Step Pyramid was a Stairway to Heaven

by Damien F. Mackey "The Old Kingdom pharaohs believed that death was the beginning of eternal life. To help them on their way they built pyramids; huge ramps or stairways ... leading directly to the sky". Joyce A. Tyldesley Not very long before the biblical Joseph, as Imhotep (= Khasekhemwy) in Egypt: Enigmatic Imhotep - did he really exist? https://www.academia.edu/120844277/Enigmatic_Imhotep_did_he_really_exist aged 30, would stand before the Pharaoh (Genesis 41:46), Horus Netjerikhet, his father, Jacob, would dream of a stairway (or staircase) leading to heaven (28:12): "[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it". Might this not have been what had inspired Joseph, as the brilliant architect, Imhotep, when he designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first pyramid - to provide a fixed, material icon in Egypt of his father's dream-vision at Bethel? Whatever the various uses and intentions for the Step Pyramid may have been, what could better describe it than "a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven"? The later and greater pyramids, of Giza and other places, were all based upon the concept of the Step Pyramid. But, coming from new dynasts - possibly non-native Egyptians ethnically - who "knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8), these autocrats likewise "knew not" about Jacob's miraculous stairway to heaven. So they built monoliths, albeit impressive ones, Wonders of the World, in fact, but that no longer really looked like stairways to heaven. * * * * * Above quote from Joyce A. Tyldesley's book, Pyramids: The Real Story Behind Egypt's Most Ancient Monuments (2023). The Guardian. "Pyramids seen as stairways to heaven": "The pyramids of Egypt could be explained as symbolic stairways to heaven". Arc. "Ancient Egyptian stairway to heaven". "The structure in Saqqara is the famous step pyramid of the pharaoh Djoser [sic] ... intended to facilitate his journey to the afterlife". Southern Staircase. "Time Travel: Ancient Staircase Architecture". "Although the exact origin of the staircase concept is not known [sic?], the earliest signs of stairs have been linked to Egypt. ... an Egyptian pyramid is one of the most primitive staircases. With large ledges, this oversized series of steps held both practical and spiritual meaning to citizens of the time".