Egypt 2025 Part 2 Pyramids! I made it!

The alarm rang after what seemed just a few minutes, and we were up, dressed and heading for a very comprehensive dawn breakfast buffet with everything from cereals, fruits, cold meats and cheeses, falafel, curry, Egyptian pie and so many pastries and breads!

We were both quite excited about what day 1 would bring. Our guide, Mayer was in the lobby and Mustaphah was our driver for the day in a Toyota Hiace. We headed through the teeming Cairo traffic on huge bypasses and flyovers, often with no lane markings.

Suddenly U turns happen frequently, and occasionally a tuktuk or motorbike decides to come towards you as it is a short cut! We headed out of the city past farmland and an area of Carpet Training Colleges to Saqqara.

Saqqara has the oldest necropolis in Egypt, and was the burial ground for the first capital, Memphis. Suddenly we were in the desert. We had arrived early and our guide rushed us to the pyramid tomb of King Teti, around 4,400 years old! Our first tomb! We descended the steep slippery sloped entrance, bent double.

This tomb is unique because while most of the tombs were stripped bare, this one still has walls covered in hieroglyphic texts explaing how the king can ascend and reunite with the Sun God.

The carved shapes are so delicate, sophisticated and clear. There are stars carved on the ceilings. The roof is pitched to spread the weight of the pyramid on top and guard against earthquakes, and, most magically, the huge sarcophagus is still here, although empty.

It was even more special because we had it to ourselves.

It is absolutely remarkable to be touching hieroglyphics created by other hands over 4400 years ago.

I got goosebumps and felt quite emotional. Next we visited the Mastaba of Kagemni, Chief Justice and Vizier from the same era. He died in 2345BC and was wealthy enough to have a many chambered tomb. It is remarkable for the still intact wall paintings, some of which even have colour remaining.

They depict everyday scenes, including fish, crocodiles and hippos in the Nile. People were fishing with hooks, baskets and spears. Surprisingly, Crocodiles represented good, and Hippos were bad! There were many scenes of people bringing food and offerings to help Kagemni through to the afterlife.

Penny and I are standing in front of the false wall, through which the persons soul passes to higher places.

We loved the exquisite details like this sandal.

It is incredible to think that the sophisticated hieroglyphics, wall paintings and amazing statues that we will see later were being created at the same time as ancient Britons were building stonehenge! The most famous part of Saqqara is the first known pyramid to be built,  thought to be the oldest large stone structure on earth. Designed by the great architect Imhotep, it is known as the Step pyramid.

It was the tomb of King Djoser and is 4,700 years old! It is over 60metres high, and the base is 121 x 109 metres square, so a base area of nearly 3.3 acres!! When it was excavated, 30,000 stone vessels were found inside! It is actually 6 family burial Mastabas, one on top of the next, and was part of a huge complex, surrounded by these walls and accessed by this passage through tall collonades built to look like rolled Papyrus.

Leaving the colonnades, you see the Step Pyramid rising high into the sky at the far side of a huge square. This is where, every 4 or 5 years, the King, or Pharoah as they were known, would fight with an Ox to prove he was still powerful enough to be King. Egypt used to be 2 kingdoms, the North and the South. They were unified in around 3000 BC. After killing the Ox, the victorious King would put on the robes and crown of the North and sit on the north throne, and then change to the clothes and crown of the South and sit on the South throne to show he ruled both parts. If the King couldn't kill the Ox the next in line would take over. Today you have Penny and I walking like Egyptians under the orders of our guide!

In one corner of the square are steps down to a chamber where the organs of the King were buried. The brain, lungs, liver and intestines would be removed, and put in separate decorative jars called canopi, which were buried away from the body. The heart was always left in the body. The eyes were removed and often replaced with jewels or crystals.

All around the site are more funereal tombs of high officials, but over 70% of the site is yet to be excavated.

What a start to our day! Next we visited Memphis, the first capital of unified Egypt and built by Rameses II -  the Great who ruled for 66 years, had 90 children and was 92 when he died. This huge, imposing, limestone statue toppled and fell, but would be over 10 metres high, and is exquisitely detailed with all the symbolism of a great pharoah.

