The flight from South Africa to Egypt passed by uneventfully except that we left late and it was hot. We touched down around 05:30AM, made our way through immigration and collected our bags. We tried and failed to connect to the free airport wifi, so we turned on data roaming to organize an uber. The moment we stepped into the airport arrivals the taxi touts started pestering us to take a taxi with them. Managed to draw some money and then had an overpriced coffee while considering our next move. We made our way out the airport and tried to find our uber taxi, a Mitsubishi with registration 974. The only problem was that Egyptians use a different numeral characters so we couldn't find the taxi. We wandered around with touts pestering us until eventually Nicki got the courage to ask an Egyptian to help translate what the uber driver was saying on the phone and to our great surprise the taxi driver was standing right by us and answered the phone. We got in the taxi and started the long drive to the hotel.
The first impressions of Cairo was that it was a sprawling city with thousands upon thousands of soulless apartment blocks with crazy traffic drivers. As we neared our destination we crossed the Nile into Giza and shortly after the taxi driver dropped us in the suburb of Dokkie. We wondered around in the early morning light trying to find our hotel Santana, unable to locate the right street. Eventually some old Egyptian took pity on us, and guided us.
We checked in and met our tour guide Mohammed from G Adventures. He was immediately helpful and started giving us advice on how to get to Saqqara, and arranged a taxi for us for 200 Egyptian pounds. We considered going to the bent and red pyramids at Dahshur but it would take longer and also cost more. But first we went to our room and settled in and had a quick shower. Then we hopped in the taxi and set off for Saqqara. As we drove it became more and more rural, city giving way to farmland. Cairo was surprisingly quite green, fueled by an abundance of water provided by the Nile.
We eventually reached Saqqara, paid the entrance fee of 80 pounds and also opted for the serapeum for 100 pounds which sounded very interesting from the guidebook. The taxi took us to the entrance of the site, the hypostyle hall. A tout took our ticket and proceeded to attempt to guide us in very broken English, I totally fell for it and fortunately Nicki didn't and started to tell him to leave us alone.
Passing through the hall with its colonades, we reached the great south court, an open area of sand. To the north lay the impressive step pyramid of Djoser, currently covered by scaffolding and workers making repairs to keep it from disintegrating. This is the oldest pyramid on planet earth, built around 2600BC by the chief architect Imhotep. Previously the Pharaohs had been buried in a subteranean chamber topped with a mastaba (platform). Imhotep took the concept to the next level, and placed mastabas on top of one another to form a pyramid.
We walked to the south end of the court and saw the cobra facade. To the south was a set of really deep pits, assumed to be burial chambers below, now largely filled with rubbish. Further to the south were several tombs and the remains of the pyramid of Unas.
A "guide" (guard) who spoke virtually no English took us into three of the tombs, Idut, Unas Ankh and Inefrt, richly decorated with hieroglyphics and art. The guide proudly brandished his key to the tombs, but it was all for show as the tombs were standing open.
We made our way down the causeway of Unas and passed through a gateway decorated with stars on the roof above. Also near here were two bow shaped pits that once contained solar boats, that would carry the pharaoh to the sun in the afterlife.
Turning back we made our way back to the court, and visited the Heb-Sed (jubilee) to the east of the court and also the D shaped markers that indicated the point to which the Pharoah would run to show his fitness.
We then visited the south and north house, there for the spirits to watch over the Pharoah during his jubilee. There was some interesting graffiti behind a glass panel made by scribe over 3000 years ago in the north house.
Making our way round to the back of the pyramid, we found the Serdab, a small rock hewn enclosure which contains a replica of a statue of Djoser, and two holes for the statue to view the world outside. Unfortunately it was not possible to go inside the pyramid due to the instability under ground.
We left the complex and got back in the taxi to take us to the serapeum. As soon as we got out a tout on a donkey started following us as we made our way on foot. He initially used the line "taxi?!" That all the donkey guys use. We passed the circle of philosophers, a sad collection of weathered statues of philosophers placed there by Ptolomy. We got to the entrance of the serapeum and started to question if we had wasted our money because there seemed to be nothing to see. Then a friendly guide/guard ushered us down a set of stairs into a subterranean cavern where enormous stone sarcophagi were placed in niches off a central tunnel. According to the guidebook these had contained bulls sacrificed as gods as part of some cult. It was staggering to imagine how these huge heavy stone sarcophagus had been carried here and placed in position. The guide pretended we could not take photos, but would turn a blind eye for a tip, what a joke. We completed out tour, paid our tip of 10EGP which did not appease the guide so he kept following us. We went back to the taxi and headed for the museum.
The museum was a good way to end our visit. The museum contained the usual suspects, such as stoneware, carvings, statues, jewellery and so forth. Without a guide we merely glossed over most of the exhibits and proceeded quickly through the museum. The most interesting exhibit was an actual mummy, although not identified. Also of interest were the decorations of Djozer's tomb, beatiful turquoise stones laid out in an interesting pattern.
The drive back was uneventful and we fell asleep in the back of the taxi. After we got back to the hotel we went out to get lunch and walked to Zamalek Island. Lunch ended up being dominos pizza because we were so hungry and it was already after 2pm. We crossed over the river Nile on the bridge and turned left, walking north along the shore. The walk was pleasant but uneventful. We passed a series of recreation areas but didn't go in. It was nice to take in the sights and sounds of everyday life in Cairo without being hassled by touts. We stopped in at the Marriott hotel to get a tourist map and admired the beatuiful gardens and setting. Tourist map in hand we headed south, planning to go to Tahrir square and find the souk. We passed a series of boat restaurants, among the more famous was the Alsaraya. After a few more kilometers we just became to exhausted and decided to walk back to the hotel and get some rest. We passed the Cairo tower on the way back.
Later we met Mohammed and the rest of the group in the hotel lobby, followed by a briefing in the restaurant on the first floor. Everyone introduced themselves and it was a really nice mixed group of interesting like minded folks. The tour company had a clever way of dealing with tipping by collecting it all beforehand from everyone in the group. Also the way of dealing with souvenir sellers, by letting Mohammed present their goods while everyone was on the tour bus. After the briefing we went out for dinner at the restaurant across the road, the Argila. We spent some time getting to know everyone and ordered some food. The service was terrible, and slow, and the food mediocre. We bid everyone goodnight.
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