Sakkara – A Traveling Fool

After our morning adventures at the Sakkara tombs, we headed into town to visit a Sakkara carpet making school. The way that these schools were explained to us was that they were created to help give some of the more impoverished children a way out of poverty by providing them with both an education and a trade. They attend a regular school for half of the day and then attend the carpet making school for the other half of the day.

The carpets were made of cotton, or wool, or a combination of cotton and wool, or of silk. The silk carpets were the most expensive. Some carpets were relatively similar to the carpets I had seen in Turkey, while others were of more Egyptian images.

We were given a demonstration of the carpet making and then shown several of the finished products. I wasn’t interested in buying a carpet, so I just sort of wandered around the showroom while trying not to linger long enough anywhere to attract a salesperson. There were several people in our group and the other groups who were interested in buying something, so the salespeople were busy enough with them.

All prices were being quoted in US dollars. As was the case during my first trip to Egypt, eighteen years earlier, they seemed to be much more interested in American dollars than in their own currency. All cash transactions for various souvenirs, food, clothing, etc., were always quoted in USD.

People seemed to be insulted if you tried to give them Egyptian pounds. That wasn’t helpful to the tourists who weren’t from the US. We had people from the UK and from Australia in our group and on our ship. They had exchanged some of their own currencies for Egyptian pounds. Some of them found it so frustrating that they chose not to buy anything.

On my prior trip to Egypt, one of the women with whom I was hanging out was from India. She knew about the preference for USD in Egypt and had exchanged some of her own money for USD while still in India. But an Australian woman with whom I was spending some time while on this trip had not been told about that and had exchanged her money for Egyptian pounds. She told me that she wished her travel agent had told her to get USD instead.

You might think that it would have been a good idea to just use a credit card. Unfortunately that could be quite dicey anywhere other than the finer shops and restaurants. I only used my card twice to buy anything in Egypt. Once on the ship during our cruise and the other at the papyrus shop we visited as a group.

After leaving the Sakkara Carpet School, we headed for our lunch at the Al Badarashin Resort (aka Sakkara Country Club). We were greeted there by some musicians playing Egyptian music. All three groups from the Viking Amun and both groups from the Viking Antares were dining together on Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, East African, and Egyptian cuisine.

It was buffet style, so I had some of each of the following:

Baba Ganoush (finely chopped roasted eggplant, olive oil, lemon juice, various seasonings, and tahini)
Tahini (a Middle Eastern condiment made from ground sesame seeds)
Falafel (a deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter of Egyptian origin, made from ground fava beans, chickpeas, or both, and mixed with herbs and spices before frying; these were made from fava beans)
Roasted eggplant
Carrots (which surprised me by being a bit spicy)
Sambusa (East African crispy, golden-brown pastries filled with a mix of spiced meat, vegetables, or lentils)
Stuffed Grape Leaves (the Egyptian version — Mahshi Waraq Enab — grape leaves stuffed with seasoned rice, herbs, and minced meat, layered in a pot and simmered with a tangy lemon and broth liquid)
Pasta
Barbequed Beef
Barbequed Chicken

I put the Tahini and Falafel together in some pita bread, and the Baba Ganoush in another pita bread with the roasted eggplant (I know – eggplant and eggplant, but it was delicious). There was a lot of food and all of it that I had was mighty tasty. I felt I was revived and ready for our afternoon excursion.

Next – The Citadel of Saladin and the Mohamed Ali Mosque

Had a 5:30am wakeup call and went down to breakfast at 6:30am in the Rawi Restaurant, which was on the second floor of the North Tower overlooking the Nile. Sat with a couple, whose company I really enjoyed, from Long Island. They were going to be on the same ship, but were in a different group.

Had plenty of time to get back to the room and gather up what would be needed for the day before heading down to the Salah El Din meeting room on the first floor of the South Tower. There we had a welcome briefing from our three Egyptologists before heading to our respective coaches to start our day at Sakkara.

Sakkara (Saqqara in Arabic) is an Egyptian village which was once known as Memphis. It contains numerous pyramids, including the Step Pyramid of Djoser (which predates the Giza pyramids), and a number of mastaba tombs. I had not been to Sakkara on my first trip to Egypt in 2008, so was really looking forward to it. The Step Pyramid had been on my list of things that I wanted to see if I ever returned to Egypt.

Djoser was either the first or second king of the 3^rd Dynasty (circa 2670-2650 BC) of the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c.2686-c.2125 BC). He is best known for his innovative tomb, which was designed by his chief minister and architect, Imhotep. Prior to him, tombs were mostly mastabas. These were flat-roofed, rectangular structures with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks. His tomb was formed from several mastabas stacked upon each other and constructed in stone. The first known monumental building to be made in stone.

There are 16 pyramids built by Egyptian kings at Sakkara. It was an important burial site for more than 3,000 years, into the Ptolemaic (Greek pharaohs) and Roman times. A pyramid was not simply a grave in ancient Egypt. Its purpose was to facilitate a successful afterlife for the king so that he could be eternally reborn. The symbolism of the step pyramid form, which did not survive beyond the 3rd Dynasty, is unknown.

