a year in Cairo: Saqqara: the Step Pyramid

With Peter still in Canada, I hired a tour guide to show me around the Saqqara Step Pyramid site. My adventure started with my drive to our meeting spot, the furthest distance that I have driven so far in Egypt. I was focussing on my driving so much, that I didn’t look up to see where I was! Watch this video clip to see the 6 lanes of traffic that I crossed as well as my surprising view!

Heba, the tour guide, brought her friend, Nahlia, to drive our car the ½ hour trip through the chaotic Cairo streets and a pot-holed, farm-lined road beside a branch of the Nile.

Along the way we saw farm families…

(This woman posed and we stopped to pay her some money. I love the paintings showing the pilgrimmage to Mecca.)

... and farm animals - passing right beside the car!

Saqqara has a wonderful museum and we saw a video about the Step Pyramid site (thankfully in English). This is what I remember. History buffs, please correct any errors. The Step Pyramid was the first pyramid built in Egypt and was the brain child of the commoner, turned architect, Imhotep. He constructed this 6 step stone monument to commemorate the pharoah of the 3rd Dynasty, King Djoser. The stones are stacked, not attached to each other in any way. Amazing.

The tourist site consists of a temple (the building at the left of this photo) through which you enter the plateau with the enormous Step Pyramid to your right at one end, and steps leading to the underground burial chambers (not open the public) at the other, behind the temple.

Here are some details that captured my interest.

The outer walls of the temple had indentations where the commoners, who were not allowed inside, laid offerings. This man is wearing the everyday attire for men working as servants, farmers, or those without education or position.

The stone temple ceiling was made to resemble the palm logs of the king’s palace ceiling. This way King Djoser would feel right at home after his death.

Inside the temple, sanctuary alcoves contained golden, jewel encrusted statues of Egyptian gods. Needless to say, these were all stolen.

The temple columns, like the pyramids, were stacked - no adhesive material!

The columns of later pyramids and temples used fewer, larger pieces of stone.

At both ends of the temple are fake hinges made of stone. These created the illusion of doorways allowing the spirit of the deceased to find the sarcophagus chamber (I am not 100% sure of this detail.)

And when you step out from the temple, there is the Step Pyramid! This quick video might give you a bit of this sensation.

Straight across the plateau from the temple are cobras protecting the entrance to the sarcophagus, the chamber where the mummified body was laid undergrouond.

The cobras glare from a spectacular perch.

...and the stairway down to the burial chamber is equally spectacular in the opposite direction. This area is not open to the public.

We walked across the plateau to take a closer look at the pyramid. The Step Pyramid is the only pyramid with a flat top. Later pyramids added the peak, a symbol of everlasting life and power.

Restoration is ongoing as new limestone is being laid over the original stones.

Heba wanted me to see some chambers under the nearby Pharoah Ti's pyramid involving a 10 minute trek down a narrow, deep, dark tunnel. I declined. Claustrophobia won.

The drive back retraced our path through the lush Nile Delta farmland.

I saw Cattle Egret...