Photograph by Nancy Gupton

On the dusty Saqqara plateau, ten miles [16 kilometers] south of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, the Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser rises likes a grand mirage, shimmering more than 200 feet [61 meters] above the stark Egyptian sands.

This colossal monument, begun around 2630 B.C., was Egypt's—and the world's—first pyramid.