We started the day with breakfast in the hotel.
There was this very cool stand holding a honey comb, no syrup though,
Erica walked around taking pictures of the beautiful flower arrangements,
and wanted her picture by the elephants.
Then we headed off into the misty morning,
crossing, the Qasr El Nile, one of Egypt's oldest bridges which has 4 huge bronze lions,
Cairo Opera House,
check points with armed guards are a pretty regular thing,
today we are heading to Memphis, Saqqara, and then Giza. The ancient pharaohs died on the east side and were buried on the west side of the Nile.
Memphis was founded by the pharaoh Menes about 3000 bc. It was the capital of the Old Kingdom for 8 consecutive dynasties and was under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple, Hut-ka-Ptah "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah" was one of the most prominent structures in the city. It was one of the three foremost places of worship in Ancient Egypt (the other great temples are Horus in Heliopolis and Amun in Thebes). Memphis sat on the west bank of the Nile and marked the boundary between Upper and Lower Egypt. Memphis became the second city of Egypt after the foundation of Alexandria. In 332 ad, Alexander the Great was crowned pharaoh in the Temple of Ptah.
A giant limestone statue of the pharaoh Ramses II was discovered in 1820 near the southern gate of the temple of Ptah. The statue is one of a pair that stood at the eastern eastern entrance to the Temple of Ptah.
Egyptians built and decorated their monuments and statues for religious purposes. Images were a meaningful part of the cult of the gods and the dead. Statues were objects in which deities could manifest themselves, images of the dead ensured the person's survival into the next world and formed a point of contact between this and the next domains. Three-dimensional statues have frontality-face straight ahead. If the person was living they were depicted with the left leg forward and a straight beard.
The pharaoh wears the white crown of Upper Egypt
the cartouche-an oval shape placed around the name of royal people with their hieroglyphic inscription symbolizing the pharaoh as a ruler of all that the sun encircled. Each pharaoh had two cartouches, their birth name and throne name.
the Memphis triad gods-the creator god Ptah, Sekhmet, and their son Nefertem formed the main focus of worship in the city,
Tablet of Apris, 26th Dynasty sandstone,
80 ton alabaster sphinx depicting Hatshepsut that guarded the Temple of Ptah,
Sarcophagus of amen Hotep, 19th Dynasty.
Limestone base of a column, New Kingdom,
Ramses II red granite statue that is 3200 year old, it's mate is the one I photographed driving from the Cairo airport toward Cairo.
Next we headed to Saqqara, a vast ancient burial ground, necropolis, for the ancient Egyptians capital of Memphis. There are 17 pyramids and many mastabas, a flat roofed burial tomb used during the ancient period.
The most famous structure at Saqqara is the oldest complete stone hewn building complex known in history, the Djoser step pyramid built during the 3rd dynasty.
pyramid of Userkaf,
the tombs of the Middle Kingdom showed ancient Egyptians in daily life, having celebrations, one scene shows a husband sitting on the couch holding a fly whisk and harp,
there are tens of thousands of tombs yet still unexcavated,
getting to go down in the tombs-we couldn't take pictures inside of any of the tombs,
mastabas were low tombs made of mud brick,
portal or false door which the king's ka could pass to the next world, all art work on the walls of the tomb would depict the servants traveling toward this door with offerings-fruit, baskets on head, furniture, oxen being led in and slaughtered in side the inner chamber
tombs of the Middle Kingdom show wigs, heart amulets and holding a scepter-a sign of authority
artwork in the outer chamber depicted nature scenes-fishing, frogs, dragon flies, which were beautiful in detail, scenes of Egyptians training animals...Evan says, "It's like a story, I never knew that!" The scenes were rich in colors, the skin of the men were red, if blue they were gods. Scenes depicted servants pulling huge vases by rope-the more men and ropes the heavier the load,
armed guards on camels,
The Stepped Pyramid build for Pharaoh Djoser by the genius architect Imhotep during the 27th century bc. The first Egyptain pyramid consisted of six mastabas built one on top another. These mastabas were made of stone rather than mud brick. It was covered in in polished white limestone. Djoser was the first pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty of the Egyptian Old kingdom. He ruled for 38 years.
the pyramids are the pharaoh's stairway to the heavens. The pole star is in the center and each layer represented 5 degrees of the dome of the sky, this is where "squaring the circle," comes from; the circle is celestial and the square is terrestrial,
The outside enclosure wall of the complex was completely surrounded by a trench dug in the underlying rock. The walls of the trench were originally decorated with niches to make the entry more difficult.
