Egypt February 2-17, 2025
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Friday, February 7, 2025 - Dashour (Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid) and Saqqara (Step Pyramid and Nobles' Tombs)We once again had a lovely breakfast at the Four Seasons. In addition to our usual buffet fare, Craig had French toast and berry yogurt, and I had a crepe.Shady and Galel met us in the lobby at 8:30 instead of 9 o'clock today, since it would be a busy day full of activities. After Shady confirmed that everything was going smoothly, we said goodbye to him and proceeded to Dashour with Abraham and Galel. King Sneferu (father of Khufu) had first attempted to build a pyramid at Meidum. It was built as a step pyramid (inspired the Step Pyramid of Djoser, which we would see this afternoon), and then he attempted to fill in the steps with limestone for a pyramid with smooth sides. But it didn't work; the limestone casing was unstable, and the Meidum Pyramid was abandoned. Sneferu then set his sights on Dashour. He pioneered a different kind of pyramid, a true pyramid which was not built as multiple mastabas (flat-roofed rectangular buildings with inward sloping sides) stacked on top of one another. The Bent Pyramid was built for King Sneferu in 2600 BC. It gets its unique bent shape as the result of an architectural error. Its base was 600 feet and the angle at which the sides were originally built (54 degrees) would have made the pyramid 600 feet tall. That would have made it way too heavy for stability, so they changed the angle partway through construction to 43 degrees, making the height 300 feet. However, it started to crack and they realized that it was on unstable ground, so they abandoned the project and King Sneferu was never buried inside this pyramid. One other thing that makes this pyramid unique is that its smooth limestone outer casing is largely intact.
We climbed a tall set of external scaffolded stairs and entered the Bent Pyramid. A guard accompanied us inside the pyramid to assist and take photos. They work for tips, and we were happy for the help, since guides are not allowed in the pyramids. We immediately found ourselves on a steep ramp that we had to descend backwards and bent forward, for 85 meters! Luckily, there were handrails on both sides, so we could steady ourselves. Once we reached the bottom of the 85 meter ramp, we had to climb up a more smooth rock passage which was even shorter in height (I was on all fours by this point...Egypt travel hack: wear khaki pants so they don't show the dirt when you crawl around on your hands and knees.) Then we got to a wooden staircase that was about 4 storeys high. Luckily it was cool in these tunnels and there was some nice airflow. So although it was very claustrophobic, at least it wasn't particularly stuffy or humid. We got to a chamber where we could stand up straight. There was a corbelled ceiling, and small bats were clinging to it, asleep. The corbelled ceiling of the chamber helped to distribute the weight of the stone blocks above. Then it was time to do it all over again in reverse, when our legs were already quite tired. The final ascent of 85 meters towards the literal light at the end of the tunnel was challenging for me. Craig was climbing very quickly while I needed to stop to rest multiple times. Our companion was cheering me on with calls of "yalla yalla, habibi!" (Let's go darling, in Arabic). To us, this was more difficult than the Great Pyramid, though the airflow and temperature was more comfortable. The guard kept reminding us to watch our heads, and soon we saw why. There was one section of the ramp which had significant dried bloodstains on it. It looked like someone had really hurt themselves here by hitting their head hard on the ceiling of the shaft. Unbeknownst to us, our guard friend recorded the entire 85 meter ascent back to the surface of the Bent Pyramid. Audio on; it's hysterical. Not my finest hour, but I can be self-deprecating, LOL! Look at Craig go...and he's the handicapped one?! (To be fair, he has very strong arms, so he was basically able to pull himself with his arms to propel himself up the ramp. I, however, have very weak arms, and am quite out of shape). All joking aside, the video does give you a good feel for a portion of what it is like inside a pyramid! We truly felt like Indiana Jones exploring these 4600-year-old architectural masterpieces. While Craig was doing this, the guy who took us down into the Bent Pyramid offered me tea and a cigarette (which I politely declined). I had no idea how long Craig would be gone, and I no longer had my phone with me. The guy took a selfie of the two of us on his