THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 05 The Step Pyramid of Djoser wasn't really called 'the Refreshment Of the gods' but truly instead 'the Cooling By the Gods'
Publié par Bruno Coursol dans The Pyramids of the Cold le 21/09/2025 à 06:43
This is the ‘Serdab’ of the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Serbab literally means ‘cold water’ and the Pyramid itself was known as ‘the Pyramid of the Refreshment of the Gods’, even if this only is a wrong interpretation of the original hieroglyphic texts: the Step Pyramid of Djoser really was ‘the Pyramid of the Cooling by the Gods’. But just look at the two holes on the front wall of this Serdab, and tell me you don’t see some kind of water cooling unit with water pipes getting in and out.
THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Study written by Bruno COURSOL (January 2021 to September 2025)
Section A • The flash-evaporative cooling process and the so-called horizontal passage
The transformation of a fog of microdroplets of liquid water into vapor created flash-evaporative cold
Chapter 05 • Djoser' Step Pyramid wasn't called 'the Refreshment Of the gods' but truly 'the Cooling By the Gods'
Summary: the chore of the 'Pyramids of the Cold' study, is about how ancient Egyptians managed to achieve what is known today as flash-evaporative cold; which only is about using water as a refrigerant in the most effective way possible with the technology available for Egyptians 4,500 years ago. In short, it is about creating cold simply by using the power of water. That almost magical power is based on simple laws of physics, the cold is created when liquid water is transformed into evaporated water; this technique is still used today, but just like biosand filtration, people are rarely educated about these low-tech basic principles.
Our modern refrigerators are using the same evaporative process than the one used by ancient Egyptians in the Great Pyramid; they just don't use water as a refrigerant anymore and they do actually produce as much heat (outside the refrigerator) as they produce cold inside the refrigerator. What ancient Egyptians have done is simply getting the best out of the evaporation of water to create cold. Amazingly, Egyptians didn't just create the cold: they also talked about it, and they talked about it a lot. But I guess, egyptologists weren't eager to talk about it themselves, even if references to cold, cooling and cold water are literally found everywhere in the ancient Egyptian religion.
Even the very first Pyramid of ancient Egypt, Djoser' Step Pyramid, was known as the Pyramid of 'the Refreshment of the Gods' , and I'm only here using the exact terms used by egyptologists. The same Pyramid also has a 'Serdab', which literally means 'cold water'. In this chapter, we'll see that the real name of the Step Pyramid wasn't 'the Refreshment of the Gods', but the 'Cooling by the Gods', because once again, the most groundbreaking discovery of the study isn't that Egyptians were creating flash-evaporative cold in a pressurized system that probably allowed them to cool the Queen's chamber down to a temperature of about 5°Celcius (41°F), but the fact they glorified and deified every single part of the system and every single tool they've used to achieve this technological prowess.
GE Monitor-top Refrigerator, 1929. ChrisArchives at https://www.flickr.com/photos/17016116@N08/3243081772
"The Pyramid Complex of Djoser (مجمع هرم زوسر) or Step Pyramid (kbhw-ntrw in Egyptian) Complex (مجمع الهرم المدرج) is an archeological site in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the city of Memphis. Djoser was King of Upper and Lower Egypt in ca. 2680 BCE. Djoser was a king early in the 3rd dynasty. The construction and development of the pyramid complex is generally attributed to the architect Imhotep." https://madainproject.com/pyramid_complex_of_djoser Photograph of Djoser's Serdab at Saqqara, by orientalizing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/orientalizing/51913885911/in/photostream/
05.01 Djoser's Step Pyramid was called 'The Refreshment of the Gods'
"According to later legends, Imhotep – “he who comes in peace” – invented building in stone around 2600 BCE, at the beginning of the 3rd dynasty. This achievement corresponds with the spread of monumental stone architecture during the reign of Khasekhemwy, last king of the second dynasty and Djoser’s predecessor on the throne – and probably his father. While no break in political development seemed evident between the second and third dynasties, the reign of Djoser marked a new era characterized by an incredible rise in complexity of the Old Kingdom state. The first decorated tombs in Abusir and the Saqqara necropolis date to Djoser’s reign, and he was the first king to send mining expeditions to Sinai to produce copper. Also from his reign came the first fully-developed grammatical sentences known in ancient Egyptian. The first vizier recorded by name – Kaimen – is attested as a donor of several stone vessels to the king’s cult. Djoser also erected a small temple in Heliopolis, later a famous cult place of the sun god, Ra. There is every reason to believe that Imhotep played a major role in at least some of these royal accomplishments.
