More than Pyramids and Camels

I finally saw some pyramids and camels!  It was very exciting and exhausting.  We toured.....

The Step Pyramid - FINALLY!  Like a trip back in time, the Step Pyramid was the first pyramid (hopefully of many) I had the pleasure of visiting.  I am not kidding when I say we were the first - and almost only - ones to visit this morning.  On the one hand, it's an advantage because it makes for some great photographs that aren't smothered with camera-clicking tourists.  But because the tourism industry in Egypt has taken such a hit over the past few years, the kitsch vendors are RELENTLESS.  I feel for them.  They are desperate.  But they need a lesson in salesmanship because nonstop harassment combined with unsolicited touching are not the right technique.  Honestly, if they would have toned it down a notch (or two!), I might have picked up a trinket.  I might have taken a ride on a camel for less than $2.00, but they are SO pushy that they just turned me off.  As with any survival situation, I learned quickly to say, "La!  Shukran." (No!  Thank you.) in Arabic.

The Step Pyramid

The Bent Pyramid - Probably the world's first - and biggest - example of why you should measure twice and cut once.  They got off to an angle that was too sharp to sustain architecturally.  So half way up they changed course and softened the angle.  One great aspect that this pyramid offers is the "finished look" these pyramids would have had on the outside.  Due to erosion over time, many of the pyramids have lost the smooth finish on its exterior.  But much of the Bent Pyramid retains that polished finish.

The Bent Pyramid - notice the AK-47

 The Tomb of Titi (Saqqara) -You wouldn't have guessed that under this pile of sand there lay beneath a magnificent tomb.  Down a narrow corridor about 4-5 feet tall, I hiked down into a beautifully preserved tomb with tiny hieroglyphics etched in stone covering every inch of the walls.  Our guide told us they were writings from the Book of the Dead.  Within the burial chamber itself the ceiling was covered with carvings of stars, but more like in the shape of a starfish.  Beneath the stars, a gigantic stone box - or sarcophagus - where the king's mummy would have been placed.  It was so cool!

I love this picture!  (My husband is such a great photographer.)

The rule for restoration work is that the new stone cannot match the original stone exactly.

The paint was made from crushed pomegranates mixed with egg whites.

The Red Pyramid - 3RD TIME'S A CHARM!  No steps.  No bends.  This pyramid is incredible!  It's the first of the perfectly triangular shaped pyramids like Giza, but older and just a bit shorter.  Its base is the second largest in Egypt, and it's 3rd in height.  It was built in 2600 B.C.  I can't even fathom how old that is.  That's more years before Christ was born than years that have past since he was born.  Crazy!  Oddly, this amazing pyramid isn't even hardly visited.  So little, in fact, that there were no vendors!  My husband and I took kind of a romantic stroll around the pyramid looking for a place for me to pee.  That was, until the man with an AK-47 showed up.  He was a police officer following us just to make sure we were safe.  Unfortunately, he kept me from - ahem - going potty.  There's not even a port-o-potty out here, folks.

The Red Pyramid - We loved being practically the only tourists.

Memphis, the first capital of Egypt - Thousands of years ago, this was the bustling capital of Egypt.  Not much remains to show for it, unfortunately.  But there is a "museum" with some incredible artifacts.  I had to giggle when the tour guide described one ancient carving dating back to 600 B.C. - or "quite new" as she put it.  Quite new?  I guess, when stuff is 2000 years older than that!  To put it in perspective, that's when Lehi, Nephi and the rest of his family at the opening of The Book of Mormon start their exodus out of Jerusalem.  Wow!  The standout is a gigantic statue of Ramses II.  There will be more on Ramses II later.  The guy had an amazing run as Pharaoh.  Some speculate that he was likely the Pharaoh during the persecution of Moses in the Old Testament.  His actual mummy is in the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo (coming up soon on our list of "Must Sees").

Ramses II

This was my first excursion outside the bustling metropolis of Cairo.  Once we broke out beyond the city's perimeter, the countryside really took on the rural feel I had read about in books, seen on TV and dreamt about.  There were forests of tall palm trees towering over fields of farmland.  Sugar cane.  Alfalfa. Little roadside stands selling neatly displayed fresh fruit like oranges and strawberries.  Some of them were stacked up in - what else? - a pyramid!  The people's clothing was fascinating.  The types of transportation incredible.  Tuk Tuks, motorcycle flatbeds, donkey-drawn wagons, stuff piled so high on a truck you'd think it would tip over.  So many vehicles - makes and models I've never seen before - kept together out of necessity by who knows how, and many painted with ornate decals and bright colors.  It was majestic and I felt transported back in time.  THIS was the Egypt I had imagined.

As majestic and surreal as my journey seemed to be, I was shocked by the magnitude of the dire poverty that surrounded me.  Looking out the windows on the left side of our tour van I saw all of these amazing agricultural scenes.  But on the right hand side we paralleled a canal that was so grotesquely polluted I couldn't ever have imagined the things I saw.  Even though the tourists sites were exciting and exquisite to visit, the reality of the poverty of the people living in the shadows of these timeless monuments was heartbreaking.  I had to hold back my tears as I sat in my air conditioned van looking out the window.  I have never seen such poverty.  There was so much garbage piled up in and near the water.  There was a truck dumping what I can only guess was sewage, from the look and smell, into the water.  I looked at the faces of such sweet children and wondered what their lives are like and if they are hungry.  I have never known true hunger.  I thought about, by comparison, my privileged American life.  I carry hand sanitizer with me everywhere.  I have for many years, especially since having kids and trying to keep their little hands clean.  After today I realized that I do not even know what dirty is!  I mean no disrespect, but the filth and squalor were indescribable.  Amidst the floating trash and debris, a man was washing his clothes in the canal.  Animals were wading through it and drinking from it.  I wonder if they knew there was a bloated dead animal just a short distance upstream. 

I am so grateful for the life I have.

The view out our left hand side window.

The view out our right hand side window.