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1000places > SAQQARA - It always helps to have a knowledgeable tour leader, and we had one of Egypt's best. Amr Hassan was both an experienced guide and a trained archaeologist and Egyptologist. He added a wealth of insights at each stop along the way, beginning here at Saqqara.
1000places > SAQQARA - Beside the Step Pyramid was a small, stone-covered room called a serdab with two small peep holes. Looking through these holes, we could see a limestone statue of the pharaoh. It was actually a copy of the original that is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
1000places > SAQQARA - On this dusty plateau in 2630 BC, Pharaoh Djoser commissioned the Step Pyramid. It is the oldest stone building in the world, a radical departure from the box-like, mud-brick mastaba tombs of prior Egyptian kings. In the foreground is the impressive entrance to the complex. Originally, the entrance was part of a massive enclosure wall around the pyramid and its courtyard.
1000places > SAQQARA &#8211; THE FIRST PYRAMID: The day after arriving in Egypt, we traveled about 15 miles south of Cairo through the palm-lined Nile floodplain to the edge of the western desert. Our first stop was appropriately the place where the Age of the Pyramids began: the royal necropolis of Saqqara.
1000places > SAQQARA - Through the narrow entrance, we made our way to the Step Pyramid through a colonnade of 20 pairs of stone columns, carved to imitate huge bundles of reeds (which archaeologists now believe the ancient Egyptians used to strengthen the corners of their mudbrick homes).
1000places > SAQQARA - The Step Pyramid was built for King Djoser by his high priest Imhotep in the 27th century BC. It was an impressive leap forward in architecture. Imhotep's great innovations were not only the pyramid-like design, but his decision to use stone in place of mud brick. Imhotep was also apparently one of history's first physicians as well as the self-proclaimed inventor of the papyrus scroll. Two thousand years after he built the Step Pyramid, Imhotep would be deified by the ancient Egyptians.
1000places > SAQQARA - Something like a "taxi stand," more camels could be seen on the horizon at Saqqara. At many of the ancient sites, camels are available to transport tourists on excursions in, around, and sometimes away from the site.
1000places > SAQQARA - We walked the full length of the perimeter of the pyramid, wondering what would possess a king to build not just one mastaba (a box-like grave marker) but six, one on top of the other. There are corridors inside the pyramid leading below its surface. But the pharaoh and his buried riches have long since disappeared.
1000places > SAQQARA - We also encountered a local entrepreneur who offered us a ride on his "Egyptian Cadillac." We declined.
SAQQARA - It always helps to have a knowledgeable tour leader, and we had one of Egypt's best. Amr Hassan was both an experienced guide and a trained archaeologist and Egyptologist. He added a wealth of insights at each stop along the way, beginning here at Saqqara.

1000places > SAQQARA - It always helps to have a knowledgeable tour leader, and we had one of Egypt's best. Amr Hassan was both an experienced guide and a trained archaeologist and Egyptologist. He added a wealth of insights at each stop along the way, beginning here at Saqqara.
SAQQARA - It always helps to have a knowledgeable tour leader, and we had one of Egypt's best. Amr Hassan was both an experienced guide and a trained archaeologist and Egyptologist. He added a wealth of insights at each stop along the way, beginning here at Saqqara.

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