Saqqara and the Djeser complex call to mind two names: Imhotep, head architect who designed the monumental funerary site erected in honour of King Djeser (III Dynasty), and archaeologist Jean-Philippe Lauer, who dedicated his life to studying it. The complex was contained by a 15ha wall (admire on the inner façade the remarkable "Wall of Cobras"). The interior buildings each have a ritual function: the Tomb of the South, under which lie the funerary chambers, the Temple of Heb-Sed, where the pharaoh came for renewal before crossing over into the afterlife, the serdab, which enclosed the life-size statue of the deceased (now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo), and, finally, the pyramid.