phone, and showed me an internet video of excavations at Dashour on his phone to help me pass the time. He was very friendly. Craig and his companion finally reached the pyramid of Hetepheres. This pyramid is 18 meters high. Craig's companion approached another guard who had a machine gun and got a key from him. He proceeded to unlock a half-height metal door which squeaked on its hinges as he pushed it open. Craig was in his glory; they had opened this pyramid specifically for him. This pyramid had an even steeper descent than the Bent Pyramid had been. Then they climbed up to where there was a corbelled ceiling with bats hanging from it, and a platform overlooking a deep pit (the burial chamber). After Craig emerged from the pyramid of Hetepheres, the guard with the machine gun invited him to sit down on a shaded bench, right next to the gun. This seemed like a bad idea, so Craig sat on the other end of the bench instead. About 25 minutes after they had left me, Craig and his companion emerged from behind the Bent Pyramid. I walked down the stairs to meet Craig. We thanked our guards and walked back to where the car was parked. Abraham drove us approximately a mile away to the Red Pyramid. The Red Pyramid was King Sneferu's final attempt at a pyramid, and it was where he was eventually buried. Its design became a template for pyramids to come, including the ones at Giza. It is called the Red Pyramid because its (now missing) limestone casing would appear to glow red at sunset. It is 600 feet at its base, 300 feet in height, and at an angle of 52 degrees. I decided to sit this one out as well. Just the walk up the stairs to the entrance had my tired legs aching. So the guards gave me a blanket to sit on and wait for Craig to go in. This shaft was steeper, less tall, and hotter and stuffier than the Bent Pyramid. Craig told me later that it was probably for the best that I sat it out, given how tired I was. Unfortunately the phone was in video mode and Craig didn't realize it (not that he would have been able to do much about it anyway; as I mentioned before, he is not adept using a smart phone), so we have some short videos and very few photos from inside the Red Pyramid. Dr. Melinda Hartwig describes the journey into the Red Pyramid in her Great Courses lecture on "King Sneferu and the First True Pyramid":
Next we drove for about half an hour to reach Saqqara. As we drove toward the Nile, the landscape began to get more lush as opposed to the dry desert of Dashour. This area contains many date palm trees. Each tree can produce 200-400 pounds of dates. The trees need to be inseminated by hand. There is just one growing season per year, so date farmers have lots of leisure time. We had worked up quite an appetite in the pyramids this morning. Lunch was a buffet at the delightful Blue Lotus of Sakkara, a guest house and restaurant. We ate outside in the shade in a lovely courtyard. The staff kept trying to get us to move into the sun since the locals were so cold, but we were quite comfortable. We didn't want Craig to get overheated, which happens very easily and quickly in the sun. We went inside to get our food at the buffet. It was delicious: we chose grilled chicken, falafel, potatoes with onions, stuffed eggplant, camel meat (which was really tasty), bread, rice, mixed veggie salad, and yogurt with mint. Craig needed seconds after entering three pyramids this morning. Galel joined us after having stopped in at a local mosque to pray, since it is Friday. And there were cats in the courtyard! We were happy to share a bite of our chicken (minus the bones) with them. The first to come over was a calico. It wanted food, but made it clear that it did not want to be touched. As I tossed food to it, it tried to bat at my arm. But after seeing us give food to this cat, another cat (this one a dilute tortie) came over, rubbing against us. She was very friendly. We loved her up and fed her as well. Next we drove the short distance to the archaeological site of Saqqara, site of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the ruined Pyramid of Teti, and the tombs of Teti's advisors. On the way, we passed some carpet-making schools. Craig and I glanced at each other in the van, surprised that we were not stopping in here. Tours in places with hand-made carpets always seem to include a visit to a carpet showroom. Indeed, we had purchased carpets in such places in Rajasthan, India and Istanbul, Turkey. When we got to Saqqara, we started with the nobles' tombs. These tombs were built as mastabas (from the Arabic word meaning bench). A mastaba is a flat-roofed rectangular building with inward sloping sides. These mastabas are