Yesterday we went to see the remains of the ancient city of Memphis and the Step pyramid of Saqqara.
The day started bad because we arrived downstairs, in the hotel lobby, a few minutes late and we missed the organised tour that we had meant to join. Consequently, the concierge had to arrange for another guide and car, just for us. Of course, in the end, it all turned out fine, but it was just a bit unpleasant to see the concierge shrug his shoulders and tell us that he was sorry but, as we were 10 minutes late, the guide had already left without even giving us a call.
We first stopped at Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt and of the old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 1300 BC. The ruins of Memphis are approximately 20 km south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile.
We were not quite impressed with what we saw. Apart from a giant statue of Ramses the 2nd and a few other statues of gods and goddesses there was nothing else to be seen so we were soon back in the car and on our way to Saqqara. The weather was incredibly annoying because there was a very strong wind which basically blew all the sand into our eyes, mouths, noses and pretty much everywhere. We soon had to find out that this was even worse at Saqqara. Moreover, it was very hot.
Saqqara was one of the main burial fields of the ancient city of Memphis. It is located some 40 km from Cairo. The most significant monument of the complex is the Step Pyramid of Djoser. The complex covers an area of 6km by 1.5 km.
Our visit was spoilt by the very strong wind and the sand which simply made its way everywhere – I had sand in my hair, on my face, on my lips, eventually in my mouth, in my light white shoes, in my clothes. I could hardly wait to get back to the hotel and wash the dust off my body. On the way back to Cairo, our guide tried to tempt us into visiting one of those Carpet Schools which are so popular now with tourists. We resisted heroically as we genuinely are not interested in carpets and we have already seen lots of such places in our travels (Morocco, Turkey, etc.).
Today we called our first guide, Mohammed, who speaks excellent English and has a wonderful sense of humour. We arranged for him, a driver and a car to accompany us on a tour of Islamic Cairo and, ultimately, of the famous City of the Dead. He was a bit taken aback when A told him that we wanted to go to the City of the Dead. I discovered that, for some reason or another, the Egyptians either don’t want to admit it or they genuinely don’t know too much about this place. Anyway, Mohammed was even a bit scared of going there and he tried to convince us to give up the thought. In the end, A succeeded in making him agree to take us there and drive us a bit around the area, for us just to have a look.
The day was generally pleasant. We visited several mosques, walked a lot in the city and also went to a market. The mosques (most of them very old) were really beautiful. What I totally disliked was the fact that we had to take our shoes off and, at one place, they even requested me to cover both my body and my hair with veils. We bought a pair of socks for me which I wore each time we went inside (as I didn’t want to be bare foot in the mosque). However, I refused to go inside the place where I was supposed to cover myself. I have my own theory about this whole thing so I didn’t want to go against my principles. Mohammed was intrigued and I saw he wanted to discuss but didn’t have the courage to start a debate. I had continuously challenged him on the subject of women and their role in Islam so he knew this was a delicate issue.
We also visited an old Islamic house which was decorated and inhabited by a British officer during the time when Egypt was occupied by the Brits. The house had lots of rooms and Mohammed was joking, telling us several times to hurry up because there were ‘further 200 rooms to be seen’ (he was very funny!). At some point, he told A to hide into a secret niche in the house and urged me to look for him. It was very frustrating, I had to search two rooms, I even suspected where the secret door was but I didn’t know how to access the secret mechanism to open it. The guys had a good time and found the little hide and seek game very funny. Mohammed even said that I looked like a little child who lost her mother.
The visit to the City of the Dead was short and rather saddening. There was not much to be seen, just a poor area with extremely thin stray dogs and cats wandering around. We found a man who was tipped into letting us have a look inside two courtyards. There was a poor family cooking dinner for the two children and some chickens held into a wooden cage. Somehow we wanted to be out of there. Quickly.
The Easter break is now over. It’s time to take our leave. We’ll fly back to Europe tomorrow and a good part of the day will be spent travelling. Maybe this is our last time in the Land of the Dust, who knows! We have already said our farewell ...