Of course, Imhotep is most famous as the builder of Djoser’s unprecedented step pyramid complex, called the “The Refreshment of the Gods.” Imhotep designed this complex on a scale that surpassed everything achieved by his predecessors. The pyramid complex was surrounded by a monumental trench 40 meters (over 130 feet) wide. Inside a 750 by 600-meter perimeter, the huge burial precinct was enclosed with a stone wall of 10.5 meters (nearly 35 feet). Imhotep replaced the traditional organic and mudbrick building materials with small blocks of limestone."
Source: 'The Search for Imhotep: Tomb of Architect-Turned-God Remains a Mystery', Miroslav Bárta. Charles University, Prague Institute of Egyptology: https://arce.org/resource/search-imhotep-tomb-architect-turned-god-remains-mystery/
The ARCE, American Research Center in Egypt actively supports scholarship, training and conservation efforts in Egypt through grants, fieldwork and field schools: https://arce.org/resource/search-imhotep-tomb-architect-turned-god-remains-mystery/
05.02 The Pyramids were indeed associated with immortality of pharaohs but only because they were used to produce natron, the salt that transformed the human body into a mummy... with eternal life
So, the very first Pyramid in Egyptian history, the Step Pyramid of Djeser, was all about creating cooling water, and obviously Egyptians have only tried to push the capability of water to be used as an efficient refrigerant by creating flash-evaporation cold in the Great Pyramid. But the first thing to understand is the series of events which ended up in finding out the true purpose of the Great Pyramid, and how Egyptians managed to successfully operate the Pyramid for flash-evaporative cooling:
1 • The continuous vertical expansion joints through two courses of blocks on the first 64 feet of the horizontal passage and the salt encrustation that have been discovered in both the horizontal passage and the Queen’s chamber is because evaporative cold was produced in this section of the Pyramid
2 • The Dendera light indicates that cold was produced by the technique known as flash-evaporative cold, that implied the creation of a fog of microdroplets of water from pressurized water
3 • The very strong ammonia smell + the overlooked limestone kiln inside the Red Pyramid indicates that chemical manufacturing of natron was occurring in this Pyramid of Sneferu (Khufu’s father) through a Solvay-like process
4 • Natron was the salt used for the mummification process and it gave immortality to pharaohs
5 • Because the mummification salt natron that gave immortality to the bodies of the pharaohs, was produced inside the structure of the great pyramids, these pyramids have been associated with immortality themselves
6 • That explains why the very first Pyramid (the Step Pyramid of Djeser) has been called 'the Pyramid of the Refreshment of the Gods'. In short, even before the Great Pyramid has been used to produce flash evaporative cold by Khufu (Dynasty 4), the Step Pyramid of Djeser (Dynasty 3) was also dealing with cold production, and was accordingly called 'the Pyramid of the Cold': the Step Pyramid wasn’t 'the Pyramid of the Refreshment of the Gods', but 'the Pyramid of the Cooling by the Gods'. Because, yes, probably the most important discovery of this study, is that everything that had been used to create the cold has been glorified and deified into the Egyptian gods and goddesses.
Refreshment Day logo: https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/hxomRoo_tbc-nrd-logo-national-refreshment-day-2019-hd/
Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for cold production by a flash-evaporative process. The entire system worked by using the energy of a composite impactor generating both pressurized air and pressurized water. The impactor has been glorified and deified by ancient Egyptians in many different deities, among them are Horus (the composite impactor) and Osiris (the weight of the impactor, 'trapped' in the wooden 'coffin').
05.03 Not 'the refreshment of'… but ‘the cooling by’ the gods: the problem of deciphering hieroglyphic texts without having understood the appropriate context
And there it is: the pyramid of Djeser wasn’t called 'the pyramid of the refreshment of the gods', but ‘the pyramid of the cooling by the gods’.
