Saqqara, Dahshur, Red Sea and security detail

Tatooine? Moon?

Thursday night, Sophie, Gwen, Alex and I got to go to a friend's beach house in a town called Sokhna on the Red Sea. A ton of people were there, we had a lot of fun. Sharif drove us in his car, which was such luxury compared to the AUC busses. Sharif is an egyptian who grew up in the states half his life. Then we met three more americans there, Aaron, Nick and Yaz, and the rest of the Egyptian/Palestinian/Lebanese crew. We had an awesome time and I got to meet some more really cool people. Friday we swam and lied out on the beach all morning. The water was warm, the sun was gorgeous, the sand is white, the water is calm. When we stood still, swarms of little silver and green fish would swim around our feet. It was so cool. Im really really glad Sharif invited us =)

The drive home was really fun too because we had arrived at night so we didnt see the strange desert we were being driven through. I honestly felt like I was on the moon. Sometimes I forget Im in Egypt and then I see things like that!!

Satruday was field trip day! My Egyptology class was joined by an ancient Egypt art class and we trekked down to Saqqara and Dahshur to see the bent, red and step pyramids.

Dahshur is an incredible site. We only had to drive an hour outside of Cairo and we were surrounded by palm trees and agriculture! The Dahshur pyramids are located on the other side of the Dahsur wadi, and were built by a pharaoh named Snofru, the father of Khufu who built the Great Pyramid at Giza. Well construction didn't go too well for the "Bent Pyramid," the first true pyramid by the way =) It's bent because it began to crack during construction so the angle had to be changed to reduce the weight. What went wrong at the very beginning is that Snofru didn't lay down any foundation and the ground was too soft. His second pyramid held up though and that is the Red Pyramid!

After we walked around the bent pyramid we ran... literally ran... across the desert to see its temple. We only ran because the guard was yelling at us that we weren't allowed down there. No big right? Just follow the professor.

My favorite thing about that site was that there are little shards of 4th, 5th and 6th dynasty pottery all over the place. Just little clay pieces from broken pottery. It's incredible.  

Blurry from the sand, but here's me at the temple remains

Here you can see a failed pyramid in the background called
the Black Pyramid. And perhaps equally interesting, those
 two men are our security detail. Egyptian law requires that
 any large group of Americans must be escorted by a security
officer for protection. Crazy right!

Next stop was the Red Pyramid, my favorite part of the day! 

We got to climb half way up the pyramid to the entry way and go inside!! To enter a pyramid... well.. you can't be claustrophobic. You hunch over and walk down a very steep walkway about two slim people wide. The pathway is lit, but because it was Egypt, and we have great luck, the lights shut off halfway down. But once you brave the hallway you enter a large inverted pyramid for the first burial chamber. There are three chambers the public is allowed to visit. At the very top after walking up some rickety stairs you can even see where King Snofru was burried although he's long gone now along with everything else. Some of the artifacts are in museums, most were luted. 
It was incredible to be inside though (although Ive quite literally never sweat so much in my life). After we climbed out we checked out the funerary temple and then headed out to Saqqara.

Outside the Red Pyramid. The entrance
is that opening about halfway up.

Inside! The ceiling is sloped to match the outside!

We only had to be in this passage for 15ish
 minutes and eventually the lights turned
back on!

Going up!

At Saqqara, we first toured the Imhotep Museum. If you've seen the Mummy movies you might know a little bit about Imhotep, they got ONE thing right in the movie, he was the high priest at the temple Heliopolis. Also the vesere for King Djoser, chief sculptor and carpenter, doctor,scribe, poet, Chief Architect and "first in line after the King Djoser." He designed Djoser's Step Pyramid, the OLDEST surviving stone building in the world. He was also the first noted person in history to use stone columns. 
But he wasn't buried alive like in the movie, and Im sure he never had an affair with the Pharaoh's queen as he probably had a gaggle of wives himself. 
His museum is awesome. First of all, it has air conditioning (whaaat?! In EGYPT??) I know!! And its CLEAN! (Whaaattt??) I know!!! 
In it is the first stone column ever constructed, parts of the temple wall, statues of Imhotep and Djoser and the royal family, countless statuettes, sarcophagi and even a mummy!! My first Egyptian Mummy!! Sad to day, the mummy is not that of Imhotep =( Or Djoser or anyone from that dynasty even. It's the son of a king of a later period. Many of the artifacts were not collected at Saqqara. BUT. They do have Imhotep's sarcophagus, it's gorgeous, it's painted wood and the paint looks as fresh as it was painted yesterday. All the artifacts are amazingly preserved in there, I was so impressed!! 

