Cairo Day 1: Saqqara, Dahshur, Memphis

Back to our story.  Tuesday night, Wednesday.  Flying through the Istanbul airport (SAW, not IST) was relatively uneventful.  With 4 hours we had time to get our bearings a bit.  There was a lot of smoking, there were a lot of prayer rooms, and for some reason you had to scan your passport to get spotty wifi, which we really needed to figure out what was going on.

But after some food we were all a little happier.  Kate and I got Turkish doners, and Sam and Lily burgers.

The flight to Cairo (SPX, not CAI) was delayed an hour, but we landed safely in Giza, which is a large suburb of Cairo.  So we bought our visas, passed immigration, went back across immigration when we realized the ATMs were earlier in the airport, got some Egyptian pounds, crossed immigration again (expedited), met our driver, and went to our nice AirBnB.  Egypt has a very late night life, so even at 2 am everything was open and buzzing.  We finally settled in around 3 am and fell asleep.

The next morning at 9:30 am we were picked up by Samer, our tour guide who was a very knowledgeable Egyptologist, and Remon, his driver.  Now in the interest of full disclosure, Egypt's history is much longer and more detailed than Ireland's, and Africa's history is not taught in the US as much as Europe's, so we have not yet had time to wrap our heads around it yet, and thus my commentary on historical significance of the things in our photos will be limited or borrowed.  I don't know names, I don't know places, I don't know times.  I would like to dig deeper and maybe update the blog in a few weeks, but let's be honest, by the time we are back in GR, life will be hitting us at 100 mph and I will need to be 100% on class prep for the Spring.  So I can't make any promises.  But hopefully the pictures are still captivating and meaningful.

Here was our itinerary for day one, with some quick wiki help on the descriptions:

Saqqara/Sakkara.  You might think that there are 3 pyramids, the famous ones, but there are over 130 in Egypt, including probably 10 at the site of the most-famous 3, and another 10 within view. Saqqara is a vast ancient Egyptian burial ground (necropolis) serving the ancient capital Memphis, and is famous for the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the world's oldest monumental stone structure, built by architect Imhotep around 2650 BCE. It's a huge open-air museum featuring numerous pyramids, mastabas (flat-roofed tombs), and tombs for royalty spanning 3,500 years. Located south of Cairo, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site within the "Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur."  Pyramids evolved about as you think they might: one layer for a long time, then let's trying adding a second smaller layer, then let's keep adding, then let's see who can build the tallest!  

Carpet-making.  On our drive, we stopped by a carpet-making school to use restrooms.  But in using the restroom, you kind of agree to visit the school, which includes a tour of the boys making carpets by hand, which is very cool.  Then our girls were invited to make some carpet knots and did some weaving and were given some souvenirs.  Lots of pictures were taken. Then comes the pitch: they show us the display room upstairs, and then we are seated on a sofa and they bring us drinks.  Then they layout a variety of carpets in front of us, with prices from $2000 to $10,000, with free shipping to the US.  Alas, we already have a nice rug at home, so we declined. 

Dahshur.  Along with Saqqara (above) and Giza (Day 4), Dahshur is part of the pyramid fields of the ancient capital city of Memphis.  It is known chiefly for Sneferu's Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, which are among the oldest, largest and best preserved in Egypt, built around 2550 BC.   The Bent Pyramid is interesting because it was originally built at a 55 degree angle, but when a nearby steep pyramid collapsed during construction, they decided to be more conservative and switched to 45 degrees for the top half, which gives it the subtle "bent" appearance.  Eventually they settled on 51 degrees for the Great Pyramids.  Also, you might think of pyramids as "stepped" but the intent was for them to have a casing of angled limestone stones that made them smooth, and this casing was often scavenged in later years, leaving it incomplete.  The Bent Pyramid has the most complete casing.  At the Red Pyramid we were able to enter the burial chambers, which involved a 210-foot descent down a ladder/staircase which was about 4' tall.  So we were backwards and hunched the entire descent.

Memphis.  The capital of ancient Egypt, before Alexandria and Cairo.  It is now an outdoor museum where you can walk around and see all the carved monoliths in varying degrees of preservation/wholeness, including a massive rock sculpture of Ramses II (displayed horizontally due to its large size and missing legs, but you will see a vertical complete one on Day 3).  Memphis was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. The "Pt" in Ptah is the origin of the words egyPT and coPT and thus coPTic.

Lunch back in Saqqara, where we saw bread being made (for a tip, with pictures) and then ate classic Egyptian/Mediterranean food: bread, hummus, eggplant, lamb, and chicken, alongside some tasty mango drinks (which we have been drinking non stop!)  

