We went to Memphis this morning to see the first capitol of Egypt. It’s the site of Ramses II statues and the Sphinx of Memphis.
Then we went to Sakkara to see the first pyramid, “the step pyramid.” It’s a series of mastabas which make it appear like a wedding cake. When we arrived, it was very clear and sunny, with a warm wind---we took a few pictures and listened to our guide, Amr (pronounced AH-mer), talk about the pyramid’s entrance….and then we were blasted by a giant wave of sand. It has been stuck in our teeth, lined our inner ears, and under our fingernails. We even found sand in our plastic nametags! Crazy. We had to walk around with our hands covering up our eyes. Mary Beth, Margaret, and Daniel held each other’s belt loops to make it back to the bus. Rachel apparently can see through sand because she made it back all by herself. The little old ladies were hiding inside their shirts all the way up to their eyes. We wish we had been brave enough to take more pictures during the sandstorm…but we wanted to protect the cameras for the rest of the trip. Our next destination today was supposed to be the “Great Pyramids of Giza,” but due to the weather change, so did our plans. Next stop became: LUNCH! Our favorite part of every day!
We all ordered a la carte to share, and tried the delicacy of roasted pigeon, pita and hummus, chicken kabobs and a dip made of ground peas. The whiny (non-adventurous-non-diving-into-the-culture-oldies of the crowd looked on jealously. Finger-licking good. Daniel even saved a little bit on his chin for later. Delish.
After lunch we drove through crazy traffic (Egypt traffic is a nightmare and they instructed us NOT to try to walk in town—which was good advice because we would probably be missing limbs by now). We stopped at the carpet making school, where students (kids who were ages 7-8??) as well as instructors were weaving silk and wool carpets of all sizes and designs. Their fingers flew across the loom like ours fly across the keyboard. We were super impressed. Did not haggle for a carpet…decided we might want to save that “splurge” money on a hot-air balloon ride in Luxor later next week!!
Next stop was the Museum of Cairo, which housed all of King Tut’s treasures—we saw the gold mask, sarcophagus….tons of jewelry, chariots, mummified animals, weaponry, thrones, and the list is endless. The kicker is that King Tut was a super un-important pharaoh and really makes you think about how exponential the pile ‘o treasures would be for the really powerful & important pharaohs. All of King Tut’s stuff was found buried in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. The other pyramids that had been discovered much earlier had been looted long ago. Daniel can regurgitate more details.
We are back at the hotel at 6:00 pm for dinner; it was buffet style last night at the hotel restaurant, and we anticipate the same tonight. So far we have not had a problem finding good food. Go figure!
Then we went to Sakkara to see the first pyramid, “the step pyramid.” It’s a series of mastabas which make it appear like a wedding cake. When we arrived, it was very clear and sunny, with a warm wind---we took a few pictures and listened to our guide, Amr (pronounced AH-mer), talk about the pyramid’s entrance….and then we were blasted by a giant wave of sand. It has been stuck in our teeth, lined our inner ears, and under our fingernails. We even found sand in our plastic nametags! Crazy. We had to walk around with our hands covering up our eyes. Mary Beth, Margaret, and Daniel held each other’s belt loops to make it back to the bus. Rachel apparently can see through sand because she made it back all by herself. The little old ladies were hiding inside their shirts all the way up to their eyes. We wish we had been brave enough to take more pictures during the sandstorm…but we wanted to protect the cameras for the rest of the trip. Our next destination today was supposed to be the “Great Pyramids of Giza,” but due to the weather change, so did our plans. Next stop became: LUNCH! Our favorite part of every day!
We all ordered a la carte to share, and tried the delicacy of roasted pigeon, pita and hummus, chicken kabobs and a dip made of ground peas. The whiny (non-adventurous-non-diving-into-the-culture-oldies of the crowd looked on jealously. Finger-licking good. Daniel even saved a little bit on his chin for later. Delish.
After lunch we drove through crazy traffic (Egypt traffic is a nightmare and they instructed us NOT to try to walk in town—which was good advice because we would probably be missing limbs by now). We stopped at the carpet making school, where students (kids who were ages 7-8??) as well as instructors were weaving silk and wool carpets of all sizes and designs. Their fingers flew across the loom like ours fly across the keyboard. We were super impressed. Did not haggle for a carpet…decided we might want to save that “splurge” money on a hot-air balloon ride in Luxor later next week!!
Next stop was the Museum of Cairo, which housed all of King Tut’s treasures—we saw the gold mask, sarcophagus….tons of jewelry, chariots, mummified animals, weaponry, thrones, and the list is endless. The kicker is that King Tut was a super un-important pharaoh and really makes you think about how exponential the pile ‘o treasures would be for the really powerful & important pharaohs. All of King Tut’s stuff was found buried in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. The other pyramids that had been discovered much earlier had been looted long ago. Daniel can regurgitate more details.
We are back at the hotel at 6:00 pm for dinner; it was buffet style last night at the hotel restaurant, and we anticipate the same tonight. So far we have not had a problem finding good food. Go figure!
Sounds like another great day. Weather here is beautiful. Loved the pictures. Miss ya! Jennifer
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