December 27 -- Cairo: Saqqara, the Great Pyramid, Giza (by Lou)

It was a deliberate decision to wait to see the great pyramids until the end of the monument phase of our tour and today was that day.  With its ancient stepped pyramid, Saqqara was our early morning destination.  The drive along canals past towns and villages already busy for the day was fun.  Arriving before the site gates opened, our driver pulled up to a roadside stand and bought us falafel and pita, a yummy breakfast treat.  Saqqara itself is the largest archaeological site in Egypt, 7 sq km of desert necropolis in active use for over 3500 years before its final decline in 700 AD. With 114 pyramids discovered in Egypt so far, 11 major pyramids are in Saqqara alone.  The stepped pyramid of Zoser is what we came to see, built 4700 years ago, the oldest stone monument in the world.  Limited time and a sandstorm to boot made it logical to start with the little gem of a museum dedicated to the architect Imhotep who served Pharaoh Zoser.  Imhotep is credited with the transition of ancient architecture, from the use of ephemeral materials to stone.  Faience tiles from the interior walls of the stepped pyramid, as well as small treasures found there rounded off compelling displays of architectural transitional techniques.    Illustrating the movement from wood to stone building materials were exhibits showing how columns and lintels and more were carved to suggest traditional wood forms through both shape and paint.  Outside, we walked through the bundle columns lining the hypostyle hall toward the great south court and the Pyramid itself.  Currently being worked on, it is still a dramatic sight in spite of the scaffolding and for sure, the sand storm added atmosphere.  Along the way to other structures, we noted the design transitions learned at the museum.

Saqqara is just far enough from Cairo and the Nile valley to be desert, and the dunes were throwing sand big time.  Even after entering some tombs, sand would fall on us through cracks, but not in the Serapeum caves.  Dedicated to the sacred Apis bull, a son of Rameses II ordered these tunnel tombs to be excavated as well as the carving of huge granite sarcophagi weighing 70 tons each, to hold the mummified remains.  These immortal deity bulls were known as Osiris Apis, later shortened to Serapis hence the site being called Serapeum.  The tunnel we were in was 1000' long and winding past deep pit niches holding granite caskets the size of trucks, their  polished and etched granite contrasted with the rough carved cave.  Returning above ground, we leaned into the wind and struck out for the Mestaba of Ti and the tomb of Mereruka, both private tombs of high ranking citizens in the time of the Old kingdom.  Both tombs are famous for their relief images detailing daily life in the time of the Old kingdom from hunting to hairdressing.  Scenes of boatbuilding, fishing, preparing food and much more were accompanied , so we've read, by hieroglyphic dialogue: Hurry up, the herdsman's coming, or my favorite: Pay up, it's cheap!  No photographing of these interior scenes was allowed but the guards suggested that for a little baksheesh, they'd turn a blind eye: pay up, its cheap!  We've also learned how to turn off that camera shutter click that IPhones make.  Alas, we couldn't turn a blind eye to the time so we jumped in the car and headed back to Cairo and the highlight moment we'd been waiting for, the great pyramids of Giza.

Just as in Luxor with Karnak, it's a bit shocking how close these respective cities have encroached on such remarkable monuments but once you enter the site, the city evaporates as your eyes struggle to grasp the enormity of these pyramids let alone the notion that you are beholding the last remaining of the 8 wonders of the world.  Situated high on a rise of bedrock, the way up to the pyramids is circuitous, around ruins and gullies and dunes.  One gully contains the iconic guardian sphinx, a David Roberts painting in the flesh.  Above its shoulders and off in the distance we saw tiny figures riding horseback or on camels trudging across the dunes while the pyramids remained huge.  Horse drawn carriages on the winding way up the rise shrunk to specks before disappearing around the back of the pyramids.  The closer we got, the further it seemed we had to go, but make it we did only to discover that its enormity is impossible to take in let alone photograph.  On that score though, we had the advantage of the sandstorm that followed us from Saqqara.  The uphill approach to the pyramids takes ones breath away both visually and literally so we often stopped to appreciate the view, the sky continually roiling with black clouds moving behind the pyramids while rays of sunlight broke through the foreground to brilliantly light the massive structures.  Whirlwind columns of sand swirled up and about making for the most dramatic of vistas.  For the whole of journey up and down the Nile we've had picture perfect weather, day after day of brilliant sunrises to dazzling sunsets.  Today was our first storm with all of a dozen raindrops and clouds that threatened more but delivered only glorious backdrops to these amazing monuments.  Walking around the periphery, we discovered deep pits where full sized funerary boats were buried to transport the Pharaohs soul into the afterlife.  Discovered in 1954, one of the five 4500 year old cedar barges found was restored and displayed in a wonderful wood, glass and concrete museum to house it, sited over its original burial pit.  Like the stepped pyramid we saw this morning, each represents the oldest of its kind in the world; staggering to see, staggering to imagine.