Exercises in Pyramids
Well, I wasn’t in Giza. It was too hot in Cairo last week and the prospect of lining up in endless queues in the burning sun, hefty gate-money, claustrophobia, and, in particular, simply too many tourists prevented me from visiting. I have seen the Fab Three from the car when passing Giza on my way to another “exotic” place outside of Cairo, Birqash with its horrible camel market (I will report later), and the proximity of the pyramids to residential areas was in fact amazing. No, we went to Saqqara and Dahshur, further to the south. Saqqara is home of the first stone monument, the Step Pyramid. Here also a life-size limestone sculpture of the Pharaoh Djoser was found, who governed the country 2650 BCE when Imhotep, his later deified architect built this ingenious pyramid (I suppose it took more than one year, but that was the information given) which originally was totally encased with limestone. His Step Pyramid is about 60 meters high. Few tourists were strolling around the complex,...