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Memphis and Saqqara : Cairo, Egypt : Trip Report
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Memphis

Proposition of the day: (From an old man selling souvenirs) Give me a dollar and I'll show you a real antique.

Our second day of touring in Cairo began with a drive south to the recently rediscovered city of Memphis. Not the one with Elvis but the one with Ramses II. It was rediscovered recently when a resident of the town built on top of it dug a foundation to build a coffee shop and discovered a huge statue. He called the authorities who excavated the site. That statue of Ramses II is now on display in a building that was built around it at the place where it was found. Around the site are some of the other artifacts also found at this site. Most of the objects are in remarkably good condition.

The sphinx in the middle of the site is known as the Alabaster Sphinx since it's made from alabaster. There are also two large matching statues of Ramses II.
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Alabaster Sphinx.
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One of the Ramses II statues gets it's daily cleaning.
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The guys pose with Ramses II.
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The huge Ramses II statue found here.
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Saqqara

A short drive from Memphis into the desert is the oldest known pyramid at Saqqara (also spelled Sakkara). Before this pyramid pharaohs would build a single story structure for their tombs. The architect Imhotep took that one step further when building a tomb for King Djoser by building a series of structures on top of each other each smaller than the one below it which turned out to be roughly the shape of a pyramid. It is the oldest known stone structure built in human history. It was built in rouhgly 2667-2648 BC.

Nearby we could see the famous Bent Pyramid of Dahshur. It was an evolution of the step pyramid where they built the sides smooth. In this case they built it too steep at first and caused it to be unstable so halfway through the construction changed the angle to a shallower 43 degrees.
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Tourist Police on a Camel.
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Entrance through the reconstructed temple.
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Lots of columns inside the passage to the complex.
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First peek at the pyramid between the columns.
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Stray dog scratches himself oblivious to the awesome pyramid behind him.
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A deep hole where they found artifacts.
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The Step Pyramid in all it's glory.
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In the distance is the Bent Pyramid.
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Excavated door into the burial chamber.
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Looks like it's crumbling but it has been here for over 4600 years.
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Matt giving a sense of scale.
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The rest of the complex is being restored.
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A smaller pyramid nearby probably for a queen.
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The architect who built this pyramid should be fired.
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Sheila meets the locals near Saqqara.
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Floppy camels.
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Howdy.
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Next: Visiting the Pyramids of Giza.
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