A roofed colonnade led from the enclosure wall to the south of the complex , beyond this were 20 pairs of limestone columns
southern chambers lined in blue tiles
Heb-sed Court,
the columns were not free standing but attached,
at the end of the colonnade were 8 more columns leading to the South Court,
the burial chambers are under ground and hidden in a maze of tunnels,
the Nile valley is rich and lush and bordered by the desert-this is one side,
and this is the other side,
the way people live in the more rural areas along the Nile,
Saqqara is known for it's beautiful rugs, the girls have nimble fingers,
the men stitch the edges and add the fringes to the ends,
Erica tried to talk to the girls but they could not stop work nor understand any English,
these cone structures are for pigeons, the canals were lined with trash, we saw people washing their vegetables in it,
traveling north to lunch,
just before lunch the bus driver stopped along the busy street to negotiate the purchase of purple carrots, Owen says, "he parked in the middle of the road...they are all honking at us..."
lunch,
baking bread the old fashioned way,
donkeys and cars share the same streets, at the same time people attempt crossing, no lines, no signs, no lights-loads of horn honking-all night long even,
the white mini buses that carry loads of people,
the pyramids were completely smooth, they were covered with a casing of smooth limestone and painted, it is not known what was on the top-possibly the top was covered in gold, they know obelisks were topped in electrum-a mixture of gold and silver as an offering to the gods,
This is the Great Pyramid of Giza-the Pyramid of Khufu, a 4th dynasty pharaoh, and is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The pyramid was constructed over a 14-20 year period about 2560 bc and was the tallest tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. The casing stones and internal blocks were fit together with extremely high precision. Based on the estimate of 2.3 million blocks and building taking 20 years, more than 12 blocks were moved into place every hour, day and night.
we had a guard with us all day, he stuck pretty close to the kids,
We were constantly hounded by men trying to sell us nick nacks and all sorts of stuff. This is THE cheapest place to buy this kind of thing in Egypt. Scarves, little purses...just about anything for "1dolla"...the other thing is they'll ask to take your picture of you...don't ever give your camera up...if they want to show you something or help you in anyway-even if it is a guard or police they will expect backshish-to be paid. So it's difficult to tell who is honest and who is after a buck. This one guy came up to ask us about camel rides, we said no, he kept hounding and asking...pretty normal...he kept trying to say he wasn't after anything...normal...he asks for Erica's camera...I say-NO NO, don't touch it...by then he has it off Erica's wrist and is showing her how to point to the top of the pyramid to look as if she is touching it and telling me he won't do anything and he doesn't want any money...I'm in a panic...he gives the camera back...I am looking around frantic for our guard who's off somewhere following the boys...next he takes his keffiyeh and starts to put it on Erica's head...once again I am in a panic...he says relax, I don't want money...I can't...he wants me to take a picture of her...I do...it's tough
each block would have to have been quarried, cut, shaped, moved, and positioned in 2 minutes to have gotten the whole pyramid done in 20 years,
The Great Pyramid is in a complex which include the Pyramid Temple, a causeway linking the pyramid with the valley below, the pyramids of Khafre (the 2nd largest and tomb of 4th dynasty pharaoh) and Menkaure (the smallest of the 3 and tomb of the 4th century pharaoh), three complete boats-one of which was excavated and reassembled, and the remains of 3 small pyramids which are called the Queen's Pyramids. The three large pyramids are correlated to the three stars in Orions Belt.
The smaller pyramids are thought to belong to Queen Hetepheres I, wife of Pharaoh Snefru and mother to Khufu and Queen Meretites, wife of Khufu, and the third one is thought to be the tomb of Queen Henutsen. There are foundations to many other buildings and courtyards in the area as well as a town where the works would ahve lived.
Khafre's Valley Temple and to the right is the Old Sphinx Temple dating to the time the Sphinx was built. Both are similar in size, face east, have a pair of north and south entrances, both faced inside and out with pink granite from Aswan and paved with alabaster. The Old Sphinx was the first solar temple in Egypt
Located beside the pharaoh's Valley Temple is the Great Sphinx of Giza which had been sculped right from the limstone and represented the sun god. The features were probably Chephren, the builder of the 2nd pyramid. It had a royal headdress with the uraeus, sacred serpent on top.
Stela of King Tuthmosis IV set up between the paws,
Khafra on the 10 pound Egyptian note.
The Valley Temple was part of the funerary complex that went with the Great Pyramid, huge blocks of pink Aswan granite were joined with precision, there were symmetrical rooms on each side of a central hall that had 23 statues of Khafre,
indentations on the alabaster floor show where the 23 diorite statues were placed, these statues would provide a place of the "ka" should the mummy be destroyed. A long corridor along the sphinx leads out to the causeway
Causeway that had been covered, leading from the pyramids to the valley below.
they stop right on the highway to let people out and pick up,
4 rows of cars and our bus squeezed into two lanes,
El Galaa Square on the west side of the Nile,
There was this very cool stand holding a honey comb, no syrup though,
Erica walked around taking pictures of the beautiful flower arrangements,
and wanted her picture by the elephants.