And of course, this is this little word ‘by’ which makes all the difference: this is not “of the gods”, or “for the gods”, but really ‘by the gods’. And of course, this little word ‘by’ isn’t written anywhere in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: you have to find out about it by yourself. 'The pyramid of the refreshment of the gods' is indeed the key here; but egyptologists made two mistakes:
1 • the word “refreshment” is wrong; and this is the problem when you ask people to solve a scientific and technological issue when you are yourself only focused in the humanities: you have the entire context wrong.
2 • the word “of” [the gods] is also wrong; and that is the problem of deciphering hieroglyphs: there is no grammar in there; egyptologists only try to make sense of some weird symbols in a way that seem intelligible to them and compatible with the official stories told for more than 200 years now, without ever making any mea culpa ever. The first two points to understand and accept about ‘The Pyramids of the Cold’, is that not only Egyptians did produce cold in the Great Pyramid, but even more importantly they glorified and personified every single part of how they did make the cold.
Once you have understood this two critical points about the cold and how it has been made, then you can decipher the original text translated by egyptologists into ‘the refreshment of the gods’: of course there isn’t any refreshment of the gods, and can anyone please explain in what context one would have had the need to refresh gods? Did gods played football at noon when everyone is supposed to stay inside and protect himself from the heat of the sun?
Dendera Light drawing from the New York Public Library (Digital Collections). Author: Auguste Mariette, 1821-1881: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-96c4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
05.04 Both Osiris and Horus were inded associated with 'cold water'
"Osiris N, take this fresh water, cooled for you by Horus, in your name of He-who-is-come-from-the-fresh-water. […] The most complete ancient work in existence of the myth of Osiris which we know is that of Plutarch, in his 'De Iside et Osiride'. We know the stratagem used by Seth and his associates, and we know how the conspirator, having locked Osiris precisely by guile in a chest made to his measurements, threw it into the sea, an episode which Plutarch is the only one to relate, began the mourning and the quest of Isis. […] Osiris is designated as the one who had been "put in a chest (deben), in a box and in a bag". Nadine GUILHOU: Les deux morts d'Osiris, d'après les textes des Pyramides." Extracted from the magazine "Egypte", N°10, August 1998: https://www.osirisnet.net/dieux/osiris/e_osiris_03.htm
"But I am parched with thirst and I perish. Give me quickly the cold water flowing forth from the Lake of Memory". Delia, D. (1992). The Refreshing Water of Osiris, page 189. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 29, 181–190. https://doi.org/10.2307/40000492
[Germinating Osiris brick 20.2.30 at the MET]: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/553820
The Serdab at the Step Pyramid of pharaoh Djoser. Photograph by orientalizing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/orientalizing/51932626472/in/photostream/
05.05 The Serdab of Djoser' Step Pyramid 'The Refreshment of the Gods' literally means 'cold water'
Contrary to what the academic description is saying, a Serdab isn’t a ‘sealed room with a slit or hole’, but clearly a sealed room with two holes, with one of the holes located right in-between two blocks. Think like engineer, and you will understand that one of the two holes was meant for either hosting pipes at very high or very low temperatures: the hole isn’t placed by accident in-between two side by side blocks, it’s just exploiting a natural expansion joint in the masonry.
A serdab (Persian: سرداب), literally meaning "cold water", which became a loanword in Arabic for 'cellar' is an ancient Egyptian tomb structure that served as a chamber for the Ka statue of a deceased individual. Used during the Old Kingdom, the serdab was a sealed chamber with a small slit or hole to allow the soul of the deceased to move about freely. These holes also let in the smells of the offerings presented to the statue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serdab
Djoser's Serdab by orientalizing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/orientalizing/51936106635/in/photostream/
05.06 Djoser' statue peeking out of the "cold water" Serdab
Seriously, how can anyone believe that this little Serdab here was designed to house the statue of pharaoh Djoser, and that the two holes in the front wall were supposed to let people have a look at the statue, or the statue to have a look and a good smell at what was happening outside. I mean, seriously.
