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April 14, 2001 - Saqqara, Egypt So, as continued from the Giza Part I webpage, Emad picked us up in his little black Chrysler Neon at the pyramids and we zipped our way out to Saqqara, about 20km/13mi east of Giza. The "highway" out to Saqqara was a small two-laned road lined with trees and bordered by rundown concrete houses on the right and a wide-ish irrigation duct made of earthen material on the left. There weren't any real towns per se along the road, but it was more like the road was the town itself with people walking back and forth between the houses and business located along it. I was surprised by the greenery growing beside the aqueduct, the road and the houses which stood in stark contrast to the blowing sand and dust just meters away where the desert began. (I suppose this is interesting to me because in California we have the great aqueducts bringing water into southern California but those ducts are made of concrete and very little, if any, of the water ever escapes the water transport system so it's not like you have forests or oases sprouting up along side them, as I saw in Egypt.) |
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The pyramid itself consists of a large mastaba with four large steps built over it. Originally the pyramid was sixty two and a half meters high and was also covered with a facade of smooth stone which today has completely disappeared (and just how exactly does the facade of a pyramid just "disappear" I ask myself??? Stolen and looted most likely, I would imagine.). To the south of the step pyramid is the pyramid of Unas, the last pharaoh of the 5th dynasty. Of relatively small size, less than 60 meters square, it was already ruined by 2000 B.C. and it is of interest mainly because it contained a large part of the "Pyramid Text", the first collection of magico-religious stone texts drawn up during the Old Kingdom to protect the dead pharaoh in the Other World. |
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And that, my friends, is why the Saqqara pyramids are important according to my "sources". Below you will see some of the great hieroglyphs from inside a few of the Saqqara temples and tombs, the likes of which are not to be found inside The Great Pyramids at Giza (which makes me wonder why more people don't go out to Giza since it's really not that far away?).
Above: a carving-statue found inside one of the mustabas. Why two pictures of the same thing? Well, Aungela and I couldn't agree on which image was better, so I decided to post them both! Now you decide!
Above: view of The Great Pyramids of Giza in the distance, with several neighboring pyramids near Saqqara/Zoser in the foreground.
Above: hieroglyphs and a stone sarcophagus found in a subterranean mastaba located in a pyramid that more closely resembled a small pile of dirt than a "real" pyramid.
Above: here's a picture of Aungela and me (me exhibiting a bizarre, tight lipped smile) standing beside a nice Egyptian man who offered to grace our photo with his presence in exchange for a small fee of 10 Egyptian pounds ($2.50). I suppose I could have given him 5 pounds, but why be cheap? The whole picture experience was rather humorous actually because when the man saw that I had given him a 10 pound tip he got all excited and decided to reward my wife (Aungela!) by allowing her to wear his hot and sweaty head wrap in exchange! Aungela was TOTALLY unprepared for some random guy to lump his moist head rags on her head and she freaked out! But I was like, "Aungela, DON'T MOVE A THING!!! YOU LOOK GREAT!!!" and I whipped out my camera and snapped the classic shot below! :-)
This picture just cracks me up every time I look at it! I mean, for any of you who actually know Aungela, you will know that it took every last ounce of her self-control to just stand there while I grabbed around for my camera, turned it on, focused, and then took the picture as some random stranger's turban balanced precariously upon her meticulously cleaned and primped hair! For the rest of the trip, any time we needed a couple of laughs, we just turned on my digital camera and pulled up this picture and were instantly rolling every time!
Above: a fuzzy-ish picture of the rolling mounds of Saqqara with two guys traveling through the area atop their camels.
Above: there was one more mastaba to visit before we were to leave Saqqara and return to Giza, but when we got there it was just after 4 p.m. and it had already technically been closed, but as I was quickly finding out, everything in Egypt has a price and if you can fork out a little baksheesh (tip) for the people staffing the entrance gate, you can visit nearly anything after hours that you like. I paid the above man 20 pounds ($5) and the mastaba was ours. Price for the picture above with the nice local man: 10 pounds ($2.50). Also as I was quickly finding out, these tipped "workers" will try to stiff you over at EVERY TURN. We agreed on 10 pounds for the tip and when I gave him a 20 pound note and asked for change, do you think he gave me any change? Nope! So I was like, "Um. . . hello?" and then he handed me a 5 pound bill. So in my best but broken Arabic I screeched, "No no no! This was my 20 pounds. You say picture is 10 pounds. Where my 10 pounds??? I want 10 pounds, no 5 pounds!!!" "Ah, so you speak Arabic! Here's your 10 pounds change." I tell ya, a little Arabic can get you a long way in Egypt!
