{"id":14984,"date":"2019-02-06T17:09:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T22:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14984"},"modified":"2019-11-04T16:57:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T21:57:58","slug":"pyramids-of-giza-and-saqqara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14984","title":{"rendered":"Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday – February 6, 2019<\/p>\n

Officially, Cairo receives “less than 1 inch of rainfall<\/b> per year, with even less recorded along the corridor of pyramids.”<\/em> \u00a0So imagine our surprise and dismay when we awoke to see gray overcast skies and gentle falling showers. \u00a0It was also 57 degrees and windy.<\/p>\n

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Here is a photo of the ticket area in Giza that I took from the bus. \u00a0Notice the wet pavement and tourists holding umbrellas and specks of rain on the window. \u00a0This must be a rare sight in Egypt!<\/p>\n

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Undeterred, our stalwart group ventured out onto the damp sand wearing rain gear and carrying umbrellas. \u00a0Visiting Egypt was a first-time experience for everyone. \u00a0We had waited our entire extended lives and anticipated this moment with excitement to actually visit the ancient Pyramids of Giza….<\/p>\n

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In my imagination, I had pictured a vibrant sunny day and a bright blue sky. \u00a0Oh well….<\/p>\n

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Most of the camels and camel-drivers were resting and having an off-day because there were too few tourists.<\/p>\n

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The air felt chilly and it began to rain more heavily, so everyone went to the indoor Khufu Boat Museum next to the Great Pyramid of Khufu to see the ancient “solar boat.” \u00a0The ship had been deconstructed into 1224 small pieces around 2500BC and buried near the pyramids for the king to use in the after-life.<\/p>\n

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The Khufu ship is one of the oldest, largest, and best-preserved boats from antiquity. \u00a0It is 143 ft long and 19.5 ft wide. \u00a0It was built of Lebanon cedar and “described as “a masterpiece of woodcraft” that could sail today if put into water.” \u00a0<\/em>This is scale model on display at the museum:<\/p>\n

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The ship is known as a “solar barge” which was used either as a funerary barge to carry the king’s body from Memphis to Giza or a ritual vessel to carry the king and the sun-god Ra across the heavens.<\/p>\n

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Imagine seeing a fully intact 4,500 year old boat which could be used today. \u00a0Amazing!<\/p>\n

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Under a soft misty rain, we rode the bus toward the Sphinx. \u00a0A mythological creature with the body of a lion and the head of a person, the Sphinx statue was built to guard over the Giza plateau.<\/p>\n

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Our bus drove around to the front of the Sphinx where chairs, awnings, and speakers were being set up for night-time light and sound shows. \u00a0Maged asked the restaurant owner at the site to open a gate so we could have access to a platform to take better pictures.<\/p>\n

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It started to rain again, so we quickly took a few more photos before running back to the shelter of the bus.<\/p>\n

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We had stops to see hand-woven carpets and to eat an Egyptian lunch. \u00a0At the Akhenaton Carpets School, teams of young people sat in front of large looms. \u00a0They demonstrated how to knot the fibers at lightning speed while following a printed pattern of a carpet design.<\/p>\n

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The young sisters in the photo below, invited me to sit with them and they tried to teach me how to knot the woolen yarn. \u00a0It wasn’t easy!<\/p>\n

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Our next major destination was the ancient burial ground of Saqqara. \u00a0There are eleven major pyramids and hundreds of smaller tombs within the four mile long necropolis which served the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom capital of Memphis. \u00a0The most significant structure is the Step Pyramid built for the Pharaoh Zoser (Djoser) in 2650BC. \u00a0This was the earliest stone monument ever built in the world.<\/p>\n

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Previous royal tombs were built underground topped by a mud brick “mastaba” <\/i>– which means bench<\/em> in Arabic. Zoser’s chief architect, Imhotep, constructed the mastaba into a stone pyramid of decreasing ‘steps.’ \u00a0All the later pyramids developed from this concept.<\/p>\n

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We went into the tomb of Kegemni dating from 2340BC which is the largest mastaba in the Saqqara complex. \u00a0The walls were beautifully decorated with scenes of everyday life. \u00a0Some of the color still remained on the walls. \u00a0(no photography allowed)<\/p>\n

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We also climbed down into another smaller mastaba<\/em> and stooped along a long stone corridor. This led to two small rooms whose ceilings were decorated with representative stars that looked like yellow starfish. This tomb was not as exquisitely decorated as Kegemni’s but was an archeological experience for me.<\/p>\n

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Afterwards, we walked to the magnificent Step Pyramid complex where Maged explained the history of the compound and we were able to explore the ruins on our own.<\/p>\n

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What an amazing day!!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday – February 6, 2019 Officially, Cairo receives “less than 1 inch of rainfall per year, with even less recorded along the corridor of pyramids.” \u00a0So imagine our surprise and dismay when we awoke to see gray overcast skies and gentle falling showers. \u00a0It was also 57 degrees and windy. Here is a photo of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egypt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14984"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15917,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions\/15917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}