"To the east of the temple is the serdab ("celler"), which is a small enclosed structure that housed the ka statue. The king's ka inhabited the ka statue, in order to benefit from daily ceremonies like the opening of the mouth, a ceremony that allowed him to breathe and eat, and the burning of incense. He witnessed these ceremonies through two small eye holes cut in the north wall of the serdab. The serdab was a sealed off room in a tomb containing a statue of the deceased was placed. These statues were vessels that the souls could inhibit. Djoser's serdab is located on the northern side of the Step Pyramid, in front of an open court dedicated to it. A statue depicting the king wearing the "Sed" festival robe was discovered inside. Just as the Step Pyramid is the oldest ancient Egyptian monumental stone structure, so is this statue, the first large stone statue known. The original is currently in the Egyptian Museum. The northern wall of the tilted chamber has two holes allowing the king to gaze through and see the rituals and festivals taking place in the court before him. According to the ancient beliefs the holes also allowed the king to look north, the cardinal point towards which his entire pyramid complex is oriented. This is the location of the circumpolar stars in the northern sky, his ancestors, whom he hoped to join. These stars never set below the horizon, which was seen as a sign of immortality. Djoser was thus poised to join his forefathers in everlasting life." https://madainproject.com/pyramid_complex_of_djoser
The Serdab at the Step Pyramid of pharaoh Djoser. Photograph by orientalizing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/orientalizing/51932626472/in/photostream/
05.07 The natural expansion joint in the masonry for only one of the holes
It certainly is no accident if one of the two holes in the northern wall of Djoser' Serdab is located right on the joint between two blocks: very hot (or very cold) fluid passing through a pipe wouldn't damage the structure. The joint here would be an expansion joint. It certainly is no accident either if the entire Serdab structure is tilted as well (see the heat pipe diagram).
The two holes in the front wall of Djoser's Serdab were certainly used to let water pipes get in and out the sealed chamber. Photograph by John and Loretta at Seeing the Past: https://www.seeingthepast.com/blog/stepped-pyramid
05.08 One of the main difficulties of the study is to dig under 'ancient beliefs' and 'modern interpretations'
Because Djoser' Serdab was in direct contact with the Step Pyramid, it is fair to assume it was a fully operational cooling chamber, most probably operated like a modern passive heat pipe of some sort. Of course there wasn't any statue of Djeser in the Serdab at the time, only some kind of heat exchanger probably. The question is to know who put the statue of Djoser in the Serdab, and when did that happened.
The idea that the two holes were used so that the statue could look outside the Serdab, breathe, smell burning incense and look at the stars is both cute and depressing if anyone really believes this; but it allows me to raise another issue about ancient Egypt, and it is about the multilayer coat of beliefs that accumulated over time.
I see three origins of these layers of beliefs:
• the ancient Egyptians from the four first Dynasties, the ones involved in what could be called the 'Scientific and technological Era' of ancient Egypt and the ones who created gods, goddesses and myths as glorifying representations of their achievements
• the ancient Egyptians who came after the Fourth Dynasty and who probably added more layers over time
• the egyptologists who tried to figure it all out from as early as the 1800s, but with very little information available to them at the time but who had to provide a plausible explanation anyway
The Serdap of Djoser' Step Pyramid, November 2006. Jon Bodsworth: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Djoser_Serdap_3.jpg
05.09 The mysterious small inclination of the entire structure of the Serdab
I love this image, because most of the time you don't see the side of the Serdab anywhere. And suddenly, there it is, and of course what is striking is the inclination of the entire structure. Do you still think everything here is about religious belief and the worship of a statue of Djeser in a sealed chamber with two little holes as only link with the outside of the room? Don't you think Djeser would have wanted a 'regular' horizontal floor for his beloved statue of himself, rather than this sloped one? And please, don't tell me it was because Djeser wanted to look at the stars from his statue, because he wouldn't have seen much!
"Development of a simplified heat pipe numerical model and case study/experimental validation using a long ‘wicked’ heat pipe", by S. B. Riffat, X. Zhao, P. S. Doherty, Song Lin: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/er.1044
05.10 The Heat Pipe and water cooling tank hypothesis
What is particularly interesting in the long wicked heat pipe schematic, apart from the inclined structure and the top water tank, is that this tank has two holes for the cooling water circulation. Could the two holes of the ancient Egyptian Serdab be exactly that?
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