Driving through the wadi on the way, I looove the contrast!

No pictures inside =(

Next we walked around the Step Pyramid complex. Again, the oldest surviving stone building in the world. It's incredible. They're actually doing restoration work on it right now so we're going to be some of the last people in the world to see it the way it is now! So we walked around the temple and talked about the architecture, saw the queens' burial places, and all the places where the king would prepare for the Hep-sed. Hep-sed was kind of a text for the pharaoh that took place about every thirty years of the kings reign. It was a huge festival where the king is made to run around the courtyard in all his garb to prove that he is still capable of ruling. If he tripped, he was mortal, and he was killed. If he was too slow, same thing. If you've ever looked at a hieroglyph of a pharaoh you'll notice his legs are super muscular. This is because he needed to by physically fit to be the king. The thing is though, no one ever failed. So no worries. Maybe they all we reincarnations of the gods!! =) The real purpose of the Hep-sed was that after the king completed it, all the nobles of the land would re-pledge their allegiance to him. Sometimes Hep-sed was conducted just because the king was losing support and needed the nobles to pledge again.

Outside of the temple

Inside the temple =)

Liz and I in the Hep-sed court! (She's my neighbor and I love her!!)

"The sexiest corner in Egypt" The first cuuurve!!

Some left over guys at the temple, they're unidentified

Here she is =)

Ancient graffiti in one of the temples
from a century after the pyramid built
that tells us there were tourists visiting
the monument even then!

Me dying of heat stroke, but in total awe of the wall paintings
inside a private tomb. Cant beliiiiieve the preservation!

At this point in the day, everyone started dropping like flies in the heat. We'd all finished off all our water and hadn't eaten sense 7am. < This is due to the fact that in Egypt nothing is ever organized correctly. Hey Dr, should we bring lunch? Oh don't worry about it. Should we bring water? Eh, yeah that's a good idea. When will we come go back? Probably around 1 or 2 (meaning 6pm of course). >
Anyway so we kept trekking through the desert to more tombs where we were claustrophobically squeezed into tiny spaces to look at paintings of a cow being born. And another smaller pyramid. This small pyramid was renovated by the son of King Ramses II and there are still hieroglyphs that say "I am the son of Ramses, this monument is awesome. We're taking it for ourselves." Basically to establish legitimacy and attach his name to the monument sense in his time pyramid building had stopped. It was awesome the hieroglyphs are still completely readable. 
Then finally there was only one left!!

The Ramses-repaired pyramid

The "VIP tomb" Dr. Hassan called it as no one is really allowed inside. (No pictures either =( sad). This tomb was worth the wait though! It is the tomb of two males and their families. All we really know about them is that they each have families, and they were both hair dressers of the king. It's been proposed that they were either twin brothers or close personal friends. (A lot of jokes were made when we entered and the focal point of the tomb is a painting of them standing arm in arm touching noses. Both hair dressers too, I mean come on.) No this is normal in Egyptian culture though, they were certainly not lovers says Dr. Hassan.
Anyway they are both gorgeously painted and the tomb is amazingly preserved. The colors are still bright and most of the walls are completely covered with scenes of hair dressing and festivals and their families. It was amazing.

VIP, No cameras inside =(

At the time, while I was dying of dehydration, it was hard to press on... and on and on. But it was an amazing day. I can't take these things for granted, this is a once in a life-time experience! I saw so many gorgeous things! 
I am so blessed to be here!!!!! HumdidAllah!!!