Saqqara and Memphis

Saqqara is outside Cairo on the west side of the Nile. Here we visited the step pyramid of Djoser and the tomb of a high official in the sixth dynasty Kagemni.

It’s really hard to describe just how large a pile of stone blocks these pyramids are.

We got a short limestone carving demonstration by some folks doing some restoration recreation work, then they asked for someone to come up and try it, and I got volunteered. With a modern steel tool, limestone is pretty easy to carve. The ancient Egyptians had copper and some iron tools. Notice the jacket on the local stone mason vs me in a thin long sleeved shirt.

The bent pyramid and the red pyramid built by Sneferu (remember his stella at the museum) were visible from the step pyramid today.

We then went into the elaborate tomb of Kagemni, a sixth dynasty vizier. Lots of painted carvings on the walls. Some were damaged as the tomb has been opened and robbed since antiquity. It was lived in and used to shelter animals at one time.

Then we went to the Imhotep museum. He was a vizier and likely the architect for Djoser’s step pyramid. Very little is known about him, but 1200-2200 years after his death, he was suddenly written about and later worshiped as a god of healing.

The museum did have some interesting artifacts, including this plan for an arch on a limestone fragment. It seems that was a common writing surface for the Egyptians.

Here are some Egyptian alabaster jars. The big ones are three feet tall. Imagine slowly chipping away at the inside of this worried about cracking and ruining it.

After lunch, we went to Memphis, a capital of lower (northern) Egypt during the Old Kingdom. Here we saw one of the colossal statues of Ramses II (Ramses the Great) who is thought to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

The Sphinx of Memphis.