first of seven key pyramids in Egypt, the Step Pyramid of Djoser
—
Its called the first real pyramid because there a re various kings list used to date when it was built, but some of those Kings lists are known forgeries, the order of kings names on those lists differ from list to list, kings often used different names at different points in their reign, lists omit known kings for [ assumed ] political/religious reasons, etc - in short, Kings lists are not reliable for dating.
Yet Egyptologists insist on using them in order to keep the historical fiction created by Herodotus in the 4th century BC alive, no matter the evidence to the contrary. No one wants to lose their career by standing up to the evidence.
Moreover, the optical dating sample on Pyramid of Menkaure dates some 300 years prior to the Kings list date. Which places it as built hundreds of years before the Step Pyramid of Djoser.
So were hydraulics used any where else - who knows? It is obvious that the techniques used to build the Giza complex [ built as a interlocking geometric whole ] were far superior to Djoser. Building large structures with stone had regressed, not advanced.
The blocks were too massive to rely completely on hydraulics, imo. I think it was a combination of hydraulics and manpower. Whatever was optimal at a point in time, sometimes more hydraulics and sometimes more manpower.