Several features of the Djoser complex differ from those of later Old Kingdom pyramids. The pyramid temple was situated at the north side of the pyramid, while in later pyramids it was on the east side. Also, the Djoser complex was built on a north–south axis, while later complexes utilized an east–west axis. The Djoser complex had one niched enclosure wall, whereas later pyramids had two enclosure walls with the outside one being smooth and the inside one sometimes niched.

First we entered through the main gate in the enclosure wall (photo 001) to explore the area around the Step Pyramid. The wall once enclosed the entire complex. Now there are just sections remaining. We went through the main gate because we wanted to experience the entrance as it once was. We walked through the entrance colonnade (002 & 003) with portions of the original ceiling (007) and into the South Court (004) of the complex. Some chapels for important rituals during the Heb-Sed Festival are shown in photo 005. They have rounded roofs.

The pyramid itself is no longer open to the public due to safety issues. So we contented ourselves with walking around the South Court. There were several dogs hanging out in the area, many of them taking naps in the heat. Some were in the shade, but others were just stretched out in the sun. They didn’t pay much attention to the tourists who were invading their territory.

Although we couldn’t go inside of the Step Pyramid, Hanaa indicated that we had a couple tombs lined up that we could explore inside. So we headed to them. Photo 006 shows us heading towards the tomb of Mereruka. This was a mastaba tomb and was the largest and most elaborate of all of the non-royal tombs in Sakkara. Mereruka was the Vizier to King Teti, who was the first pharaoh of the 6^th Dynasty in the Old Kingdom period of Egypt. This would have been about 2345 – 2333 BC.

This mastaba was closed for maintenance when we visited (008), so we went next door to the Mastaba of Kagemni (009) instead. Both Kagemni and Mereruka were son-in-laws to Teti as well as viziers. Mereruka succeeded Kagemni, who seems to have been in office for just one year (c.2345 BC).

There were several chambers in this tomb with walls that still held a good deal of the original colors. The chambers were decorated with carved and painted scenes of daily life, including hunting, fishing, raising livestock, and dancing. Several of these painted reliefs included depictions of Kagemni himself.

On the left of photo 010, some men are fishing. On the left of the next photo, 011, some men are hunting hippos. The hippos are purposely rendered much smaller than the people. In the Egyptian art of that time, size was an indicator of power.

In the corner of the wall in photo 012, the large man is Kagemni. The wall on the right of that photo seems to be showing a festival. The top row appears to be men carrying vessels of something to drink, while the men in the bottom row are performing some sort of ceremonial dance. Photo 013 shows Kagemni again. The last photo from Kagemni’s Mastaba (016) shows people getting ready for a feast.

One of the rooms even had a false door (014). This was common in royal tombs or temples, but not so much in the tombs of nobles. False doors were intended for living people who wanted to commune with the deceased person’s ka (the life force and vital spirit anchored to the tomb and sustained by offerings) to communicate through the false door and/or leave offerings of various kinds in front of the door.

The ka was different from the ba, which was the personality or unique spirit of a person, often depicted as a human-headed bird that could fly freely between the tomb and the outside world, or the akh, which was the transformed spirit of the deceased that successfully reached the afterlife.

Across from Mereruka’s mastaba was the pyramid of King Teti. Photo 017 shows this pyramid as seen from where we were walking towards Mereruka’s mastaba. As you can see, this pyramid hasn’t quite kept its shape and looks more like a pile of rubble. Photos 015 & 018 show the entrance to the pyramid.

Pyramids are not for anyone who is claustrophobic. They tend to have very steep entrances that either go up into the pyramid or down under the pyramid. Either way, they are very narrow and not very tall. This pyramid had the burial chamber down under the pyramid. At 5’1”, I needed to duck. People taller than me were going down sideways (019) or even backwards.

Once inside, we could stand up for a little while. But then we needed to go through another passage on flat ground (020) and one (021) deeper inside. Although photo 021 is quite dark and difficult to make out, I included it because I was trying to give a real feel for the experience. If you can make out the subject of the photo, you can see that he was nearly bent in half. He was just under six feet in height.

Then we were in the burial chamber (022). The stars on the ceiling were pointed out to us by the fellow who had taken us down into the pyramid (023). There were Pyramid Texts on the wall above the entrance inside the burial chamber (026) and we could see inside of the sarcophagus (024 & 025). It is thought to be the first time that inscriptions were written inside of a royal sarcophagus.

The last photo I have shared here (027) shows the sarcophagus sitting in the burial chamber, surrounded by rather plain walls. It is thought that Teti might have died fairly suddenly before they could complete the Pyramid Texts that should have been on the rest of the walls. I thought it was great to be able to see the inside of a pyramid, especially such an old one.

Our nautical term for the day was, “three sheets to the wind.” A “sheet” is a rope line which controls the tension on the downwind side of a square sail. If, on a three-masted fully rigged ship, the sheets of the three lower course sails are loose, the sails will flap and flutter and are said to be “in the wind”. A ship in this condition would stagger and wander aimlessly downwind. That’s why this term is sometimes used to describe an inebriated person.

Next – A Carpet School and Lunch at a Resort

Tag: Sakkara

Egyptian Expedition 011: Day 6 – Sakkara Carpet Making School & Lunch at a Resort

Egyptian Expedition 010: Day 6 – Sakkara Tombs