Cairo Day 3

Sunday 19th February

This morning we woke to a dreary looking day with lots of haze hanging around. At one point l thought it was raining but it was just the haze. After a scrumptious buffet breakfast we met our guide in the lobby who was ready to take us on another day of sightseeing. During the drive to our fist stop the weather started to clear and looked like it was going to turn into a nice day.

So we drove to Sakkara to tour the modern Imhotep museum which has 6 galleries that tell the story of the Sakkara necropolis,and the intricacies of Imhotep's architectural style. The pyramids were the brainchild of Imhotep so it was very interesting. The first pyramid ever built, the famous Step Pyramid of King Zoser is at Sakkara, the ancient cemetery where pyramids were first built as tombs for royalty. Some of the pyramids here looked just like a sand dune or a pile of rocks, in fact the one we entered, the pyramid of Teti, didn't look like a pyramid at all but rather just a mound of sand. We descended down quite a steep passage which is on the north side of the pyramid (the entrances are always on the north side) and leads to a narrow passage and burial chamber which is inscribed with long columns of hieroglyphic excerpts from the pyramid texts, and still with it's lidless basalt sarcophagus. The roof of the chamber is inscribed with stars so that it looks light the night sky. It was pretty awesome.

Then a little further along we got to the Djoser pyramid which is the first step pyramid and covers about 40 acres which consists of the enclosure wall, the entrance, the hall colonnade, the south tomb, the royal pavilion, a courtyard, the south and north house, the serdab (cellar) and the funerary temple….massively huge when you consider this was all for his death!! It was very interesting. Craig said all the hawkers overshadowed his enthusiasm for the pyramid.

On the drive back to Giza we visited a carpet making factory. They employ young kids to make the rugs because their fingers are small. They get paid about 600 pounds a month and they do this in the morning before they go to school or in the afternoon after school in the morning. The kids go to school 6 days a week and each term they swap between going to school in the morning and going to school in the afternoon, the reason for this is because there are too many kids and not enough schools. After this we went to a papyrus store where we were shown how they make the papyrus paper ready for drawing or writing on. It was really quite interesting and amazing that the Egyptians knew how to do this all those thousands of years ago.

Lunch time! We drove to the Mena House Oberoi hotel which was originally built as a palace for the Empress Euginie when she visited Egypt for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 to have lunch and, as it's located right near the pyramids we had them as a backdrop. After lunch we visited the only present day survivors of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the 3 pyramids and Sphinx. Built as giant tombs for the mummies of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. We went down into the smallest tomb however it was very plain in the burial chamber compared to the first one we went into, no hieroglyphics or anything but it was still good to go down and have a look. There was another room just near the burial chamber for storage. After coming out of this pyramid we drove to a viewing area where you can get a good photo of the 3 pyramids together and there were a heap of camels so l got on one for a photo op. It was pretty scary when the camel stood up…l thought l was gonna fall off.

At the back of one Khufu's tomb they discovered a large pit covered with large limestone bricks which when uncovered revealed a beautiful cedar boat ( the solar boat) that is believed to have taken Pharaoh Khufu's mummy on the Nile from Memphis to it's final resting place in the largest pyramid at Giza. After we viewed the boat we drove to the Sphinx with its lions body and man's head, who guards the necropolis. It was just so fantastic to see, and so big! Luck for us that there are hardly any tourists here at the moment otherwise there would be people all over the place and we'd be queuing up for everything. The only down side is the stall holders badger you a fair bit…well more than a fair bit….l guess they're just trying to make a living while it's quiet. After the Sphinx we went to a store where there was upmarket souvenirs and l was able to buy some gold charms for my bracelet. I paid 1000 pounds for two 18 carat gold charms. By this time it was nearly 4.30pm so we made our way back to the hotel. On the way back we took lots of photos of unfinished apartment buildings with people living in them. The reason for this is if the building is unfinished the developer avoids paying taxes on them but people can move in and live there. So what you see is three of four levels of unfinished apartments then one apartment will have someone living in it then nothing but empty shells next to and above them. Weird! Anyway…l think that's it for today. We're gonna have something to eat and get to bed pretty early because we have to be up around 4am as we're catching a plane to Luxor for the star of our cruise and we have to be at the airport a few hours before the plane leaves. Not sure if l'll have enough internet time to upload photos but they're coming.