in a cluster around the Pyramid of Teti; it was a testament to the status of the advisors that they were buried next to their pharaoh. The Pyramid of Teti and the tombs of his advisors date back to the 6th Dynasty, circa 2330 BC. Since the mastabas are above ground and have high ceilings, they are much more accessible than the pyramids we have visited. You just walk straight in. Each tomb consists of several rooms, and the carved decorations on the walls are spectacular. They provide great insight into the lives of Egyptians during pharaonic times. We started with the tomb of Mereruka, a Vizier of King Teti, and also his son-in-law. His tomb is the largest non-royal tomb at Saqqara, with 33 chambers in total. Whereas we would see in the Valley of the Kings that royal tombs were decorated with religious scenes, the tombs of nobles were decorated with scenes from everyday life. Things and activities that people enjoyed in life would be pictured, so that these would be available to them again in the afterlife. Many of the scenes were missing their upper portions, as the limestone blocks had been taken for other uses. The lower portions of the walls had been covered by sand in the intervening years, so they survived. There were scenes of men fishing with nets and fish traps. The fish are quite detailed, and you can identify different species. There are insects such as grasshoppers and dragonflies pictured. Men hunt crocodiles and hippopotami from boats, and they hunt gazelles using dogs. There are carvings of women dancing, men slaughtering and butchering buffalo and making offerings. There is a carving of a buffalo giving birth. In one room there was a "magical" door with a statue of Mereruka in its niche. A magical or false door provided a way for the deceased to pass between this world and the afterlife. It is often positioned behind an offering table, so that the spirit could return to the tomb from the afterlife to collect offerings. This magical door was flanked by carved portraits of Mereruka on the walls. There were scenes of Mereruka practicing leniency towards those being punished for tax evasion. Taxes were levied based on the level of the Nile; as the level of inundation would determine the success of farming in a given year. A particularly fertile year with surplus crops would mean that more taxes were owed. Interestingly, this is one of the reasons behind the development of a written language in Egypt. They needed a way to keep track of taxes that were owed and paid. (Another byproduct of the yearly floods was that the surplus crops meant that not everyone needed to farm. Egyptain society could specialize, supporting a standing army and a class of priests. Writing was also necessary to organize the military forces of pharaonic Egypt). Also depicted on the walls of the tomb were large boats which could deliver stones from Aswan quarries down the Nile. Mereruka is depicted holding a cloth, symbolizing that he is an important person. This made us laugh because Craig is always holding on to a tissue or napkin. I guess that means he is important! Mereruka is also pictured in a leopard skin, which is symbolically depicting him as a priest. All of the walls would have been painted back in the day. Today most are the natural color of the limestone, but some vestiges of the original paint are still visible (blues and reds, mostly). Ancient Egyptians used mineral based paints so they tend to retain the color longer than organic paints would. Even when there was no color left, the intricacy of the carving made all of the motifs easily recognizable. Next we went to the tomb of Kagemni, also a Vizier of King Teti. A fishing scene here contains so many details: a fish trap being put into the water, various species of fish, mongoose swimming under water, dragonflies, grasshoppers and lizards on the shore. There were scenes of catching ducks with nets. The ancient Egyptians would catch ducks when they are migrating, to help them get through the lean times of year. They would capture ducks and quails, and keep the females alive to provide eggs. There is a single harvest time (the Nile floods in July), and they need to store up enough food to last the year. Speaking of ducks, there were also depictions of force feeding ducks for the production of foie gras. There were depictions of people transporting large jars of oils and ointments on sledges. There were scenes of women dancing and people making offerings for the dead including beer (made from the remnants of bread production), wine, and salt. Kagemni appears dressed in a leopard skin, the garb of a priest. Then we visited the tomb of Nikauisesi: overseer of Upper Egypt, overseer