” one of the boys whispered to his friend standing next to him. “You could almost walk by the thing and not notice it’s there.”
”Ah, but it didn’t look like that when it was built.” Professor Gummy shut the door and held out his long arms, displaying the robe he had worn for classes all semester. The robe was covered in hieroglyphics and cartouches. Reds, blues, greens, white, gold and black formed a tapestry of Ancient Egyptian linguistic art. “The Egyptians of old were a people of life, energy and vibrant color. That pyramid was originally covered in a veneer of limestone that had been polished until it gleamed brilliantly. It would have been visible for miles in every direction. Can anyone tell me which pyramid this is and who built it?”
A hand shot up on the other side of the pyramid, followed by a familiar voice. “Since we’re learning about Imhotep today, that must be the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser. It was built in Saqqara, Egypt, in about 2700 B.C.E. Magical History: Lost, But Now Found also says the Pyramid of Djoser was the first pyramid ever built, the largest man-made structure of its day and the first structure to be built out of cut stone rather than mud brick.”
The Professor wasn’t sure exactly when his jaw had dropped open in surprise, but he shut it quickly. Then, realizing that staring at a student in amazement wasn’t particularly professorial, he blurted out the first words that entered his mind. ”Merlin’s beard, Amy, you actually read the text book. Well done! Take 50 points for... er... whatever house you’re in.”
”Hufflepuff, Sir,” Amy Timko squeaked in surprise.
”Yes, Hufflepuff, of course.” Astoundingly, this was the first time a student had actually read the book ahead of time and known an answer. Pull yourself together, old boy. This sort of thing happens to other teachers all the time.
”The Step Pyramid of Djoser was indeed built by a wizard named Imhotep. The name Imhotep means ‘he who comes in peace.’ He was the son of a common Muggle architect named Kanofer. It’s unclear if his mother, Khreduonkh, was a witch or a Muggle as well." Not that Imhotep's parentage mattered in the least, but historians loved to debate even the tiniest details. "The one fact about Imhotep that is entirely undisputed, however, is that the man was a genius. His talents, wits and intelligence allowed him to rise from obscurity to the exalted position Pharaoh Djoser’s vizier. The vizier in Ancient Egypt was the Pharaoh’s right hand man, chief advisor and supervisor of nearly everything in the country. As vizier, he was in charge of the court system, the military, the treasury, agriculture, and everything else that went before the Pharaoh.”
Gummy paused to let the extent of the man’s responsibilities sink in. “He was not only advisor to Djoser with regard to running the kingdom, but also his advisor on all things spiritual. It was in this capacity that he conceived of building a stairway for his pharaoh’s spirit to ascend after death. The fact that no one had ever done it before didn’t concern him in the least. Using the knowledge of construction he had learned from his father while growing up, Imhotep set about designing a building comprised of stacked mastabas. Egyptians had been building the large, rectangular, flat-topped tombs for years. But stacking them was unheard of. And it was complicated. Imhotep resolved a number of these complications by inventing building with cut stone and the stone pillar. Other complications were resolved through a combination of ground-breaking mathematics, logic, observation and, of course, magic.”
Gummy twitched his wand and the pyramid became translucent so that the internal rooms and passages became visible both above and below ground.
With the slightest of motions, he then produced a beam of light from the tip of his wand and aimed it at various parts of the pyramid as he continued the lesson. “The pyramid stood 40 meters above ground. But the burial chamber, the gallery, the pharaoh’s apartment – all that was cut into the ground as much as 22 meters beneath the pyramid. It took only 20 years to build this, the first pyramid ever, and that includes Imhotep having to figure out much of it as he went along. Then, after Pharaoh Djoser's death, they had to lower his 20-ton sarcophagus down through the central shaft into the burial chamber.“
They were running short on time, so the Professor quickly listed some of the spells integral to pyramid construction. ”The most obvious spells used by Imhotep were for reducing the weight of the stones, which made them much safer and easier to work with. Water creation and controlling spells similar to Aqua Eructo were used to help level the ground under the pyramid. A banishing charm similar to Depulso was used to remove dirt and stone produced during excavating the underground portion of the pyramid. Of course, spells for the movement of objects very similar to Locomotor were used during the transportation of the stone blocks from the quarry to the pyramid. There was a rather clever spell for creating floating balls of light that could be assigned to hover near specific people or locations, but the incantation for that has been lost. And it probably goes without saying, but numerous healing and first aid spells were employed because, magic or not, pyramid building was a dangerous occupation.”
The bell signaling the end of class rang out and Gummy breathed a quick sigh of relief that he had managed to finish the lesson. With a swirl of his wand, a reed basket filled with papyrus scrolls appeared next to the door. ”That’s your homework in the basket. Everyone please grab one on your way out.”
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