el-gom3a fi-es sa'arra

Friday in Saqqara......

Saqqara is mostly an active excavation site. The day was so clear, thanks be to God for this, we saw the Giza pyramids on the drive both directions as well as we could see Dashour from Bent, as we saw Bent from Dashour last week!

first photo is of the drive, I was all goo-goo over the oodles of sheep being herded out to pasture....so at one point the driver stopped and Joshua took this photo out of the back of the tour van today.

outside Imhotep temple - it is mostly rebuilt at this point, which is obvious in some photos - he was the first person to use the limestone when he realized how easily the red mud bricks were tearing down, etc - this is why most pyramids look like ant hills on steroids - well the limestone ones have stood the test of time!







the kids with the Step Pyramid
this pyramid is actually "solid" with no inner corridors! all corridors are entrance from outside (and originally hidden) the pyramid itself. All entrances were on the N side because that is how their spirit left to reach eternity. (well not really of course....)
Joshua excavated quite deep and found a giant chunk of limestone!

the temple looking area is actually what remains of a 'changing house' for the Pharoahs/Kings (depending on the era what you want to call them) would change their clothes to go into contests to prove their "manhood" - even King Tut was here once!


walls just crumbling from ruin (and kids climbing)

Joshua is standing inside a "royal home" on the "throne platform" there were 2 stairwells, 2 thrones. One for the upper kingdom and one for the lower kingdom (do not forget the upper is SOUTH and the lower is where we're at in the North, the cone head thing is the upper kingdom).

Hala and I by the pharoah's statue with his wife and next to Ptah (the most important god of that reign)






the feet are the pharoah's his wife and 2 children. The rest was written other places to have been inlaid with stones, so they were obviously stolen, the surrounding inlay is just to help protect the "feet"



we went into 2 tombs. one within a pyramid where you see us 3 pointing - it's a piece of the ceiling inlaid with stars painted with plants - reds, yellows, blues.

the other was a more simple tomb for a very wealthy scribe.




lastly was Imhotep Museum which is where they've displayed MANY findings in sa'arra which is The City of the Dead. You English speakers call it Saqarra or Saqqara or Sakkara or..you get the idea ;)