The entrance to King Zoser's funerary complex at Saqqara was found by French explorer, August Mariette in 1924.

Our Mercedes bus meandered through the Cairo traffic and Ali commented on things of interest as we headed toward Saqqara.

• "Egyptians would rather watch TV than eat. That is why there are so many satellite dishes on the buildings…

• "Taxes are not levied on buildings until they are completed. That is why you see that 85% of the houses are never completed…

• "All Egyptian men must serve two years in the military. That is why you see so many young men in uniform pretending to guard something. Don't worry, their weapons are not loaded."

We arrived at Saqqara at 8:30 am. It was 75 degrees and a bit hazy.

All of North Africa was once a great wetland, full of giant ferns and terrible dinosaurs. Then, the climate changed and everything dried up except for a few oases and the Great River Nile, which drained the mountains of central Africa.

The humans who had evolved after the dinosaurs died out and found a livelihood in the remaining savannah were driven by the encroaching desert to the fertile banks of the Nile River. Thousands of years later, about 5,000 years ago, these people devised a pyramidal society that became known as Egypt. Slaves and farmers did the work at the bottom, bureaucrats shuffled papyrus in the middle, and the Pharaoh ruled from above.

The Step Pyramid of Saqqara and sleeping dogs.

Egyptian history has been divided neatly into four major periods:

1. Early Period (3100 BC- 2686 BC)

2. Old Kingdom (2686 BC- 2025 BC)

3. Middle Kingdom (2055 BC- 1550 BC)

4. New Kingdom (1550 BC- 991 BC).

Within these categories were dynasties, i.e., royal families. There were a total of 21 dynasties.

During the Early Period, Upper Egypt (in the south) and Lower Egypt (in the north) were divided and usually at war. King Menes united the country in 3100 BC and built his capital at Memphis where it remained until it was moved to Thebes in the New Kingdom.

Saqqara was the cemetery for Memphis. Early Egyptians believed that everything in this life and the next was governed by a pantheon of gods whose images could be depicted. Their religion called for bodies of the deceased to be embalmed and buried with their material possessions (including wives and slaves) that follow them into the next life.

The cobras around the entrance to the Step Pyramid at Saqqara were supposed to protect the deceased pharaoh from evil gods.

The early tombs of pharaohs were sealed underground rooms with a mud brick cover (mastaba). In 2650 BC, Imhotep, architect for King Zoser, decided that a series of six decreasing- in- size stone mastabas stacked one on the other would better insure the pharaoh's ascent into "heaven," thus the Step Pyramid, the first pyramid, was invented. Later architects filled in the spaces between layers creating the solid- sided pyramids with which we are now familiar.

Zoser's pyramid was surrounded by a vast funerary complex, and hundreds of later nobles and pharaohs built similar structures in Saqqara. As time passed and memories faded, desert sands covered most of Saqqara. A French explorer, August Mariette, discovered the long- lost graveyard in 1924… and, as they say, the rest is history.

The typical means of transportation in the villages near Saqqara is donkey carts.

We perused the grounds of the first pyramid, then visited a local carpet school, one of the designated places for tourists to leave their money in Egypt. Back in Cairo, we were treated to lunch at an open- air restaurant. The appetizers, fresh bread, and grilled chicken were superb.

Next week:

 

 

 

 

The Pyramids of Giza

Nearby the Step Pyramid is a carpet factory, an obligatory stop for tourists. Three generations of women take the donkey car t to market near Saqqara.