Day
19 - Cairo : Saqqara, Giza Pyramids again, and Imhotep Museum
 We
drove out the same way as going down to Dashur and turned off to
go to Saqqara.
Imhotep Museum
There is a new museum at Saqqara, the Museum of Imhotep.
Imhotep was the architect who built the step pyramid for Dzoser.
He was famous in his time and became an object of worship. He was
a physician and scribe. The museum is not yet crowded. Our guide
said that it has not received the attention that the Antiquities
Department wishes and they keep moving the ticket purchase site
closer to it to try to entice the tourists. It originally had a
seperate price, but now it is included in the ticket for Saqqara.
The problem is, I think, that there are huge bus tours and they
have Saqqara scheduled for one hour. Saqqara is a huge and complex
site.
Saqqara has many wonderful things that are easily accessible to
any tourist and some that require the guards to open them. When
we visted in 1990 Saqqara was our favorite site and we came back
for a second day. It is really a two or three day site, if you have
the right guide and can get the access. So no one on a one-hour
bus tour is going to "waste" time at the museum.
Well, don't you make the same mistake, the Imhotep
museum is wonderful and we were allowed to take pictures. We were
unaware that you couldn't take video, but were told that that was
not allowed when we used the video function on the digital camera.
Anyway, we got beautiful still shots of the exhbits. These new museums,
the Nubian, the Luxor and the Imhotep are so well designed and the
pieces are beautifully displayed. The Antiquities Department should
be very proud of them, they are well done.
There are two special highlights to the museum. One
is the recreation of the famous blue tiled room that is now inacessible
under the step pyramid. The real tiles are used. and you can really
see the effect they would have had in the tomb. The other highlight
is the wonderful colored statuary that has come from the tombs at
Saqqara. They were all probably produced in the Kings Workshops
and they are all beautiful.
We spent about an hour in the museum and then went up to
the local antiquities office to get permission to have a
couple of the tombs opened. We Went to see the tomb of the
brothers, Ni Ankh Khnum and Khnum Hotep who were butchers,
and the tomb of the bird sketches.
The tomb of the brothers
is extensive and well preserved with a lot of color on the
walls. The Bird sketches tomb is, in a way, more interesting,
as it is unfinished. The original scetches of the scenes
are on the wall and some of them have been converted to raised
reliefs and some are still sketches! It is as if you walked
in at the end of the day and the workers had left panels
to finish up tomorrow.
We walked up the Unas causeway that has been reconstructed, looking
for familiar sights from our last trip, but there was so much excavation
going on, it looked very different to when we saw it in 1990. We
did finally find the tomb chapel that sits beside the causeway.
We used the false door for a scene in Michael
Manley Meets a Mummy, but there was so much going on. The landscape
was full of pits and half buried columns.
We decided not to go down to the more famous mastabas as the
Guide advised that they would be very busy that day.
Next we walked over to the Doszer Step Pyramid Complex and were
immediately in the midst of hundreds of people pouring off buses,
all of which were trying to squeeze along the narrow passage way
of the lotus columns that constitute the entrance. Eman took us
through a side entrance in the middle of the papyrus hall way and
we were in the Sed Festival arena. Eman explained that this side
entrance off the papyrus hall was available because only that area
was open to the royal family and other high ranking persons who
wanted to visit the complex. The rest of the complex was forbidden
except for the priest and (one would suppose) the New Pharaoh himself.
The Sed Festival area was built as an arena for a performance of
fitness that the Pharaoh ritually performed after serving for 30
years.
The Sed festival may be a left over from a crueler time when the
king was ritually tested and killed if he failed. There is other
evidence that human sacrifice was practiced by the earliest of the
Egyptians. In Abydos, one of the oldest burial mastabas was found
to have evidence of the ritual slayings of persons to accompany
the King into the afterlife, and there is evidence of similar rituals
in Nubia for the kings there. This practice of human sacriface to
accompany the deceased is widespread in ancient cultures around
the world and the Egyptians are to be commended for the invention
of the Usahabti as a substitute for servants in the afterlife. They
stopped the practice quite early on in their recorded history. So..no
killing of the King and no killing of the courtiers..maybe it was
a deal struck between the two ruling groups, or maybe it is an indication
that the nobles and priest had power, too and the King's successors
were not toally in control. At any rate blood sacrifice doesn't
figure in recorded Egyptian accounts of burials.