Then we headed off into the misty morning,
crossing, the Qasr El Nile, one of Egypt's oldest bridges which has 4 huge bronze lions,
Cairo Opera House,
check points with armed guards are a pretty regular thing,
today we are heading to Memphis, Saqqara, and then Giza. The ancient pharaohs died on the east side and were buried on the west side of the Nile.
Memphis was founded by the pharaoh Menes about 3000 bc. It was the capital of the Old Kingdom for 8 consecutive dynasties and was under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple, Hut-ka-Ptah "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah" was one of the most prominent structures in the city. It was one of the three foremost places of worship in Ancient Egypt (the other great temples are Horus in Heliopolis and Amun in Thebes). Memphis sat on the west bank of the Nile and marked the boundary between Upper and Lower Egypt. Memphis became the second city of Egypt after the foundation of Alexandria. In 332 ad, Alexander the Great was crowned pharaoh in the Temple of Ptah.
A giant limestone statue of the pharaoh Ramses II was discovered in 1820 near the southern gate of the temple of Ptah. The statue is one of a pair that stood at the eastern eastern entrance to the Temple of Ptah.
Egyptians built and decorated their monuments and statues for religious purposes. Images were a meaningful part of the cult of the gods and the dead. Statues were objects in which deities could manifest themselves, images of the dead ensured the person's survival into the next world and formed a point of contact between this and the next domains. Three-dimensional statues have frontality-face straight ahead. If the person was living they were depicted with the left leg forward and a straight beard.
The pharaoh wears the white crown of Upper Egypt
the cartouche-an oval shape placed around the name of royal people with their hieroglyphic inscription symbolizing the pharaoh as a ruler of all that the sun encircled. Each pharaoh had two cartouches, their birth name and throne name.
the Memphis triad gods-the creator god Ptah, Sekhmet, and their son Nefertem formed the main focus of worship in the city,
Tablet of Apris, 26th Dynasty sandstone,
80 ton alabaster sphinx depicting Hatshepsut that guarded the Temple of Ptah,
Sarcophagus of amen Hotep, 19th Dynasty.
Limestone base of a column, New Kingdom,
Ramses II red granite statue that is 3200 year old, it's mate is the one I photographed driving from the Cairo airport toward Cairo.
Next we headed to Saqqara, a vast ancient burial ground, necropolis, for the ancient Egyptians capital of Memphis. There are 17 pyramids and many mastabas, a flat roofed burial tomb used during the ancient period.
The most famous structure at Saqqara is the oldest complete stone hewn building complex known in history, the Djoser step pyramid built during the 3rd dynasty.
pyramid of Userkaf,
the tombs of the Middle Kingdom showed ancient Egyptians in daily life, having celebrations, one scene shows a husband sitting on the couch holding a fly whisk and harp,
there are tens of thousands of tombs yet still unexcavated,
getting to go down in the tombs-we couldn't take pictures inside of any of the tombs,
mastabas were low tombs made of mud brick,
portal or false door which the king's ka could pass to the next world, all art work on the walls of the tomb would depict the servants traveling toward this door with offerings-fruit, baskets on head, furniture, oxen being led in and slaughtered in side the inner chamber
tombs of the Middle Kingdom show wigs, heart amulets and holding a scepter-a sign of authority
artwork in the outer chamber depicted nature scenes-fishing, frogs, dragon flies, which were beautiful in detail, scenes of Egyptians training animals...Evan says, "It's like a story, I never knew that!" The scenes were rich in colors, the skin of the men were red, if blue they were gods. Scenes depicted servants pulling huge vases by rope-the more men and ropes the heavier the load,
armed guards on camels,
The Stepped Pyramid build for Pharaoh Djoser by the genius architect Imhotep during the 27th century bc. The first Egyptain pyramid consisted of six mastabas built one on top another. These mastabas were made of stone rather than mud brick. It was covered in in polished white limestone. Djoser was the first pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty of the Egyptian Old kingdom. He ruled for 38 years.
the pyramids are the pharaoh's stairway to the heavens. The pole star is in the center and each layer represented 5 degrees of the dome of the sky, this is where "squaring the circle," comes from; the circle is celestial and the square is terrestrial,
The outside enclosure wall of the complex was completely surrounded by a trench dug in the underlying rock. The walls of the trench were originally decorated with niches to make the entry more difficult.
