One Last Thing - Saqqara and Memphis

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As our flight from Cairo to Tel Aviv was not until late evening, we decided to do a day trip down to the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Designed and built by the high priest and architect, Imhotep, in the 27th Century B.C this structure was the first pyramid and set the trend for all tombs, temples and pyramids that followed. Before the 3rd dynasty, tombs had been built underground and covered with a mastaba - a mud brick structure. Imhotep decided that this wasn't good enough for his King and built a tomb comprising six stone mastabas on top of one another with each one slightly smaller than the one below. This created the "Step" pyramid - a design that was improved upon by later Pharaohs, culminating in the Pyramids at Giza.

After wandering around the Step Pyramid, we went to visit the Tomb of Mereuka one of the highlights of the Saqqara complex. Mereuka was the son in-law of Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty and as such the 33 room tomb is quite imposing and includes many beautiful wall paintings depicting day-to-day life in Ancient Egypt. Close by, the Pyramid of Teti looks like a mass of stones from the outside but once you make your way down into the pyramid via a long, steep tunnel you find yourself in a room where the walls and ceilings are decorated with stars and funerary writing known as the Pyramid Texts. On the floor is a massive, basalt sarcophagus in quite good condition that housed the body of the king many thousands of years ago.

Then it was off to the open air museum in the ancient capital of Memphis to view the colossal limestone statue of Ramses II and the giant, 80 tonne Sphinx. After a brief look around, it was back to Cairo to spend some time working on the blog, before a quick dinner and then it was off to the airport for our flight to Israel. On arrival at the airport it was in chaos!! Egypt was playing in the final of the Africa's Cup and there were hundreds of men (and a few women) standing around the few airport cafes with TVs watching the game - unfortunately this included most of the airport staff! Every time Egypt scored a goal a huge roar went up from the crowd which created quite an interesting atmosphere given that we were in an airport terminal.

After getting the third degree from the El Al staff during our interrogation, we finally got checked in and boarded the flight for Tel Aviv and Israel.

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Photos

Step Pyramid of Djoser
Built by Imhotep, this pyramid was the prototype for all later pyramids

Reliefs from Saqqara
This relief shows Nubian captives starving

Saqqara Frieze
This stone frieze is the oldest ever found

Colossus of Ramses II
At Memphis open air museum