Papyrus making.  We next stopped in a shop where they make and sell artwork using the ancient technique of paper-making using the plant that grows along the Nile River.  They cut the reeds, peel the outer roughage off the reeds, soak the internal fiber columns of the reeds, roll/dry the reeds flat, put them in alternating orthogonal directions into a threaded press (used to be heavy stones) for about a week, and by then the fibers have attached to each other and are pretty much indestructible.  Our enthusiastic host was very informative as she took us step by step through the process, and then showed us some final products -- including a surprise glow in the dark effect shown in the pictures below (nothing specific to papyrus, but cool none the less).

Then we got some groceries, headed back to the AirBnB, tried to figure how to operate an Arabic smart TV, and had limited success but then fell asleep instead.  Not a bad day that involved getting to bed at 3 am, and arising at 8 am, and touring until 5 pm.  One things I loved about our two guided days was that we saw some of the lesser-known sights with fewer tourists and more historical significance (we saw the most touristy things on Days 3 and 4 on our own).

Driving in Cairo.  This is what I will say: I think Ireland driving is about as crazy as you can get, when there is a official system in place.  Cairo is what happens when there is not an official system in place, which is 10x crazier than Ireland.  But I LOVE it.  It's so cool to see people intuitively work together for everyone's benefit.  From my four days of observation, the primary rule seems to be "first come first served."  If you can get into a space, it's yours.  Everyone else has to adapt.  You worry about the cars you can see, and the cars behind you worry about you.  Non-stop honking and lights-flashing as alerts, not outbursts.  There are no lanes.  Direction is just a suggestion.  Drive on the shoulders as long as you can.  Cars are literally millimeters from other cars, trucks, motorcycles, vans, buses, bicycles, pedestrians, animals.  Pedestrians (including us) cross dark highways in dark clothing and cars just avoid them.  But somehow it all works, I haven't seen a single accident, and I haven't seen any road rage.  It's organic, and I think it's beautiful, even though it would take me years to figure out how to participate.

Driving in Cairo update:  our host explained that there is one more-concise rule: whichever car has their bumper further ahead has right of way.  So if your car is 6" in front of mine and you want to enter my lane, or make a left turn from the right lane, I let you.  Once that was explained to me, it all made more sense.  That also means you only need to worry about cars you can see, which is comforting.  If you want to change lanes, you can at any time, because the cars behind you will defer.

Welcome to Egypt!

Saqqara: the Step Pyramid of Djoser (the oldest one)

Inside

All of these carvings tell stories, this one about fishing with a net, with a crocodile lurking.

Some had original color (with our guide Samer)

Down we go

A little snug, but not too bad.  One of the guide's first questions was how claustrophobic are you? Followed by, how fit are you?

Different build qualities.   Pyramid of Userkaf on right.

The Hypostyle Hall (a hypostyle is a roof supported by columns).  The roof is updated, but the broken columns are original.

The Great Enclosure

Picture from the portico

Central shaft down to the burial chamber, about 60 feet down for protection from robbers (unsuccessful).

They trusted wood (Cedars of Lebanon) more than stone, so they added supports where needed.

Imhotep Museum at Saqqara, named for the architect of the pyramids, and high priest, and 2000 years later considered a wise physician.  Some of the 8 million mummified animals found on site.

We did not go to the Civilization Museum with the famous mummies, so this was our only human mummy sighting (from the nearby Pyramid of Teti).

Bathroom break/carpet making.  Not shown in the picture, and probably not needed by the workers, is a detailed diagram of the pattern to follow, almost like needle point.

It can take 2 months with 4 boys working per rug.  Some of the workers were in their 20s and 30s; this was their vocation.  The knots are all of different lengths, so at the end they manually "shear" the rug like a sheep to reveal the clean pattern.

Sam weaving a rug instead of tying individual knots.

Now we are in Dahshur at the Red Pyramid.  It is obvious now where the front door is, but these were often filled in and hidden to protect the tomb.  Can you imagine trying to guess which 2.5 ton stone hides the passage?

Kate is going down here, not up.

Inside one of the corbelled tomb.  There were 2 tombs inside.

The Bent Pyramid: Can you see the angle change midway?  And also the smooth casing on the lower portion?  I left the person on the left for scale.

Now we are in Memphis at the Ramses II statue

Cartouches were used as identity markers, with the oval ring representing a boundary from evil.  Our guide pointed this one out to me because of the anatomical heart on the right.

The alabaster sphinx (not the Great Sphinx)

Another imposing colossus, I think of Ramses II again.  He was known to add his cartouche to other statues and claim the statue was of him.

Bread-making demo before lunch

Yummy Egyptian lunch!

An impressive stacking job, although these are all foam.

Papyrus-making demo

Painted papyrus

If you scroll back up, you can see these are the same six pieces, five of which had alternate artwork in the dark!

Trying to navigate an Arabic smart TV.  Just a reminder to myself to always design GUIs to allow for language selection easily and early.  You don't notice until it happens to you.

Not a bad view from our AirBnB!