Above: some more well preserved hieroglyphs in Saqqara. |
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Once we finished with our tour of the ancient ruins of Saqqara, we hopped back into Emad's speedy little Neon and headed back toward Giza where Aungela and I were going to go to the Laser Light Show at The Great Pyramids beginning at 6:35 p.m. We had about an hour and a half to get back to Giza, so as per the pre-packaged day-outing tour, we stopped by some of the obligatory tourist-shops (read tourist-traps) along the way. Specifically, a carpet shop employing child laborers somewhere along the highway between Giza and Saqqara, as well as a nice little papyrus gallery/shop in Giza itself. When we were driving out to Saqqara the first time Emad mentioned to us that we'd be stopping by a carpet factory but "not to be afraid or shocked when you see that there are children working there." He told us that a while back he had brought one American woman there who totally freaked out when she saw the children laboring all over the place, so he just wanted to forewarn us in case we had any reservations. Well, here's my not-so-politically-correct view on this issue in a nutshell: just 3 to 5 generations ago American and European children were laboring their lives away in cramped and dangerous factories and doing extremely strenuous farm work themselves - generating much needed wealth for the family and the country in the process. And now that the United States and Europe have evolved economically to a point where we no longer require child labor to create enough wealth to survive and even flourish on, I'm not going to hold other countries and societies, which have not yet reached that level of economic productivity/development that the USA and Europe have, to a different standard that even my own culture was unable to attain until very recently. Specifically, if the United States and Europe required child labor to pull themselves up out of poverty and maldevelopment, why should the same not be allowed/expected/required of the 3rd World??? And unless the West is willing to simply pay for all the children of the world to have free education, safe housing, clean water, and fresh food and water, then Westerners shouldn't complain when 3rd Worlders use exactly the same tactics that our very own ancestors used to develop and improve our countries! It may not be the ideal situation for children to be in, but sometimes the world isn't a very ideal place. |
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In the picture above left you can see Aungela learning how to make the strands herself with a young girl who looks as thought she has done this a million time before, as I'm sure she has. The girl was really nice and she was excited that Aungela was helping her with the knots, and she smiled when I told her in Arabic that the carpet she was making was really pretty.
Randomly enough, the young Egyptian sales man (wearing the blue pull over shirt, standing next to Aungela in the above picture) just so happened to speak Japanese, so he and I ended up haggling back and forth over the price of a carpet in Japanese! (Don't you think that's a bit weird? That there we were, an English speaking American and an Arabic speaking Egyptian bartering over some random item in Africa in Japanese?!?!? I tell ya, globalization is leading to some really bizarre happenings!) So after communicating to the sales guy that I almost never guy souvenirs on trips and that all things considered I didn't really have any need for a carpet and wasn't going to buy a big one, I decided to settle on a nice little 15 inch handmade $50 "carpet" that I now have hanging on my wall here in my apartment. |
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After getting my little wall-carpet wrapped up, I stuffed it in my backpack and headed out the door with Aungela and Emad where he hopped back in the little black Neon and zipped off to the Merit Papyrus Institute (www.meritbbazar.com) back in Giza. The Merit Papyrus Institute, as its name suggests, is a papyrus gallery and production facility that sells all sorts of paintings and prints made on locally sourced and handmade papyrus paper. We were given a little demonstration on how to make papyrus paper and how to tell it apart from its nearest and cheaper knock off - banana paper. We then walked around the gallery for a little while and I bought a little scroll of paper for my mother (Mom, I promise to send it too you soon!), and Aungela bought a few things for her friends back in America. The institute's prices weren't exactly the cheapest we saw while in Egypt, but the presentation in the gallery was nice and the sales women were informative, so it was a nice place to pick up a few traditional Egyptian items. Once we finished our papyrus business, it was time to rush over to the Giza Pyramids and snag a couple tickets for the Laser Light Show which began right when we got there at 6:35 p.m. (below). |
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Cool picture, eh! :-}
By the time Aungela and I had descended upon the venue, the show had already begun so we ran toward the back of the crowd and set up our cameras on a square stack of concrete blocks where we watched as the audio-photonic performance. The entire production was around 45 minutes long and it talked about the history of the building of the pyramids and about the ancient Egyptian pharaohs and their dynasties, but to tell you the truth I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention since I was too busy zooming back and forth trying to snap images of the show, which you can see below.
Above: silhouette of the Sphinx in front of the Pyramid of Kefren.
Above: Cheops
Above: Guess what! Guess where!
