Saqqara, Egypt

Earliest Pyramids in Egypt

Tuesday November 11th was my last day in Cairo. I arranged an all-day tour with Amina. We started at  Saqqara to see the earliest pyramids in Egypt. This included the step pyramid and entering the Pyramid of King Unas, the last king of the fifth dynasty around 2350 BC.

Located 40 km southwest of Cairo, Saqqara is one of the most important cemeteries of Memphis, which was itself one of the most important cities in ancient Egyptian history. The name of the site most likely derives from the god of this necropolis, Sokar.

Pyramid of Unas

I entered the Pyramid of Unas [wikipedia]. This is the oldest pyramid with Pyramid Texts etched on its walls, and the oldest known religious texts in the world.

This YouTube explains the significance of this pyramid:

Princess Idut’s Tomb 

We then entered Princess Idut’s Tomb. Unfortunately, another tour guide was talking loudly. The drawings on the walls of the first and second rooms represent the love the princess had for life near water. This is shown as drawings such as fishing in different ways, water sports, and hippopotamus hunting. The rest of the rooms were inscribed with drawings of daily life rituals, such animal husbandry, food preparations to be given during funerals as gifts to the gods.

Imhotep Museum

We then stopped at the nearby Imhotep Museum to see among other things the mummy of King Merenre and mummies of cats.

Egyptian Hand-woven Rugs

Egypt is world renowned for its hand-woven rugs. Saqqara is where these rugs originate from. There are several schools teaching carpet weaving and we stopped at one carpet Weaver to watch them craft handmade rugs.

We stopped at “Wadi el Mlouk for handmade carpets.”

Brutal process of a girl quickly wrapping each twine of wool at a time and then swiping a razor blade to correct the length. One slip and the razor blade would slice her fingers. I didn’t ask how many repetitions it takes to make a carpet. I would guess that it exceeds 100,000 over the course of a month.