The day started bad because we arrived downstairs, in the hotel lobby, a few minutes late and we missed the organised tour that we had meant to join. Consequently, the concierge had to arrange for another guide and car, just for us. Of course, in the end, it all turned out fine, but it was just a bit unpleasant to see the concierge shrug his shoulders and tell us that he was sorry but, as we were 10 minutes late, the guide had already left without even giving us a call.
We first stopped at Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt and of the old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 1300 BC. The ruins of Memphis are approximately 20 km south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile.
We were not quite impressed with what we saw. Apart from a giant statue of Ramses the 2nd and a few other statues of gods and goddesses there was nothing else to be seen so we were soon back in the car and on our way to Saqqara. The weather was incredibly annoying because there was a very strong wind which basically blew all the sand into our eyes, mouths, noses and pretty much everywhere. We soon had to find out that this was even worse at Saqqara. Moreover, it was very hot.
Saqqara was one of the main burial fields of the ancient city of Memphis. It is located some 40 km from Cairo. The most significant monument of the complex is the Step Pyramid of Djoser. The complex covers an area of 6km by 1.5 km.
Our visit was spoilt by the very strong wind and the sand which simply made its way everywhere – I had sand in my hair, on my face, on my lips, eventually in my mouth, in my light white shoes, in my clothes. I could hardly wait to get back to the hotel and wash the dust off my body. On the way back to Cairo, our guide tried to tempt us into visiting one of those Carpet Schools which are so popular now with tourists. We resisted heroically as we genuinely are not interested in carpets and we have already seen lots of such places in our travels (Morocco, Turkey, etc.).
Today we called our first guide, Mohammed, who speaks excellent English and has a wonderful sense of humour. We arranged for him, a driver and a car to accompany us on a tour of Islamic Cairo and, ultimately, of the famous City of the Dead. He was a bit taken aback when A told him that we wanted to go to the City of the Dead. I discovered that, for some reason or another, the Egyptians either don’t want to admit it or they genuinely don’t know too much about this place. Anyway, Mohammed was even a bit scared of going there and he tried to convince us to give up the thought. In the end, A succeeded in making him agree to take us there and drive us a bit around the area, for us just to have a look.
The day was generally pleasant. We visited several mosques, walked a lot in the city and also went to a market. The mosques (most of them very old) were really beautiful. What I totally disliked was the fact that we had to take our shoes off and, at one place, they even requested me to cover both my body and my hair with veils. We bought a pair of socks for me which I wore each time we went inside (as I didn’t want to be bare foot in the mosque). However, I refused to go inside the place where I was supposed to cover myself. I have my own theory about this whole thing so I didn’t want to go against my principles. Mohammed was intrigued and I saw he wanted to discuss but didn’t have the courage to start a debate. I had continuously challenged him on the subject of women and their role in Islam so he knew this was a delicate issue.
We also visited an old Islamic house which was decorated and inhabited by a British officer during the time when Egypt was occupied by the Brits. The house had lots of rooms and Mohammed was joking, telling us several times to hurry up because there were ‘further 200 rooms to be seen’ (he was very funny!). At some point, he told A to hide into a secret niche in the house and urged me to look for him. It was very frustrating, I had to search two rooms, I even suspected where the secret door was but I didn’t know how to access the secret mechanism to open it. The guys had a good time and found the little hide and seek game very funny. Mohammed even said that I looked like a little child who lost her mother.
The visit to the City of the Dead was short and rather saddening. There was not much to be seen, just a poor area with extremely thin stray dogs and cats wandering around. We found a man who was tipped into letting us have a look inside two courtyards. There was a poor family cooking dinner for the two children and some chickens held into a wooden cage. Somehow we wanted to be out of there. Quickly.
The Easter break is now over. It’s time to take our leave. We’ll fly back to Europe tomorrow and a good part of the day will be spent travelling. Maybe this is our last time in the Land of the Dust, who knows! We have already said our farewell ...
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