of works of the king, and treasurer of the king of Lower Egypt. His tomb had some well-preserved blue paint. There are scenes of animal husbandry, making offerings, duck hunting, fishing, bread making and the brewing of beer. In the tomb of the priest Nefer Seshem Petah, there is a depiction of a man carrying a box of hedgehogs. They were a prized animal because they eat scorpions. There is a scene of duck hunting. Three statues flank a magical door in this tomb. In the tomb of Ankhmahor, Vizier of King Teti, there are scenes of circumcision. One boy endured the procedure with bravery, while another had to be physically restrained. There are more of the same type of every day life motifs that we have seen. After visiting these tombs, we approached the pyramid of Teti. This pyramid looks like a mound of dirt from ground level. Many of the blocks have been stolen to be used in other buildings. But you can still go inside. I wasn't sure I wanted to go into another pyramid since I was so tired, and I didn't know how physically demanding it would be. But as Craig approached this one, he could tell that it was a very short descent down to a couple of chambers, and there were plenty of places to stand up straight. So he encouraged me to enter this pyramid, which I did. It was constructed in 2340 BC. The walls of the antechamber are inscribed with Pyramid Texts, hieroglyphic spells to ensure the king’s successful transformation into a god in the Afterlife, and the precursor to the Book of the Dead. The burial chamber's vaulted ceiling is decorated with stars, but some of the massive angled stone blocks had obviously shifted in the intervening millenia since it had been built. There is a huge black stone sarcophagus along one wall. In another chamber, there are the plinths of two statues which have been moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and we had seen them when we visited yesterday. After exploring the Pyramid of Teti, we walked back to the van, and Abraham drove us the short distance toward the Step Pyramid of Djoser. It is in the same complex, but there was a separate parking lot, so we didn't have to walk. We could see the Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid of Dashour, about 10 miles away, towering on the horizon. We approached the Step Pyramid of Djoser via a collonade of 40 columns constructed to resemble bunches of papyrus reeds. A quick note about the weather at Saqqara: it was a bright, sunny day, but half of the sky looked like a storm front was about to roll in. If you look at the photo of us in front of the Step Pyramid, this is very apparent. But, being the desert, there was no actual storm, just some dark clouds. The Step Pyramid was the first pyramid to be built. Prior to that, tombs had been mastabas (above ground flat-roofed tombs). In the 27th century BC, King Djoser commissioned a tomb for him and his family. Imhotep, the architect, designed what was basically 4 mastabas stacked on top of one another, creating a stairway to heaven. When it was complete, King Djoser couldn't see it from his palace, so he added two more mastabas, for increased height. Building with stone had not been done before this; mastabas had been made of mud brick. This was the most accessible pyramid to enter. You descend a set of stairs rather than a steep ramp, and you can stand up straight the entire way. It is a short walk to the burial shaft. Stone pillars hold up the ceiling; it is well lit, and the floor is flat. I would recommend this to anyone to enter, as it was nowhere near as claustrophobic or challenging as the other pyramids we had visited thus far. After we exited the Step Pyramid, we walked across the South Court, where King Djoser's heb-sed festival took place. The heb-sed was a festival that took place to mark each 30th anniversary of a pharaoh's reign. During this festival, the king would undergo a series of trials to prove his physical prowess and suitability to remain king. We walked to another cluster of mastabas near the Step Pyramid. We entered the tomb of Princess Seshseshet Idut, which dates back to 2300 BC. Here we saw depictions of the punishment of derelict taxpayers. There were scenes of fishing, and of hunting hippos and crocodiles. The detail is amazing. In one scene, a hippo is in the process of giving birth while a crocodile lies in wait to eat the baby. There are scenes of the slaughtering of buffalo. Galel slipped a tip to a guard, who then opened the Tomb of Mehu for us. This tomb contained well-preserved paint colors: blues and reds. There was a very detailed and colorful magical door. As we went from one tomb to another we noticed a repetition of these same