Headress, false beard - straight for a King, curved for a God, ears pierced, cobra on head, holding great seal, kilt with leather centrepiece to protect his dignity; bracelet and shoulder decoration contains a cartouche of his name.

How were they carving such detail and delicacy with the materials and tools they had 3,500 years ago? There was a palace here, long since destroyed, but some of the remnants included this sphinx and some great hieroglyphics.

Suddenly, a man appeared climbing a tree to harvest dates. Probably something people were doing when the statue and city were built!

We were surprised on the drive out here how many people were still using horses and carts, or handcarts as their means of transport.

This is a country that still endures great poverty. Their economy relies heavily on tourism, and it has been badly affected by Covid, the conflicts in neighbouring countries, and some terrorist attacks in Egypt itself. So far we are finding Egypt an enthralling and welcoming country and we thoroughly recommend it!

For lunch we went to a farm that served a delicious meal of local produce and lovely freshly squeezed juices.

Then onto the number one tourist site in Egypt... the Pyramids of Giza. The city of Cairo comes right up to them on one side, but the other side is desert, which is remarkable to see.

The great pyramid is huge and can be seen for miles around. It was built for King Khufu in 2566 BC and took 20 years to build.

People believed it was done with up to 100,000 slaves, but modern egyptologists now know that the workers were salaried people, many from the south of Egypt to came to work during the months when the Nile flooded their farms. The King gave them food, accommodation and a wage in return for their labour. Many became skilled workmen and did not return to farming, so future pyramids were built more quickly! Modern estimates suggest 20 - 30,000 workers in the quarries, stone masons and builders. We were amazed to discover that the Nile used to flow very near to the Great Pyramids, but today has diverted further east.

That meant the huge blocks could be transported to the site by boat, then loaded onto sleds, some of which have been found. They have also found remnants of large ramps which they believe explains how they got the stones up to the higher levels. Pictures do not convey the height and scale of this pyramid. 2.2 million slabs of stone. Weight approximately 5.75 million tons! Mainly limestone, but an inner chamber of huge granite blocks  quarried in Asswan 900 kms away! It would have been covered in top quality white polished limestone, shining and glinting in the sun. This has all fallen away now. At 147metres high, it was the tallest man made structure in the world until Lincoln Cathedral was built in 1311, and each base side measures 230 metres, so a walk round is nearly a kilometre! It is the only one remaining of the original 7 Wonders of the World. It is HUGE, and despite having seen many pictures, articles and documentaries... the real thing is incredible. In the 1930's, my fairly badly behaved dad and friends climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid and took photos.

We legally climbed up the part to the old entrance and it was very moving!

Wow! And now you can see the size of the blocks! Next to the Great Pyramid is the Pyramid of Khafre, and this still has a cap of the smooth white limestone, just like dad's photo!

There are 7 more pyramids here, of sons and wives, getting smaller in  size! There were many camels with their owners, just like in dads photograph!

There are also many, many tombs and mastaba, but the other highlight here is the Great Sphinx. Carved out of bedrock in situ, it was magnificent. 72metres long and 20 metres high, the sphinx has the body of a lion and the face of the King, in this case King Khafre.

In the early 1930s my dad took this picture of the sphinx with the great pyramid behind. Mayer said the Sphinx was still under the sand dunes then, so my dad was higher than I could get, but it is pretty close. Another emotional moment!

In World War 1 they were so worried that the sphinx might get damaged, they built a tower to hold its head steady!

Words cannot really describe the scale, drama and strange remoteness of this site- despite almost touching the city.  

Our last stop going back was at a Government run Papyrus workshop. An employee showed us the stages of stripping the rigid bark from the triangula syem. Slicing the root then rolling out the moisture. Finally making a woven pattern between 2 pieces of carpet, and squeezing in a vice. Allow to dry, and you have Papyrus. Back to the hotel for a relax and then a stroll out through some rather dark streets and along the Nile, where the day's Ramadan fast had broken, and people were out eating and having fun. Brightly coloured decorated boats sailed up and down in a definite party atmosphere. We returned to our hotel and had an excellent light supper of Mezze and smoked salmon. What a fabulous day that exceeded all our expectations.