Saqqara

Today was my roommate Michelle's birthday, and since she's an egyptology major, she really wanted to visit Saqqara (where the Step Pyramid is located) and some other sites for her birthday. We went with a tour company that first took us to Memphis (the first capital of Egypt) where we went to the Memphis Museum. The museum contains an enormous statue of Rameses II, one of the pharaohs of the 19th dynasty. The statue legs are no longer part of the structure, but the rest of the figure is in wonderful condition. It's amazing how much detail artists could achieve in those days - muscle definition, bone structure, defined eyelids and cheekbones, etc. After the museum, we went to Dahsur, which is remote desert pyramid field from the Old Kingdom. The pyramids date back to Dynasty 4 or 2600 Bc and were built by king Sneferu, son of Djoser (builder of the Step Pyramid) and father of Khufu (builder of the Great Pyramid). The two pyramids located at Dahshur are the Bent Pyramid, which is bent because during construction it became unstable so the slope had to be changed to support it, as well as the Red Pyramid, which gets its name due to the color of the interior walls. We were able to climb inside the Red Pyramid, which was amazing and slightly terrifying. It involved climbing up a bunch of stairs, entering a small doorway, and then crawling through a long and dark downward slopping pathway into the pyramid. After emerging through the Red Pyramid alive, we the went to Saqqara to see the Step Pyramid, the first pyramid ever built. There, we also explored tombs of deceased ministers, which contained beautiful reliefs on the wall depicting everyday life in Egypt during that time period.

After visiting these historic sites, our tourguide tok us to a wonderful lunch spot. We ate delicious traditional Egyptian dishes and even tried our hand at making fresh pita! Somehow we weren't successful.

Following lunch our guide took us to various shops including a carpet store/school, a cotton store, jewelry store, and perfumerie. The carpet store was interesting and the carpets beautiful, but I was a bit turned off by the fact that they employ young children to do a lot of the work because their small fingers are quick and able to weave better than most adults. The perfumerie by far the best shop we went into. They gave us a demonstration on glass blowing to show us how they make their beautiful and intricate perfume bottles. They then explained their various perfumes, their different uses, and allowed us to sample them. They make a lot of them from local flowers and even supply a lot of their notes/scents to major perfume companies, such as Gucci, D&G, Armani, Dior, etc. Their perfume is very cheap compared to in the US and since it doesn't contain any alcohol it will last forever. We all gave in and bought small viles.

Overall, it was a wonderful day and I think my friend Michelle thoroughly enjoyed her birthday.