motifs...scenes of everyday life, making offerings, and magical doors. By the end, Galel didn't need to explain any more because we recognized the motifs and knew what they meant. On our drive out of Saqqara, we stopped in at the Sakkara Carpet School. Craig and I smiled at one another. Here it was; the obligatory carpet showroom visit. Galel asked if we minded stopping. We said that we were not in the market for buying a carpet, and he assured us that there was no obligation. There would be a demonstration of how the carpets were made, and we could browse the showroom with no obligation to buy. He explained why these carpet schools are located in this area: as mentioned earlier, many people in the area farm dates. This only occupies them for one season per year, so they have free time and learn to make carpets. In addition to the man who showed us around, there was one carpet maker to demonstrate how the silk and cotton carpets are hand knotted, and wool carpets are made on a loom. There are usually more carpet makers, but today is Friday, the holy day in Islam, so most of them had the day off. The carpets were gorgeous, though no photos were allowed in the showroom. Silk carpets have 64 knots per sq cm and take 3 months to make. Cotton carpets have 36 knots per sq cm and take 2 months to create, and a loom carpet takes 3 weeks. The carpets were beautiful and they had them in all sizes, from floor carpets to wall hangings to mouse pad sizes. The detail on some of them were amazing; one depicted the sky goddess Nut surrounded by various hieroglyphs. But we have no floor space or wall space to display such a purchase, so we enjoyed browsing, thanked them for the demonstration, and then headed back to Cairo. The man who showed us around was quite gracious and there was no pressure to buy. The traffic in Cairo makes Boston traffic look like child's play. It is probably the worst traffic we've ever experienced (and that includes traffic in India). Thank God we weren't driving! Nine lanes of cars squeeze onto a six lane road, people go the wrong way down one way streets (including highway offramps). Kids drive donkey carts on highways...yikes! It's very intimidating and we were glad that we had Abraham's expertise so that we could relax and enjoy the ride. We eventually got back to Cairo and stopped at 3 Pyramids Papyrus, where we were given a demonstration of how the papyrus plant is made into paper (a process that involves removing the exterior coating of the stem, hammering the inside flat and rolling it with a rolling pin, soaking it in water, and pressing it ) It is a time and labor intensive process. Real papyrus has fibers running both horizontally and vertically, whereas fake papyrus (usually made from banana leaves) only has fibers running in one direction. We saw beautiful paintings on the papyrus, some of which even have a different design visible when viewed under black light! We particularly liked a motif of the Book of the Dead. The prices weren't bad, either. I have a papyrus painting of Nefertari and my name in hieroglyphs from the Ramesses II exhibit that I saw in Boston in 1988, and as stated before, we don't really have any more wall space, so we admired what was on display but politely declined buying anything. The staff were very gracious and said that we were more than welcome whether we bought anything or not. We got back to the hotel at around 6 o'clock. Housekeeping had today noticed my bouquet of flowers from my arrival (though they were now rather wilted), and had brought a vase to put them in. While I was writing up Facebook and Instagram posts, housekeeping came to turn down our room. I had my glasses off and resting on the bedside table. The housekeeper picked them up and laid down what looked like a small placemat beneath them. After he left, I picked up my glasses and noticed that it was not a placemat, but rather a Four Seasons Nile Plaza microcloth, with a picture of a felucca sailling on the Nile. The hospitality at this hotel is really off the charts! We had some snacks, took showers, and went to bed. Dashour Saqqara |
 Bent Pyramid  Descending into the Bent Pyramid  Bent Pyramid  Ascending from the Bent Pyramid  Pyramid of Sneferu's wife Hetepheres  Pyramid of Sneferu's wife Hetepheres  Red Pyramid  Red Pyramid  Red Pyramid  Scenes of net fishing in the tomb of Mereruka  Statue of Mereruka  Pyramid of Teti  Hieroglyphic pyramid texts, Pyramid of Teti  With Galel at the Step Pyramid  Inside the Step Pyramid  Colorful paintings in the tomb of Mehu  Magical door in the tomb of Mehu See all photos from February 7 |
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Bent Pyramid Substructure 