As soon as the lightshow ended, the entire pyramid area of Giza turned into a madhouse with people running all over the place and giant tourist buses parked on sidewalks and mowing their way through the packed roadways. It took quite a while for Aungela and me to find Emad who had been stuck in front of the main gate waiting for us (although we had to exit through one of the obscure side gates). On the way out of the seating area we passed by the above kitschy, but inventive lightshow advertisement sign made of multi colored lightropes which are all the rage here in the Middle East. Well, once again we jumped in our speedy little black Neon and this time we drove back into downtown Cairo and returned to the Marriott Hotel where Aungela and I thanked Emad for the wonderful day touring Giza and Saqqara and gave him a nice fat $100 tip for his services since we were both so utterly impressed with his friendliness and competence as a tourguide. Needless to say Emad nearly freaked out when we gave him the tip since it worked out to something like 25% of his monthly salary, but we told him that in our culture you get rewarded when you treat people well, and since we were walking away from the day as very satisfied customers, we figured a sizable tip was in order. And just in case you're ever in Cairo and looking for a good tourguide, you can find him at the following: Emad Roshdy, Cairo Marriott, Tel. 012-2203522. So after Aungela and I bid adieu to Emad, we returned to our 20th floor room at the Marriott, showered and cleaned ourselves up, then had a nice dinner in the Egyptian Nights tent restaurant and enjoyed yet another great evening of fun conversation, delicious Arabic food, and traditional Egyptian music and entertainment! :-)
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Within
20 to 25 minutes we were pulling up to Saqqara, which is to say we
were pulling up to a largely uninhabited area of ancient Egyptian
monuments covered by a transient frosting of dust. There weren't a
whole lot of people there as compared to Giza, which was a welcomed
change. I actually got the feeling that Saqqara was kind of viewed by
the whole tourism industry as the forgotten sibling, or the ugly
duckling of pyramids. The whole area is extremely historic but just
doesn't pack the visual punch of the Great Pyramids so it seems that
most tourists in Cairo and Giza just scratch Saqqara off their
itinerary. Too bad for them, but lucky for us since the hustle and
bustle of Giza was now nothing more than just a distant memory.
According to my little All of Egypt: English Edition
tour book, it states that the necropolis (City for the Dead?) at
Saqqara stretches for 8km (5mi) and is the largest in the whole of
Egypt. It is also historically the most important because all the
principal dynasties are represented there. According to mythology,
the necropolis was under the special protection of the god Sokar, who
is often represented as a green person with a hawk's head.
In
the middle of the necropolis is the funerary complex of Zoser, the
pharaoh who founded the 3rd dynasty. And also according to my All
of Egypt: English Edition
book, as you can see in the photo at left, Zoser is a step
pyramid (far left). In order to understand the importance and
originality of this pyramid it is necessary to explain what is meant
by the word mastaba which in Arabic means "bench". A
mastaba was the burial chamber of the nobility and of the court
dignitaries and it was rectangular with slightly inclined walls.
Zoser was the first pharaoh to entrust an architect with the
construction of a grandiose funerary complex. This architect, who was
called Imhotep and whose name can be found inscribed in hieroglyphic
characters on the base of a statue representing Zoser, was thus
historically the first architect to receive official recognition and
his ingenious structure was the first funerary pyramid to appear in
the world.
So
anyways, politics and social development aside, we pulled into the
carpet making facility and were greeted by a little entourage of
children between the ages of 6 and 12 (or so it appeared, although
they could easily be younger or older) and one of the salesmen of the
business. The man was very friendly, spoke English extremely well and
gave us a very interesting tour of the operation. I don't know the
correct carpet-making industry lingo, but we saw these giant
rotatable wooden squares standing upright with hundreds of white
threads strung from top to bottom, and then with 6 to 12 inch (15cm
to 30cm) long colored strings of wool, cotton, or silk, the children
wrapped them around the white strands and made tight little knots
according to a pre-designed layout next to them and rapidly added
knot by knot to the carpet as it rose from the floor up to the
ceiling. Some of the carpets take only several weeks to make in this
fashion, while others take up to months and even years depending on
the size.
Beside
the girl was a small group of boys who were apparently little
professionals when it came to tourists and so they were all very
industrious and peppy when we walked up. The boy in the picture above
right was threading his carpet and tying his knots at lightning
speed, and so of course I took the picture of him being a good, busy
little worker. Well, when Aungela and I had finished observing his
knot making skills, the little boy looked up at me with a big smile
on his face, raised his hands and started rubbing his fingers back
and forth and said, "Baksheesh?" (Tip?) So I pulled
out a 5 pound note from my pocket ($1.25) and handed it to him and he
got all excited. Needless to say his fellow child coworkers caught
wind that Danny Boy was handing out money like candy all of a sudden,
and I tell ya, I have never seen children jump to work so fast in my
life! I didn't have any more 5 pound notes so I didn't hand out any
more baksheesh, and at just that time we concluded our tour of
the little elves' workshop and went upstairs for the obligatory big
carpet sales pitch.
