Dahshur, Saqqara and Giza: Giant Blocks and Blistering Sun

We have seen our fist sights in Egypt. We booked a private taxi to go and see the pyramids, leaving Cairo at 7:30 in the morning and not returning to the hostel until around 5 pm.

We first headed to Dahshur, the place that was farthest south, to see the Red Pyramid, which was the first true pyramid to be built. Very close by is the so called "Bent" Pyramid, which was kind of like the practice run for the Red Pyramid. Both were built for pharoah Sneferu. As they are a ways out of the city and not as well known, not as many people go to see them as the pyramids of Giza. Leaving Cairo early, we arrived at the pyramids early as well.

So early in fact, that we had the pyramid to ourselves, and were able to go inside and explore with no other tourists there. There is no real way to describe the feelings of being inside of the colossal stone structure after descending 63m. (the second image is looking up at the ceiling inside the pyramid)

From there, we headed to Saqqara. Saqqara is where the first stone sturctures were built. Imhotep, Pharaoh Zoser's chief architect, moved from using mud bricks to using hewn stone to construct much larger tombs. This is the first stage in the transformation to a true smooth sided pyramid, and is called a step pyramid, for obvious reasons.

Here, we also got to see the mastabas. Mastabas were the previous tombs used by royalty, and later by their officials. The Mastaba was a mudbrick structure that was build above the actual tomb which was dug/carved into the desert, often going down 10s of meters.

From there it was off to see what is often people's highlight, or disappointment: the pyramids and sphinx at Giza. Giza is now a suburb of Cairo, so the monuments are amidst the urban sprawl of a city that is 25 million strong. Some people are greatly dissapointed by this fact, and we had been told of this all the way back in Argentina. But, it doesn't take too much effort to look past this fact and still be in awe of the last remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The day did prove to be long, hot and stinking. The temperature was upwards of 40C and we went through our 4L of water like some people would beer. We did have to pay out some "baksheesh", and were asked for a lot of it throughout the day, but Justine can be quite scary when she is hot and bothered, so we fended them off quite well.

All in all, the first day of sight seeing was very rewarding. And, we are excited for the things that lie ahead as we move south and get to see the antiquities of the Middle and New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and not to mention what everyone in Cairo tells us as a much hotter climate. It is going to be a lot about aclimatizing and getting used to the culture here.