Sakkara is best known for the Step Pyramid, the oldest known of Egypt's 97 pyramids. It was built for King Zoser in 2650 BC by the pharaoh’s architect Imhotep, who designed it and its surrounding complex to be as grand as it was unique and revolutionary. Imhotep was the first to build stone tombs in honor of the king's majesty.

Sakkara is also famous for its private Old Kingdom tombs which contain beautiful and revealing scenes: men force- feeding geese, cattle crossing a canal, men dragging a statue on a sled to the tomb. The best-known tombs are those of Ti, Kagemni, the 'Two Brothers', and Ptahhotep; the most famous is that of Meruruka.

Previously tombs were made of perishable materials. They were underground rooms topped with mud brick mastabas. Imhotep decides to stack up the mastabas to make a step pyramid using hewn stone.

This new pyramid rose 6 stories to a height of 60m and was encased in white limestone. The pyramid is surrounded by a funerary complex. There a re 14 false doors for the pharaoh’s ka to move between the rooms. The ka is the spirit, it is believed the spirit would need food and drink in the after life so there were chambers built to house the offerings to the ka. Later drawings of these offerings were carved/painted on the walls of the tombs. (They probably figured out the spirit could not eat real food.)

You enter the complex through the southern corner, via a vestibule. There are 40 columns that resemble the papyrus, a sacred plant. The great south court is flanked with cobras; which represent the goddess Wadjet, a fire spitting protector of the pharaoh. The cobra always was displayed on the headdress of the pharaoh. You can stand up here and see the entire complex.

The wind today was howling and not the perfect day for a camel ride but Maggie really wanted to ride one. This was going to be her only chance in Egypt. Mike and I ran into some friends and chatted with them for a few minutes and noticed Mary standing near the camel jockeys with one of the jockey’s cloak on and Maggie hiding inside. I laughed and joined them, I asked the jockey how much for a ride and no sooner did I finish asking when he and all is friends started shedding their clothes and placing them on me. ARGH!

The cloak was absolutely disgusting with sand, snot (both human and camel), and I am sure several other nasty things on it. The camel was perfectly content sitting on the ground and did not want to go into the wind any more than I did. Maggie was thrilled. They loaded me on first and then Maggie. I have never been on a camel before and hopefully never will again. The camel got up and you felt like you were going to fly off the back. Maggie wanted to hold the pommel of the saddle leaving me to hold on to her. Nope, not happening, so she put her hands on top of mine. The wind made it impossible to open your eyes so the two of us roamed around with our eyes closed not seeing anything.

I asked her several times if she had enough and she said no, finally I told the jockey, Ramadan, to turn this camel around.

The camels are called “Ships of the Desert”, with my eyes closed I fully understood this, as you all know I get motion sick pretty easily. So as I am swaying back in force, smelling camel, and my body as tense as can be I could not wait to get of this ship.

As I look back at the photos taken it looks like Maggie was not thrilled either. The camel sits back down and I feel like I am going to get thrown over the front. I am desperately trying not to crush Maggie.

I asked Maggie what she learned about camels; Mary suddenly slowed her pace to walk with Mike and said “I learned that if you ride a camel, you smell like a camel. Mike and Mary are having a field day with this little adventure as we can hear them cackling behind us.

Well we cannot get back into the taxi smelling like this so we are forced to keep walking in the sandstorm. In the middle there is a “field” where the pharaoh had to prove his ability to continue to reign. The race was part of the 30th Jubilee Festival or Heb-Sed. You can walk all around the step pyramid and in the back you can see the Serdab, a stone structure that contains two drill wholes. You look inside these holes and can see a statue of Zoser himself. Pretty cool.

We then headed over to the tomb of Teti, he was the 1st pharaoh of the 6th dynasty. You can go inside this one and see the color used to create the hieroglyphics. The scenes range from a funerary ship carrying the dead to ploughing of fields and harvesting crops, as well as children playing.

One of these days Mike and I will learn enough to translate al the scenes we see. For now we rely on the local Egyptians who make baksheesh (tip, money) off the tourists.