The Sed Festival area of the Step Pyramid is fascinating in that
it has stage props as well as an arena area. The mock buildings
that line the sides, some of which still stand, represented real
life adminsitration centers. One side show buildings from the north
and one side shows building from the south. There were two dedicated
North and South areas with temples that could be visited. These,
interestingly, are named and therefore it is certain that the pillar
decorations of the North area are in the southern motif and vice
versa. The guide speculated that this was to show that Egypt was
truely unified, North was now South and South was now North. Inside
one of the temples is a graphiti from a visiting scribe of the New
Kingdom. There is also a curious row of feet that were not remains
of statues but complete with a small roof built above them for their
protection. I recently read in Cyril Aldred's The Egyptians, that
it was considered a fatal act to touch the Pharaoh in any way, and
Sahure was famous for forgiving a priest who had accidently touched
him with a cermonial instrument during a procession. Aldred also
mentions that to be allowed to kiss the feet of the Pharaoh was
considered the surpreme honor. Now, I am just gessing, but I think
that the feet were in this semi public area of the complex to allow
homage to be paid to the Pharaoh (at a price to the priests) by
touching or kissing the representative feet of Djsor.
We had a look at the small temple and walked out to the back of
the complex behind the pyramid where there is a serdab with a replica
copy of it's original contents. A serdab is an enclosure that contains
the life sized statue of the tomb owner. There is a small slit that
allows you to look in. The Serdab is tilted toward the sky and since
the Pharaoh was buried (it is assumed) in a shaft beneath the pyramid,
rather than in above ground, this may have been where the Ka of
the Pharaoh was able to see the star that was his destination in
the afterlife. Well... I am getting really fanciful. I bought a
souvenir of the Step Pyramid, a hollow ceramic mummyform Pharaoh
It is blue white and gold and has some miscellaneous symbols on
it, including what appears to be a modern Blackberry or Palm Pilot
complete with stylus. This modern Pharaoh obviously had some training
as a scribe!
After this we headed back to Giza for a final look at the Pyramids
and arrived shortly before it closed. We went to the new "panorama"
area to see the pyramids, but this is certainly not the best view.
True you can see all three and there is room for buses and cars
and of course the stands of souvenier sellers, and from the evidence
on the ground this is where the camels may be obtained, but it is
not the best view, as the pyramids are spread across the horizon
with the city of Cairo in the background. The BEST view of the pyramids
can be had by paying for a camel ride out into the desert beside
the pyramids. Then you can see them all with no intrusion of the
modern into the ancient. We didn't do that as we had no time. I
did pick up a couple of souvenirs for friends at the stands, and
we went where down to the spot where you can take a complete picture
of Cheops. This is not an easy thing to do, and the spot if well
frequented by tourists and souvenir sellers.
The sourvenir sellers at the pyramids can be quite charming and
insistent. You have to be very firm if you don't want the item they
are offering. They will place it on your person then claim that
you have received a gift or that it is now used and you must buy
it or give them money. The only place I thought the sellers were
more aggressive was in Edfu. I could hear Ken having an awakward
conversation behind me with a vendor who had placed an item on the
top of his waist pack and was claiming that it was a gift. I guess
it was a sign that I was toward the end of my "enchanted with
Egypt" phase for the day because I rudely yelled over my shoulder,
" Just throw it on the ground, Ken, if you don't want it and
he won't take it back." At that point the vendor grabbed the
item and turned his attention to some nearby tourists from the Netherlands.
He smoothly switched into Dutch and offered up his goods.
It was rude of me, but effective. However, I don't really recommend
rudeness anywhere, but especially where "face" is an important
concept, unless you are just pushed over the edge. Usually firmness
will do!
What we didn't avoid was a camel rider who was posing for pictures
for a price. Ken got a couple of shots and negotiated the price,
but the camel driver was trying for more by asking me to come over
and stand beside the camel. I have to say the camels and drivers
make great tourist shots, but it is how they make their living,
so don't expect any pictures for free. We learned that the first
time we were here. Once you know the rules, you can avoid taking
their pictures unless you are willing to pay. Think of it as one
of those photo shops were you put on constume for the "old
fashioned" photo. You wouldn't dream that you would get the
photos for free, so don't think these guys dress themselves and
their camels up merely for the fun of it. Don't be surprised if
they ask for money. You'll love the photos and they are probably
the fourth generation in their family to ply this aspect of the
tourist trade.
We walked over by Mycernerous and then we headed out to get a photo
of the site of the new Egyptian Museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum.
They have transported the statue of Ramesses II that stood at the
railway station to the site and it now peers at you from its protected
shed.
Back to the hotel, tomorrow the Museum. |
