Egypt Day 17

I think I'm getting wiser in my old age. I wanted to see Dashur, Memphis, and Saqqara today. I originally thought about hiring a car to take me there, and then get a local guide. Yesterday I decided just to get a guide in Cairo, and take the easy route.
Good thing! I don't think it would have been possible on my own. For one thing the sites are almost an hour from Cairo, and the sites are a few km apart. For another there is a military checkpoint at each site, and to walk in would take a lot of time and energy. Even with a car there was a fair amount of walking.
Dashur is noteworthy because it is the site of the first pyramids. Up to that point tombs were at the bottom of a shaft, and a "mastabe" was built on top. This was a mud brick construction, box-like structure.
King Zoser (2660BC) had a brilliant architect who proposed building several mastabas on top of each, and also using stone blocks. This created the "Step Pyramid". It is situated next to the "Red Pyramid", named for the colour of the bricks used. It is good to see, because most of its exterior blocks are still in place. It is also the oldest true Pyramid.
Saqqara, some km north, became the site for burials a few years later, and it's where the "Bent Pyramid" is. This was to be a larger Pyramid, but the angle was too steep, and, in order to avoid collapse the top part is at a lower angle. There are also the mastabas of officials here. These are much more interesting than climbing inside a pyramid, because they have a lot of decorations. These decorations show daily activities, hunting, and festival scenes. The stone work is of a very high quality, and a feast for the eyes.
There is a nice museum in Saqqara, but when we got there there was no electricity, so we toured with a flashlight. Another first.
There is a sense of awe when you see these pyramids, literally in the middle of nowhere. I can't imagine the labour involved in amassing these thousands of stone blocks, carving them to be perfect, transporting them miles from the Nile and assembling them.
The art work inside the tombs is amazing. There are many scenes carved in reverse relief, that's where you remove away layers of stone, until you are left with your scene, standing out. And at such a large scale!
Let me correct a statement I made about traffic in Cairo. It is nuts! The amazing thing is I haven't seen one accident. Every driver expects every other driver and pedestrian to be also nuts, so they expect the unexpected. The other factor is that cars don't get a chance to travel fast. Pedestrians just walk, and cars drive around them. I saw four eight year old boys, just walk across four lanes of moving traffic. Any Canadian mother would have a heart attack.
The drive home took more than half an hour more than the drive there, because of traffic.
To top it off someone forgot to close the doors to the elevator, and I had to climb all 142 steps to my room.
My diet is going downhill. I've eaten at MacDonalds, KFC, places I have avoided for decades. Bags of potato chips are snacks. After I got back today I wanted a quick snack. There is a stall in front of my hotel. He had boiled eggs. I pointed and he asked "sandwich?" I nodded. He took a hotdog bun, put an egg in, smashed it with a fork, wrapped it up, and I had my Egyptian egg salad sandwich. Yummy!
The pastry shops are excellent though.
I can't wait for a good ham sandwich on rye bread