Step it up…

Photo by Galen C. Dalrymple, copyright 2024. All rights reserved.

What is the oldest pyramid in the world (at least as far as we know)? If you thought it was one of the pyramids at Giza, you’d be wrong. It is, in fact, what is known as the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Djoser was an early ruler of Egypt. The 6-tier, 4-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. It was built in the 27th century BC during the Third Dynasty for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser. The pyramid is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration. In this tomb he is referred to by his Horus name Netjerikhet; Djoser is a name given by New Kingdom visitors more than a thousand years later.

The pyramid went through several revisions and redevelopments of the original plan. The pyramid originally stood 62.5 m (205 ft) tall, with a base of 109 m × 121 m (358 ft × 397 ft) and was clad in polished white limestone. The entire complex covers 37 acres of land. The complex is enclosed by a wall 10.5 m (34 ft) high that stretched for over 1.6 km (0.99 mi). You can get a sense for the size of it by looking at the person toward the lower left that is the closest to the pyramid. As large as this is, though, it’s less than half the size of the Great Pyramid in both height and the length of the base (the great pyramid was originally nearly 500 feet tall and 768 feet in length along each side!)

NOTE: Much of the descriptive text above is from Wikipedia.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On March 14, the body of President John F. Kennedy was moved to a spot just a few feet away from its original interment site at Arlington National Cemetery. The slain president had been assassinated more than three years earlier, on November 22, 1963.

Although JFK never specified where he wanted to be buried, most of his family and friends assumed he would have chosen a plot in his home state of Massachusetts. Because JFK was a World War II veteran, he qualified for a plot at Arlington National Cemetery, but he also deserved a special site befitting his presidential status. The spring before he died, President Kennedy had made an unscheduled tour of Arlington and had remarked to a friend on the view of the Potomac from the Custis-Lee Mansion, reportedly saying it was “so magnificent I could stay forever.” After the assassination, the friend who accompanied JFK to Arlington that day relayed the comment to the president’s brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, who suggested the site to Jacqueline Kennedy, the president’s widow. Jackie, who was responsible for the final decision, toured the site on November 24 and agreed. “He belongs to the people,” she said.

During funeral preparations, the first lady asked if cemetery workers could erect some sort of eternal flame at the gravesite. Cemetery officials scrambled to put together a makeshift Hawaiian torch under a wire dome, covered by dirt and evergreen boughs. The flame was fed by copper tubing from a propane tank situated 300 feet away. After the graveside military ceremony on November 25, Jackie lit the first eternal flame and, a few days later, the gravesite was enclosed with a white picket fence. In December 1963, Jackie Kennedy returned to the grave and was photographed kneeling in prayer among a sea of wreaths and bouquets left by recent visitors.

JFK’s original gravesite attracted 16 million visitors in the first three years after his death. In 1967, the Kennedy family and Arlington officials chose to move JFK’s grave in order to construct a safer, more stable eternal flame and to accommodate the extensive foot traffic caused by tourists. The final resting place, which is only a few feet from the original site, took 2 years to construct, during which time JFK’s body was secretly moved and re-interred in a private ceremony attended by Jackie, his brothers Edward and Robert, and President Lyndon Johnson. The bodies of two of the couple’s children who died at birth were also moved to the new site from graves in Massachusetts. The makeshift propane gas line was replaced with a permanent natural gas line and furnished with a continuous electronic flashing spark that reignites the flame in case it is extinguished by rain or wind. The Kennedy family chose Cape Cod granite flagstones to surround the flame. They also paid the costs of the original burial, but the federal government funded construction of the final site and appropriates money for the plot’s upkeep.

In 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, also a victim of assassination, was buried near his brother. In 1994, Jackie Kennedy died after a battle with cancer and, although she had remarried and again been widowed, was laid to rest in the same crypt as her first husband, JFK. When former United States Senator Ted Kennedy passed away in 2009, he was also laid to rest near his brothers.

William Taft is the only other president besides JFK interred at Arlington. – The History Channel

TRIVIA FOR TODAY: Potato chip bags are not full of air. Rather, they are filled with nitrogen gas. The nitrogen prevents the chips from oxidizing, or turning stale.