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Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex)

Deep shafts and vaults said to be Yosef's grain stores; Imhotep said to be Yosef

Egypt & the Exodus · city / site, ossuary / tomb · Disputed · found 1924

Six-stepped stone pyramid in the desert
Photo: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons — The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara.

Found 1924 — Cecil Firth and James Quibell (Egyptian Antiquities Service, 1924–); Jean-Philippe Lauer (1926–2001); the Joseph claim popularised by Ron Wyatt (1980s) and Lennart Möller, 'The Exodus Case' (2000)

Where Saqqara, the necropolis of Memphis (Egypt)

Dates from c. 2670–2650 BCE (Djoser); Joseph traditionally c. 1900–1700 BCE · Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty · Yosef's seven years of plenty and famine (claimed)

Now at Site (UNESCO World Heritage; galleries closed to the public); vessels in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo and the Imhotep Museum, Saqqara

How Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex) was found

Systematic excavation of the Step Pyramid enclosure revealed, on the pyramid's east side, eleven vertical shafts about 32 m deep opening into galleries that held over 40,000 stone vessels and burials of royal family members. Wyatt and Möller pointed to these shafts, the great dry moat, and 'grain' residue as proof of Yosef's storehouses, and equated the architect Imhotep with Yosef.

What it is

The Step Pyramid complex is a 15-hectare walled enclosure around Egypt's first stone pyramid, with courts, dummy chapels and a huge dry trench 750 m long and 40 m wide. The eleven east-side shafts are tomb shafts leading to galleries lined with stone bowls, jars and alabaster vessels, five of them containing coffins of Djoser's wives and children.

Why it matters for the Bible

The idea that pyramids were Yosef's granaries goes back to Gregory of Tours in the 6th century and is pictured in the mosaics of St Mark's, Venice. The modern version adds Imhotep = Yosef, based on both being wise viziers linked to a seven-year famine. Egyptologists reject it: the shafts are tombs and storerooms for the dead, sealed and filled with vessels, not open silos; Imhotep lived some 800–1,000 years before any biblical date for Yosef and served a king of Upper and Lower Egypt whose court is well documented; and Egyptian granaries were domed mud-brick silos, many of which have been excavated. The entry helps readers see where a popular chart of 'proofs' comes from.

Disputed: The complex is well excavated and understood as a royal tomb enclosure; the granary and Imhotep = Joseph readings are rejected by Egyptologists and rest on a chronology roughly a thousand years off.

The Hebrew word: BAHR

בָּר

בָּר is pronounced BAHR and means grain, corn; the grain Yosef stored in the cities (Strong's H1250).

People this discovery connects to

Places

Events

Storing grain in the seven years of plenty (claimed location)

Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex) in Scripture

Genesis 30:24 First mention of Joseph in Scripture.

Genesis 41:40-41 Pharaoh sets Yosef over all Egypt; proponents match this to Imhotep's titles under Djoser.

Genesis 41:48-49 Yosef stores grain in the cities 'as the sand of the sea'; the Saqqara shafts are claimed as those stores.

Questions people ask

What is Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex)?
The Step Pyramid complex is a 15-hectare walled enclosure around Egypt's first stone pyramid, with courts, dummy chapels and a huge dry trench 750 m long and 40 m wide. The eleven east-side shafts are tomb shafts leading to galleries lined with stone bowls, jars and alabaster vessels, five of them containing coffins of Djoser's wives and children.

When was Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex) discovered?
It was found in 1924 by Cecil Firth and James Quibell (Egyptian Antiquities Service, 1924–); Jean-Philippe Lauer (1926–2001); the Joseph claim popularised by Ron Wyatt (1980s) and Lennart Möller, 'The Exodus Case' (2000), at Saqqara, the necropolis of Memphis.

Where is Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex) today?
Site (UNESCO World Heritage; galleries closed to the public); vessels in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo and the Imhotep Museum, Saqqara.

Which Bible verses does Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex) relate to?
Genesis 30:24, Genesis 41:40-41, Genesis 41:48-49.

Is Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex) authentic?
The complex is well excavated and understood as a royal tomb enclosure; the granary and Imhotep = Joseph readings are rejected by Egyptologists and rest on a chronology roughly a thousand years off.

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