A roofed colonnade led from the enclosure wall to the south of the complex , beyond this were 20 pairs of limestone columns
southern chambers lined in blue tiles
Heb-sed Court,
the columns were not free standing but attached,
at the end of the colonnade were 8 more columns leading to the South Court,
the burial chambers are under ground and hidden in a maze of tunnels,
the Nile valley is rich and lush and bordered by the desert-this is one side,
and this is the other side,
the way people live in the more rural areas along the Nile,
Saqqara is known for it's beautiful rugs, the girls have nimble fingers,
the men stitch the edges and add the fringes to the ends,
Erica tried to talk to the girls but they could not stop work nor understand any English,
these cone structures are for pigeons, the canals were lined with trash, we saw people washing their vegetables in it,
traveling north to lunch,
just before lunch the bus driver stopped along the busy street to negotiate the purchase of purple carrots, Owen says, "he parked in the middle of the road...they are all honking at us..."
lunch,
baking bread the old fashioned way,
donkeys and cars share the same streets, at the same time people attempt crossing, no lines, no signs, no lights-loads of horn honking-all night long even,
the white mini buses that carry loads of people,
the pyramids were completely smooth, they were covered with a casing of smooth limestone and painted, it is not known what was on the top-possibly the top was covered in gold, they know obelisks were topped in electrum-a mixture of gold and silver as an offering to the gods,
This is the Great Pyramid of Giza-the Pyramid of Khufu, a 4th dynasty pharaoh, and is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The pyramid was constructed over a 14-20 year period about 2560 bc and was the tallest tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. The casing stones and internal blocks were fit together with extremely high precision. Based on the estimate of 2.3 million blocks and building taking 20 years, more than 12 blocks were moved into place every hour, day and night.
we had a guard with us all day, he stuck pretty close to the kids,
We were constantly hounded by men trying to sell us nick nacks and all sorts of stuff. This is THE cheapest place to buy this kind of thing in Egypt. Scarves, little purses...just about anything for "1dolla"...the other thing is they'll ask to take your picture of you...don't ever give your camera up...if they want to show you something or help you in anyway-even if it is a guard or police they will expect backshish-to be paid. So it's difficult to tell who is honest and who is after a buck. This one guy came up to ask us about camel rides, we said no, he kept hounding and asking...pretty normal...he kept trying to say he wasn't after anything...normal...he asks for Erica's camera...I say-NO NO, don't touch it...by then he has it off Erica's wrist and is showing her how to point to the top of the pyramid to look as if she is touching it and telling me he won't do anything and he doesn't want any money...I'm in a panic...he gives the camera back...I am looking around frantic for our guard who's off somewhere following the boys...next he takes his keffiyeh and starts to put it on Erica's head...once again I am in a panic...he says relax, I don't want money...I can't...he wants me to take a picture of her...I do...it's tough
each block would have to have been quarried, cut, shaped, moved, and positioned in 2 minutes to have gotten the whole pyramid done in 20 years,
The Great Pyramid is in a complex which include the Pyramid Temple, a causeway linking the pyramid with the valley below, the pyramids of Khafre (the 2nd largest and tomb of 4th dynasty pharaoh) and Menkaure (the smallest of the 3 and tomb of the 4th century pharaoh), three complete boats-one of which was excavated and reassembled, and the remains of 3 small pyramids which are called the Queen's Pyramids. The three large pyramids are correlated to the three stars in Orions Belt.
The smaller pyramids are thought to belong to Queen Hetepheres I, wife of Pharaoh Snefru and mother to Khufu and Queen Meretites, wife of Khufu, and the third one is thought to be the tomb of Queen Henutsen. There are foundations to many other buildings and courtyards in the area as well as a town where the works would ahve lived.
Khafre's Valley Temple and to the right is the Old Sphinx Temple dating to the time the Sphinx was built. Both are similar in size, face east, have a pair of north and south entrances, both faced inside and out with pink granite from Aswan and paved with alabaster. The Old Sphinx was the first solar temple in Egypt
Located beside the pharaoh's Valley Temple is the Great Sphinx of Giza which had been sculped right from the limstone and represented the sun god. The features were probably Chephren, the builder of the 2nd pyramid. It had a royal headdress with the uraeus, sacred serpent on top.
Stela of King Tuthmosis IV set up between the paws,
Khafra on the 10 pound Egyptian note.
The Valley Temple was part of the funerary complex that went with the Great Pyramid, huge blocks of pink Aswan granite were joined with precision, there were symmetrical rooms on each side of a central hall that had 23 statues of Khafre,
indentations on the alabaster floor show where the 23 diorite statues were placed, these statues would provide a place of the "ka" should the mummy be destroyed. A long corridor along the sphinx leads out to the causeway
Causeway that had been covered, leading from the pyramids to the valley below.
they stop right on the highway to let people out and pick up,
4 rows of cars and our bus squeezed into two lanes,
El Galaa Square on the west side of the Nile,
1 comment:
Your pictures are amazing and I am so impressed with the way you handled the guy wanting to take Erica's picture...I would be screaming for my husband I am sure!
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